Free Republic

When the economy hit the skids a few years ago, we responded with tactics that have gotten us through previous recessions: We stopped eating out and traveling as much, curbed our discretionary spending and chose generic items for basics like groceries. But then something strange happened: We began to prefer many of those store brands. Increasingly, we’re willing to pay even more for them. What’s going on here? According to the Wall Street Journal, stores have raised the prices of private-label nonperishable food by 5.3%, compared to a 1.9% increase for goods made by national brands. Store-brand versions of perishable...

I am a chef, I eat great and don't spend diddly squat on food, I am into food and love making something for almost nothing, you could say it's my forte. Here are things you can do to spend a lot less on food and help inflation; 1) Spend some time checking out what is on sale at 3-4 stores, the ads are in your mail box on Tuesday. Plan your shopping and do a bunch of stops, not just one for convenience. The sale items are also online... 2) If you are over-weight, buy less food, you eat too...

I have been sick with the flu and I haven't left my house in 5 days. Today I felt a little better even though I still have a cough and I decided to go to my local Smiths grocery store located on Eastern and Windmill. A little back story here. I have been shopping here since I moved to Henderson almost 3 years ago. I pretty much know everybody who works there. Anyways I was giving the butcher my order when I hear a woman's voice say "excuse me sir, I have a concerned shopper." I responded with "well that...

he Obama Administration is getting ready to ditch the Food Pyramid, a symbol of healthy eating for the last two decades. In its place, officials are "dishing up" a simple, plate-shaped symbol, sliced into wedges for basic food groups and half-filled with fruits and vegetables. Beside the plate is a smaller circle for dairy, suggesting a glass of low-fat milk or perhaps a yogurt cup. The revised pyramid is part of the administration's crusade against obesity, led by first lady Michelle Obama.

Wal-Mart tests online grocery sales, home delivery in San Jose, aims to compete with Amazon BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Saturday that it is testing home grocery delivery in San Jose, Calif., as the world's largest retailer ratchets up competition with online retailer Amazon.com Inc. With the new "Walmart To Go," customers can order up groceries, health and beauty products such as soap, shampoo and over-the-counter medicines, and household supplies like paper towels and laundry detergent from the company's website. Wal-Mart will then drive the goods over to customers' homes at their time of choice.

Vanity head up: This weekend one of the Discount club stores is having an open house - a good opportunity to stock up without a paper trail. “Spring Taste of Sam’s Club Open House is coming, 4/15-4/17, each day 11am-6pm. No non-Member upcharges during this event, so bring a friend! “ Sometimes it’s useful to buy in bulk, but typically you need to have a membership – this is one occasion when you can get those member prices, without letting everyone know you’re prepping.

The typical modern American supermarket stocks 48,000 items, each battling for precious shelf space. How do they get there? Why are they arranged the way they are? Did you know that some stores use heat maps to track which aisles you walk down — and which ones you don't? Or that they put the milk at the end of the aisle so you're forced to pass a hundred other items on your way to get it? It's all done to gain an edge in a cutthroat business built on razor-thin margins. CNBC’s Tyler Mathisen goes behind the scenes for a...

Reusable shopping bags made in China have drawn the ire of U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), who is calling for a federal investigation into how the bags found their way to consumers after a news report showed some of them contained dangerous levels of lead content. Schumer is seeking to enlist the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission to carry out the probe. At a press conference over the weekend, he cited an investigation by the Tampa Tribune, which found many of the reusable bags offered for sale by supermarket chains and...

Bags for life could have E.coli Tests on shoppers’ bags revealed half contained traces of E.coli, a lethal toxin which killed 26 people in Scotland in 1996 in one of the worlds worst food poisoning outbreaks. Scientists also found many were contaminated with salmonella. Reusable plastic shopping bags have become increasingly popular in Britain [and the US; insertion mine] thanks to supermarkets and other retailers giving out millions of free ones to shoppers in the last three years. It is estimated that there are "hundreds of millions" of bags for life in use in Britain, according to sources within Wrap,...

