Posted on 07/13/2015 9:39:15 PM PDT by thomasryan
(Thomas Dishaw) Food may be your best investment, seriously. Prices are out of control as grocers struggle to make profit in an industry known for slim margins. At the end of the day grocery stores make about one or two cents for every customer who walks through the door. Crazy right? This is the industry standard after paying benefits, wages, rent, advertising, legal, and inventory costs, profits are slim. With that kind of business model you can expect prices to continue rising no matter what kind of economy we are in.
I continue to be amazed at how high these prices are rising. Loaves of bread at my local Harris Teeter are $2.49 ON SALE. Ground beef is $4.99, and gallons of milk are around $4.00 dollars. At this rate I think I need to start raising cows. The list goes on and on and on. I could not imagine raising a family in these times because you could very easily go broke, or if you’re lucky, barely break even to keep your family feed. And unfortunately its more complicated than that. For those of you who are lucky enough to eat organic, I feel your pain. Prices can be 50-100 % higher than their convention counterpart.
Experts continue to blame drought, disease and inflation for the high prices we’re seeing. For the most part this is true, the only thing they left out was corporate greed. Unfortunately there is a bigger problem, our supply chain, and its at its most vulnerable level ever. We are one cyber attack away from the grocery deliveries stopping. We’re one outbreak away from complete shortages on eggs and chicken, and if rain doesn’t start falling in California farmers are going to be forced into bankruptcy as trucking more water into feed the crops will be cost prohibitive.
According to the USDA’s Consumer price index for 2014 Beef and Veal were up 12.1 %, meat was up 9.2%, pork up 9.1%, eggs up 8.4%, fish and seafood up 5.8% and fresh fruits up 4.8%. When it comes to government numbers I generally don’t have a lot of faith in the findings, usually the statistics are grossly under reported like the unemployment numbers in this country.
Below is a comprehensive list of products and prices taken from my local Harris Teeter.
Ground Beef 80/20 $4.99 P/LB Boneless Skinless Chicken $4.99 P/LB Salmon (Farm) $13.99 P/LB 24 Packs Of Water $4.99 Milk (1 Gallon) $3.99 Bread $2.49 Bagels (6 Pack) $3.99 Raisins 15 OZ $5.29 White Rice (5LB) $4.99 Apples (5LB) $5.99 Avocados $2.00 Tuna $2.49 Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup (10.75 OZ) $1.15 Oscar Meyer Hot Dogs (8 Pack) $4.99 Dozen White Eggs $2.39 Kraft Singles (12OZ) 3.99 Orange Juice (89OZ) $6.79 Land O Lakes Butter (16OZ) $5.19 I tried to take in account store reputations by using the Harris Teeter for this report. I could have used my local Safeway but I didn’t think that would be a fair representation since Safeway is known to be very expensive, so I used middle of the road Harris Teeter. Also take into account most companies use ” zone pricing”, another tool of economic warfare. This means that prices will be higher in affluent areas and in economically challenged areas the prices will be lower, therefore punishing the person who works hard by making him pay higher prices than their counterparts in the inner city.
I’m a firm believer that food is still one of your best investments. As you can see prices are going up and up, and once they go up, they never come down. There are still a few ways to battle food inflation though. Getting a years supply of storable food is always a good idea, and if your concern is quality or taste , you can get Organic or non GMO varieties and most taste just as good as the grocery store counterparts. If you’re looking for suppliers I would recommend Steve Quayle who has been a reputable source for over 20 plus years or mypatriotsupply.com, another top name in the industry.
How are prices in your area? Please leave your findings in the comments below and any other money-saving tips or suggestions you can share with readers.
In my family to accept EBT help was blasphemy. I grew up in a large poor Irish Catholic family in an Irish neighborhood going to Catholic school like all the other kids. We all learned and were raised to enjoy the American dream.
Sometimes I bring it up with my brothers and sisters about the highlight of my life during that time was to rake poppop’s yard clear his driveway from snow or clear the leaves out of his rainspouts was having a ham sandwich with chips and a real soda.
In our life Sunday had a roast but other days were either hotdogs mixed with cream of mushroom and green beans spaghetti with little meat or something similar to hamb helper with noodles or rice.
God has blessed me so tremendously. When I retired at 46 my mom was on my case big time stating I could do this that and whatever. She hated it when I kept saying, “but mom I don’t need to work again, I can live quite good on what I got.”
