Disguising Price Increases(No Politics Please)

[JRinPA]

The curb side pickup price per item is more than if you go into HEB and shop normally.
So the more you buy the more it costs to have a store shopper running around the store shop for you.
It really don't see anything wrong with this.
But I do see the idea of having a job running around getting stuff in a grocery store for someone all day a sort of living hell.

Most jobs like this seem like living hell to me anyway.

Guy I met the other week said he retired (very early), got bored , and started 20 hrs a week at walmart doing that shoppings. Says he lost 40lb...I think he said 3-4 months working as a shopper. I believe it.

I know I lost 40 some pounds in my first round of p90x (years back) but put on muscle too so at first my weight hovered. That was 90 days, about 2 hours a day. I want to do that again, but I can still remember the program/script/jokes all these years later. I have done it more than once... Going to need to listen to music instead.

I don't know the ins and outs of that shopping, but better get in on it now because in a few years it will be robots doing it.

[worth1]

I haven't been to the grocery store in two weeks
I need to go today and am dreading it.
Not for much of anything but a container of raisins and stop off and buy a bottle of dark rum.
I bought the raisins some time ago but ate them all.
The object was to soak the raisins in rum for rum raisin ice cream.
I'm not a huge rum fan so I think I'll get a bottle of Evan Williams 100 proof instead.
Maybe both but can't make up my mind.

But anyway it seems every time I go to the store the prices go up.
So much so I don't want to go and I love going grocery shopping.

[worth1]

I ran in and out of the store as fast as my little feet could carry me and it still cost me 65 dollars.
The only meat I got was cheap store brand chopped ham slices and cheap hotdog weiners.
No vegetables even.
It seems like everything I got cost around 4 dollars.
I am splurging on Velveeta cheese block instead of store brand easy melt.
It's less than a dollar more but well worth it.
Cheapest bread and Hot dog buns money can buy.
Store brand colas.
Store brand canned peaches.
Store brand raisins.
Duke's mayonnaise.
Hunts all natural ketchup.
Store brand bottled water 2 24 packs because a 48 pack is 48 pounds and ridiculous to deal with.
And so on.

I was able to carry everything but the water to the house plus two 1.75 liter bottles of liquor from the liquor store.

[GoDawgs]

Well, there's no disguising Walmart's huge raise in egg prices. I buy the 18-count boxes. In June they went from $2.28 to $4.40. In July they backed down to $3.96 but in August they went to $4.37. Last week they were $5.45 and yesterday $5.75!

Articles I found from earlier this month blame avian flu again. Yeah, yeah, a couple birds come down with it and you have to depop a million birds.

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in July estimated that avian flu had sickened over 3 million birds, or roughly about 1% of the nation's supply of egg-laying chickens."

One percent of egg laying chickens = huge price increase. It's probably a slightly higher percent now but I suspect some producers are using the occasion to make more money.

On the other hand, WalMart does long contracts to lock in prices for stuff they sell. Perhaps the contract with their egg suppliers was over and now they' can't find a better price. Or not. I don't trust any companies anymore on anything, especially prices.

[worth1]

I just looked and they've doubled in price here too.

[bower]

Our egg prices have doubled as well, since post pandemic. Didn't notice any recent changes, but it is one thing I just buy no matter the price, so I haven't taken a close look lately.
By all accounts the inflation rate in Canada is now back to 2%, as it was before the pandemic. So they are expected to stop whatever interest rate hikes the banco has applied to slow inflation down, and that in turn is supposed to normalize economic growth, which is hurt by the controls on inflation. Some kind of vicious cycle required to manage the value of our miraculous currency.
Just noting - controlling inflation by rate hikes hurts the economy = consumer pain.
Uncontrolled inflation puts prices out of bounds = consumer pain.
Prices that went up, seldom come down.... = consumer pain, especially for fixed incomes.
Economic recovery, wage increases, lower interest rates, will supposedly dull the pain, eventually, and we'll forget the scorch of post pandemic inflation. = living with the consumer pain that never really goes away.

I have an idea to fix this problem of neverending pain: we should switch to beach rocks for currency, and assign a fixed value by weight.
Of course this would favor my own location due to the natural sources of wealth but ahem, we have to start somewhere.

[worth1]

From what I read it's due to the flue and demand.
I'm suspecting demand because eggs are a high energy source of protein and other nutrients at what's historically been a cheap source.
Where as meat has gotten way out of hand.
In our current economy demand shouldn't be a factor and is price gouging.
At one time eggs dropped to under 2 dollars a dozen and then went back up again.
It's killing people whether they are on a fixed income or not.
On a side note I watched a video on the demise of fish and chips in Great Britain.
The shop owners are struggling big time and have to pass on the cost to the customers.
Especially if they don't own the property.
Fish and chips has historically been the blue collar food that they can't afford anymore.
I've found the video.
This is a world wide situation not just here in North America.

[GoDawgs]

There's a dockworker strike looming for East Coast ports. The timing is just dandy as retailers start to import Christmas stuff soon. If the strike goes on, you can bet a lot of prices will shoot up.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/04/east-co ... begin.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/port-offic ... n-decades/

The main point of contention? Automation at the ports.

"Dennis Daggett referred to the automation being deployed at some port terminals as “cancer” in the new video. “We’re not going to allow that cancer to come here on the East Coast,” he said."