New analysis, interactive online map highlight the need to modernize the nation's food-safety systemWASHINGTON, D.C. – A new study by a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) economist estimates the total economic impact of foodborne illness across the nation to be a combined $152 billion annually. The Produce Safety Project, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts at Georgetown University, published the report, Health-Related Costs from Foodborne Illness in the United States. In addition, an interactive online map that graphically represents this cost information for every state in the nation is available at www.MakeOurFoodSafe.org/cost_map. The report ranks states according...

Bangkok - Excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides and other poor farming practices have led to an insect plague in Thailand's rice fields that was predicted to reduce yields by 30 per cent in vast areas, the International Rice Research Institute warned Monday. "This is the worst outbreak of brown planthoppers I have seen in my career since 1977," said Manit Luecha, director of the Chainat Rice Seed Center. "Most of the paddy fields - probably more than 1 million hectares - will suffer rice yield losses of more than 30 per cent," he predicted. Thailand is the world's largest...

Frugality. That's been the buzzword of the Great Recession.   Sliding home values, stumbling stock portfolios and a shaky job market brought with them a consciousness about spending that many of us misplaced during years of consumer overindulgence. Americans responded to the crisis by buying less, clipping coupons more and increasing savings to 4.8 percent of disposable income in December, up from near zero before the recession.   In the past year, blogs about frugality went viral. Everyone from Oprah to President Obama joined the frugality parade.   Now a new term is marching through the blogosphere: Frugality fatigue. But...

I want people to store food not only for their sake, but for mine as well. I don’t want to decide which of my kids have to go hungry when you and your unprepared kin come knocking on my door. Contrary to progressive-collectivist thinking, every individual who takes care of themselves and their families benefits society by not becoming a burden. So take responsibility now and start today. Don’t expect the Feds to come by to hand you your ration of government-rationed cheese. You could be in for a long wait. Wait too long, and you may end up with...

A new survey indicates that nearly one in five US households could not afford to buy enough food at least once during the past year. An anti-hunger group said the poll found 18.2 percent of households reported "food hardship" -- lacking money to buy enough food -- in 2009. The figure reflects a higher percentage than the government's "food insecurity" rating of 14.6 percent of households, or 49 million people, in 2008. "There are no hunger-free areas of America," Jim Weill of the Food Research and Action Center was quoted as saying by Reuters. He added that he hoped President...

Jim Rogers is sounding the alarm -- buy agricultural commodities ahead of the riots. The financial crisis has cut off investment in agriculture, with many farmers unable to get loans for fertilizer according to Mr. Rogers. Of course, this means agricultural commodities will make a killing: CNBC: "Sometimes in the next few years we're going to have very serious shortages of food everywhere in the world and prices are going to go through the roof." Cotton and coffee are good buys because they are very distressed, while sugar, despite the fact that it has gone up a lot, is still...

The chemical Bisphenol A, which has been used for years in clear plastic bottles and food-can liners, has been restricted in Canada and some U.S. states and municipalities because of potential health effects. The Food and Drug Administration will soon decide what it considers a safe level of exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA), which some studies have linked to reproductive abnormalities and a heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, and heart disease. Now Consumer Reports' latest tests of canned foods, including soups, juice, tuna, and green beans, have found that almost all of the 19 name-brand foods we...

How often do you shop for groceries? I don't mean for the last-minute half-gallon of milk or package of cigarettes from the convenience store, but the heavy-duty grocery shopping. All the older siblings and their spouses appeared to shop once a week, filling up the automobile or van to the rafters. I on the other hand have always emulated the parents, who shopped for groceries every single day excepting Sundays (but then and again, it needs pointed out franksolich has no spouse and dependents, so it's a somewhat different sort of thing). In the town of circa 3,000 alongside the...

Government should ensure we all have enough, but not too much, to eat. One of the great scandals of our age is the fact that America spends more on food than any other nation. Many political leaders are now calling for urgent reform to bring spending on food under control. While food spending is rapidly increasing and many Americans are overweight, some do not have enough to eat. Despite this high spending, the United Nations reports that, according to surveys they sent to government officials around the world, the quality of U.S. food is ranked very low. Officials in France...