Prior to illegals and white chumps being addicted to video games jobs for me as a youngster were a dime a dozen. I was blessed to be a factory union worker on the graveyard shift even as I still went to high school. As a side job part time I give locals honest AC residential AC service here in Texas. I hate to say it but people here in Texas are friendlier than wherever
When I call them back the next day as a follow up call it’s great when they always say, It’s working great.” I guess 40 yrs experience accounts for something”
If the supermarkets paid ALL their employees a living wage, their troubles would be over.
I agree with you that there are still bargains but some foods are getting out of reach for those on a budget. Sweet potatoes, bananas, and eggs for example are getting scary expensive.
Store corporate headquarters usually in other states determine store stocking and inventory policies rather than relying on local managers who know their customers habits and the communities and allowing them to maximize on that aspect. Corp wants every store to be a Yuppie store or heavy ethnic. BTW I have not once in my life seen anyone buy Chitlings but darned every store carries them.
Then they try to sell things like crock pots, skillets, coffee makers, etc which are about 20% higher than a big box store. I kid you not one store I know has about 1200 square feet devoted to bottled water. In say California, Florida, etc that may wise but East Tennessee? The biggest loss in sales likely comes from computerized inventory that isn't verified. Meaning simply the computer shows 100 items of Brand X beans and none are on the shelf. Computer stats show no one is buying brand X beans so brand X is discontinued. Yeah I can see why profits are low.
Too many stores are trying to sell everything instead of Groceries. That works if you're Walmart {even though their food section is now pathetic} and have a one stop store. Not even Krogers can do that and I went in one a couple months ago that tried to be a department store. The two really don't mix. Even with Walmart I don't buy the majority of my food there I go to a grocery store because I do not like Great Value Brand food products.
I see what you did there. ;)
While raising our two children we had a vegetable garden every year and we raised our own beef cattle. We also heated our house with wood heat, so we also had to harvest trees for firewood every year. After both or children were gone, we got away from all of that.
Last year we started up a small vegetable garden again and my wonderful bride brought out all of her old canning supplies. We are loving it all, all over again.
This year we put in the garden again....we are already harvesting some things...I AM LOVING IT!! I have already began planning for next years garden and it will be at least twice the size of our present garden.
Both of our grown children have their own places and they each have their own gardens.
We raise chickens for eggs and ducks and geese for fun....although they can be eaten if need be.
I have landscaped almost every square foot of our 5 acres...it’s a hobby, so I don’t think we will raise cattle again. However, because of our apple trees, we always have plenty of deer around, should that become necessary. ;>)
For anyone who bothers to learn the basics, raising a small vegetable garden is easy....it will save you some money and your food will be better for you...and tastier. I can’t speak for canning, other than to say that my wife makes it look easy. She makes killer pickles and her spicy canned tomatoes are to die for. I use the canned tomatoes to make my soup for lunch....sometimes I simply dump the tomatoes into a bowl and eat it cold.
I wonder how much of this inflation is due to the food stamp factor.
Any and all reasons can no doubt be traced to Fedzilla
Um, ... Which Cite - Sight - Site?
Bottled water is probably high profit margin stuff.
Can anything be planted now in the Midwest? Is there enough time to grow anything? I’m wondering about even something small indoors. Like the tomato plants, lol.
Syte
I went into a newer Asian/Middle Eastern super market last year here in my town. They had a mess full of imported goat heads. I thought, "Are all these goat heads going to actually get sold?" Thank goodness I haven't seen any at the local Wal-Mart...yet.
And the government is intentionally killing off the California produce growing industry so they can serve UN Agenda 21 and promote food importation from outside the USA. What could go wrong? LOL.
I go to WINCO here in AZ. Great prices.
Any of you “old timer” Freepers remember “Victory Gardens”?
If you have the ability and the wherewithal, grow a garden to help offset some of these obviously high food prices.
There are consequences to the government printing money. The value of the currency declines and the cost of items needed to survive such as food and medical care skyrocket. If it wasn’t for the fracking energy boom we’d be paying $5.00 per gallon of gas.
There are consequences to the environmental policies that take land out of production. The government caused California disaster will do permanent damage to our nation’s food supply and result in more imported food.
The government mandated burning of corn for auto fuel has distorted the grain markets.
The U.S. Government still pays landowners not to grow in the face of escalating prices.
The skyrocketing price of food is a perfect issue for the opposition party to be using everyday. Instead, the GOP leadership remains silent and allows the left to set the political agenda.
“If the supermarkets paid ALL their employees a living wage, their troubles would be over.”
What exactly is a ‘living wage’?
If you are alive, your wage is livable. If you don’t like your job you should find a new one.
I can’t back up this up, but I thought I read it was more like 3 to 4 cents per ITEM.
Prices rising, contents shrinking.
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