Grocery Inflation Report from Chicago

Vanity | 4.12.11 | Self

[Thebaddog]

Hello from Chicago. I just got back from my weekly grocery shopping and I want to start an inflation report. Beef was up 33% from a month ago. Milk fluctuates wildly. My grocery bill was 25% higher than a month ago and my cart was 15% lighter by volume.

[Thebaddog]

FYI!

[Zakeet]

I know you are completely wrong because on December 5th, 2010, Ben Bernanke told Steve Kroft, "The Federal Reserve will not allow inflation to rise above two percent or less … We could raise interest rates in 15 minutes if we have to … there really is no problem with raising rates, tightening monetary policy, slowing the economy [and] reducing inflation at the appropriate time … I have one hundred percent confidence in our ability to control this." And we all know how competent the Wee Wee and his senior advisers are when it comes to micromanaging the economy.

[gcraig]

Gallon of milk > $4 in Charlotte now. This is painful.

[PGR88]

[Cheetahcat]

I have family overseas and the Dollar is down 20% on conversion.

[Larry Lucido]

and my cart was 15% lighter by volume.

What the hell does that even mean? Your shopping cart took up 15% fewer cubic inches this week? Milk price fluctuated? So it went down also? Huh?

[I still care]

I went shopping last week, and was amazed at the jump. I don’t know what the actual figures are, but it seems like a huge jump over the past month or so.

I didn’t even fill a cart, had some meat but not expensive cuts, and my bill came to $160. Unbelievable.

[STD]

Why stop at a monitoring program? I'm in the western suburbs, lets create buying groups formed to locate and publish sales, negotiate special prices and set-up support groups to share the pain of the coming famine.

Unless we work together, merely posting the obvious accomplishes nothing. Lets see how many people would be interested in buying beef from a local farmer etc,

That's how Americans have dealt with adversity together. What do Illinois FReepers think? Would you support a FReeper food coop?

[Alice in Wonderland]

It’s more than groceries. On June 10th (Friday) I ordered an ‘Intex Krystal Clear Saltwater Water Sanitizing System’ for my pool from Walmart online for $139. Today, two days later, I went on their site to check its size and now the price is $169!

[Terry Mross]

Sounds like a good idea for Houston, too! It’s costing us more to buy less.

[Kenny500c]

12oz package of sirloin steak @ $12.49, equals $16.65/lb!

[randita]

Try shoulder steak (sometimes called flat iron). Just got some for $7.49/lb. All meat, tender, delicious grilled.

Or buy London broil on sale and marinate the heck out of it.

[Jewels1091]

We are cutting back, plus have plans for a huge family garden next spring, going to get those old canning cook books out. I hate to have to go back to canning and freezing of my youth, but I don’t think those is going to be much choice.

[Darnright]

>Try shoulder steak (sometimes called flat iron). Just got some for $7.49/lb. All meat, tender, delicious grilled.

Or buy London broil on sale and marinate the heck out of it.<

Consider buying a pressure cooker. It tenderizes meat in far less time with far less electricity than using an oven for hours. Pressure cooking with today’s pots is safe and effective, and it locks in vitamins. In addition, the liquid from the cooked meat makes the most delicious gravy.

[TomGuy]

I had some sticker shock when I went to the grocery store on Tuesday. It had been about 3 weeks since I was in that particular store.

Pears up from about $0.98 to $1.78/lb.
Packaged salad up from $1.09 to $1.69.
Instant tea up from about $2.49 to $3.19.
Celery up from $1.29 to $2.39.
Cantelope up from $1.69 to $2.98 ea.

Roma Tomatoes down from a high of $2.79 in April to $0.98/lb

Those are sizeable increases. Too bad food doesn’t show up in the consumer inflation figures.

Gas is $3.49, down from $3.72.

[TomGuy]

It means that the ‘contents’ are less, but the packages appear to be the same old size.

I noticed that with numerous items. One in particular was a bag of potato chips — used to be 12 oz, now 8 oz. Coffee is also being packaged down from 34 oz to the new 27 oz size (same price, of course).

Open a can of vegetables or container of cottage cheese, for example, and there is now an inch or more of liquid above the actual content.

[patton]

Buy cows on the hoof. Spread the cost around, it is doable. I get 1 cow, 1/2 to me, 1/4 each to my cousin, aunt.

Beats the heck out of the grocery store. All Black Angus.

[troy McClure]

Just wait my tire supplier is telling to get ready for up to a 70% jump in wholesale tire prices.

China is hoarding Black carbon & Natural rubber

[Balding_Eagle]

Try shoulder steak (sometimes called flat iron). Just got some for $7.49/lb. All meat, tender, delicious grilled.

I just looked in our freezer. We have a flat iron steak from July 2009. It's price was $5.99 a pound.

[Condor51]

Hi back attcha from the SW Burbs of Chi.
(41.7562N, -88.04593W)

Food prices are up all over, and for everything. Even with our lower sales taxes in DuPage I cringe when the wife goes shopping.

But the rise in costs are 'logical'. We're putting our Food in our gas tanks (Ethanol fuel), that goes for diesels too. So if delivery costs go up, so does the prices of the things inside it. Plus if there's less Corn Products to use for Food, the commodity price goes up at places like The Chicago Board of Trade (Sugar is being used for fuel too).

IMO burning our food has to be the dumbest idea Dubya ever pushed. And Obama, arrgh. He's making it 10⁴ times worse. The eco-nazis own him.

And come on over to the FR IL Board sometime. FR Illinois
Don't recall ever seeing you there. We're on top of the asinine IL politics of BOTH parties. And we're a nice bunch of folks, most of us anyway (kidding :-))