Albertsons will announce a plan Wednesday to lower prices for thousands of goods at its 222 Southern California supermarkets. The initiative is aimed at regaining budget-minded customers lost to discounters such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. It also comes at a time when Southern California supermarkets, including grocery giants Ralphs and Vons, are moving to compete more fiercely on prices. The chains "are trying to get people back in the stores," said Simeon Gutman, a New York-based analyst at Canaccord Adams, a financial firm with headquarters in Vancouver.

With the recession in full swing, many Americans are returning to their roots -- literally -- cultivating vegetables in their backyards to squeeze every penny out of their food budget. Industry surveys show double-digit growth in the number of home gardeners this year and mail-order companies report such a tremendous demand that some have run out of seeds for basic vegetables such as onions, tomatoes and peppers. "People's home grocery budget got absolutely shredded and now we've seen just this dramatic increase in the demand for our vegetable seeds.

In what seems to be a mixed message to consumers looking to stretch their food dollars, Ralphs is lowering prices on thousands of groceries starting Wednesday – but is also capping double coupons at $1. The latter money-saving program, where a $1 off coupon gets you $2 off one item, has been a mainstay perk at Ralphs for years. Now, the supermarket chain – Orange County's second largest – said it will only double coupons up to $1 off. So, a 75-cent coupon, will get you an additional 25 cents off. The change – announced Tuesday in promotional fliers –...

Grocery costs are going through the roof. Do you have any suggestions for trimming the skyrocketing grocery bills? We don't buy much in the way of pre-packaged or prepared food items and we do eat a lot of dried beans. Don't eat out much either. Still my weekly grocery bill is about 25% higher than I'd like. Let the suggestions roll...

MESA, Ariz., Oct. 3 (UPI) -- The sight of an old man being hit by a truck in Arizona touched off a feeding frenzy among witnesses who allegedly stole the dying victim's groceries. Not only were the man's groceries taken, but the only person who tried to help him also had his own bags taken. Mesa police told KPHO-TV in nearby Phoenix that the scavengers could face theft charges if they are eventually tracked down. The elderly victim was waiting for a bus Tuesday night when a pickup truck swerved off the road and plowed into the stop. The man...

        .......for $3.78 a jar at H.E.B. !                  

FBI arrests father and son shortly after the younger man returns from overseas, where he allegedly trained at an Al Qaeda camp. Lodi, CA – FBI agents have arrested a man and his father after the son allegedly admitted attending Al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan that taught participants "how to kill Americans," federal authorities said Tuesday. In a case that was still unfolding, officials confirmed that Hamid Hayat, 23, and his father, Umer, 47, were taken into custody Sunday. Authorities said late Tuesday that they were still trying to determine whether the arrests represented the discovery of a small...

Norway's Food Safety Authority has instructed a grocery store to close after finding ten year old mutton in the freezer section. The local shop in Bugøynes, Finnmark in northern Norway also, unsurprisingly, lacked satisfactory hygiene routines, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports. "They will have to get an internal control routine in place if they want their approval back, and it will have to be in writing," Anne Ingeborg Bye of the FSA told NRK. The shop is still open since closure cannot take effect until the next inspection, but NRK spotted no signs of marked improvement. The station found pork ribs...

Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez called the criticism regarding Memín “a total lack of respect for our culture.” We agree. Racist caricatures are a beloved tradition in Latin America—and where the hell do Americans get the gumption to attack our stereotyping of J**s, c***s, I****s and n****s? We love ’em—so much, we use them to hawk everything from flour to peanuts. Consider the following products, all purchased at local Latino grocery stores.

Near North Congress Avenue in Lake Park, Target and Wal-Mart both plan the souped-up versions of their stores called, respectively, Super Target and the Wal-Mart Supercenter. Expected to open next year, the stores in north Palm Beach County will be roughly a mile apart. It's just one example of how the retail giants are vying to snag South Florida sites as the population continues to boom and commercial-development land disappears. Their expansion is not without opposition. Some communities are concerned about store size and the impact on traffic and nearby residential areas. Yet it's the lure of grocery dollars that...

ACTION NEEDED NOW: Stop & Shop Supermarkets “negotiating” with Bay Windows to bring sexually graphic, revolting anti-Catholic newspaper back into its stores! Your hard work got it removed in the first place!  As you remember, about three weeks ago the two largest supermarket chains in New England, Stop & Shop and Shaws / Star Markets, bowed to pressure from their customers across the state (i.e., you!).  Both companies agreed to stop distributing ”Bay Windows,” a sexually graphic, anti-family homosexual newspaper, in their stores.This decision was hailed by families all over New England.  Click here to see what was in an...

City planners in Los Angeles are shocked to discover that people moving into downtown apartments are unwilling to give up their cars and live the way many Manhattanites and San Franciscans do - using the expensive subway, bus system, and taxi cabs for their daily transportation. And now local officials, who just a few years ago stopped requiring developers to build parking spaces in most loft buildings, are scrambling to accommodate automobiles — and their owners — downtown.

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

'Paper or plastic' is now 'computer or cashier' By Marie Ewald | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Morena Michelangelo shops for food in reverse. When she enters her local Stop & Shop supermarket in Quincy, Mass., she meticulously unfolds and lines up six brown bags along the bottom of her shopping cart. And even though she has plenty more groceries to buy, she rings up and bags her chips and soda. Rather than a backward shopper, Ms. Michelangelo considers herself a progressive one. She uses new technology - a mobile computer and bar-code scanner - that she plucks...

"union fat-cats have mobilized America's liberal elites in a desperate bid to defeat union-free Wal-Mart not in the market but in the arena of public opinion." The liberal elites are now going after Wal-Mart. What's next?

Shortage Expected to Cause Prices to Skyrocket Worth their weight in gold? At least one local restaurant has already changed its pricing because of high beef prices, and grocery store prices are anticipated to jump soon. “An astronomical increase,” is the way Ted Mackorell of Makoto Seafood and Steak House described the jump in beef prices this week. “It has been inching up on us for the last month,” Mackorell said, “but both of our purveyors came in this morning and said, ‘Brace yourself.’” Over the past month and a half, Mackorell explained, his beef prices have increased by about...

Sex for groceries in Zimbabwe From correspondents in Harare September 14, 2003 UNDER-AGE teenagers were prostituting themselves for groceries in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, amid food shortages and high prices, the Standard newspaper reported today. It said desperate girls were offering sex in exchange for "groceries and other basic commodities that are in short supply". Fifteen-year old Zandile Nyoni told the paper: "One of my regulars is a company executive, and he even buys groceries for me.". Zimbabwe is in the throes of severe economic difficulties, with cash and food shortages, and inflation running at more than 426 per cent,...

Supermarket Cards: An Overview of the Pricing Issues John Vanderlippe, CASPIAN It's about more than just higher prices. Brace yourself for "customer-specific pricing." For many consumers, the pricing issues surrounding supermarket "loyalty" card programs can be summed up in one simple concept: those without a card pay more at the register. The stores portray it the same way, but call it "rewarding loyal customers" with lower prices. Though this sounds simple, few things in life are as simple as they seem and supermarket cards are no different. Pricing issues with card schemes actually fall into two categories: savings and segmentation....

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)--Slumping supermarket giant Safeway Inc. reported a fourth-quarter loss Thursday of $1.05 billion, reflecting the grocer's continuing headaches with two major acquisitions in Texas and Illinois. The loss of $2.37 per share for the October-December period contrasted with a profit of $353.6 million, or 70 cents per share, the previous year. Fourth-quarter sales totaled $10.01 billion, up from $9.93 billion a year earlier. Safeway absorbed $1.5 billion in fourth-quarter charges to account for troubles at two grocers, Houston-based Randall's and Chicago-based Dominick's, that it bought for a total of $2.5 billion during the late 1990s. {snip} Besides sustaining...

Who Moved My Arugula? By ROB KAUFELT After graduating from college in the late 1960's, unclear about my future, I drifted into the family supermarket business in New Jersey. From Day One, I bugged my father and uncle about all the things they were doing wrong. In response, they sent me to an old-fashioned supermarket training program. The course did not have its intended effect. Most of what I learned came from my roommate, who arrived in a Mercedes convertible with golf clubs in the trunk (I had a Pinto). He regaled me with his vision of a new type...