October 1 is the deadline for a new contract to be settled.

[worth1]

I'm sorry but if automation is their excuse then they don't have a leg to stand on.
I feel for them but CNC and automation put literally thousands of manual machinists out of a job.
Boeing is also on strike and won't settle.
Higher cost of living.
No real wage increases.
I've just stopped going to the grocery store as often because I can't afford to.
I have even in over two weeks maybe three.
No matter what I do the bill is over the top
I saw one person in front of me dish out 400 dollars for what was a couple of years ago 100 dollars.
I can normally figure out what I have to pay in my head.
What I can't figure out is why the lines at fast food places are a mile long.
One guy I worked with paid almost 20 dollars for a sandwich chips and drink for his wife at the house.

[JRinPA]

Eggs did go up, a lot, about 2-3 weeks back. Nearly $5 a dozen. The good rice pudding jumped a buck a pound to compensate.

I say good for those unions, they should strike. Imports should cost more than they do.

[worth1]

Eggs did go up, a lot, about 2-3 weeks back. Nearly $5 a dozen. The good rice pudding jumped a buck a pound to compensate.

I say good for those unions, they should strike. Imports should cost more than they do.

I'm not against the workers but like I said they can only fight automation for so long.
I just wanted you to know that.
Our country is in for a terrible time I'm afraid.

[Tormahto]

There's a dockworker strike looming for East Coast ports. The timing is just dandy as retailers start to import Christmas stuff soon. If the strike goes on, you can bet a lot of prices will shoot up.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/04/east-co ... begin.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/port-offic ... n-decades/

The main point of contention? Automation at the ports.

"Dennis Daggett referred to the automation being deployed at some port terminals as “cancer” in the new video. “We’re not going to allow that cancer to come here on the East Coast,” he said."

October 1 is the deadline for a new contract to be settled.

You want automation?

Several years ago, I met the ONE full-time crane operator who unloads all of the container ships at the busiest port on Canada's east coast. There is also one part-time crane operator, who fills in for the full-time one. This port is nowhere as busy as the west coast ones.

[worth1]

More threat of strikes.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/us- ... ten-strike

[pepperhead212]

I was at Aldi this morning, and the eggs were up to $3.56/doz. I still have some from the last time I bought them, when they were just over $2, and hopefully, they will get back down by the holidays - the only time I really need eggs.

[Tormahto]

I have no use for eggs, currently. Cornbread and other baking is on hold, as my oven heating element just burned out. It's not something any store, here, stocks. So, I'll have to wait for an order to ship in.

Meanwhile, new russet potatoes at WalMart are $1.50 for a 5 pound bag. I really should build a mini root cellar up against one of the basement windows, with a shelf that can hold up to about 50 pounds of them.

I bought out their canned, jarred and pouched seafood section of on-sale (yellow clearance stickers) items of tuna and crab. I don't know what salad crab meat is, but I will soon find out. Someone else bought all of the sardines, which I have no use for. Original prices were roughly $4, $5 and $10, reduced to .75 for the $4 and $5 items, $1.25 for the $10 items. I would never buy these things at the original price, and my guess is that most people are now like me. They had some tuna (pouched light tune, ughh) marked down from .92 to .75, a no on those.

Then at another store, prices make no sense. They recently got in a large shipment of boneless skinless chicken thighs (my favorite cut of chicken) priced at $3.49/lb. It didn't sell much, so they marked it down by 25%. At the same time as the markdown, they got in another shipment, priced at .99/lb. I don't think that the $3.49 marked down by 25% is going to sell, unless our schools are worse than I think. Meanwhile, the latest shipment is bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs priced at $1.49/lb. I doubt that these will sell either, until the .99/lb chicken sells out.

All of the chicken is no longer the white foam trays with the thin cello wrap. It is now the thick plastic as the type used in vac-packing, 3 sections of chicken separated by a heat-sealed seam, looking like huge flattish sausage links. The customers are tossing them around like logs, messing up the four different cuts of chicken. But, for that price, I'll deal with searching for what I'm looking for. Luckily, with the cooler weather and a cooler basement, I just defrosted my freezer, and have room for about 50 pounds of that chicken.

One quick pass down the pre-made frozen meal aisles, at all stores, and prices are through the roof. I rarely buy anything in those aisles, other than perhaps a frozen pizza about once a month. With a non-working oven, I might not be buying one in the current month.

That awful veggie corn dog at the fair, has given me the energy and incentive to do a lot of shopping for things that are edible.

[Paulf]

The major news media is hurrahing that gas prices are down twenty cents. Only thing is they are still two dollars higher than three and a half years ago. Everything is going the right direction they say loudly…I say everything went the wrong direction three years ago.

[Tormahto]

The curb side pickup price per item is more than if you go into HEB and shop normally.
So the more you buy the more it costs to have a store shopper running around the store shop for you.
It really don't see anything wrong with this.
But I do see the idea of having a job running around getting stuff in a grocery store for someone all day a sort of living hell.

Most jobs like this seem like living hell to me anyway.

Local Wally World last week, my talking to an associate. Someone from "corporate" showed up, to look around the store. He went up to one of the workers asking where a product is. The associate pointed...and was immediately fired.

Store policy is that the workers are supposed to take a customer to where the product is. When I need help, a worker looks it up on their electronic device. I then tell them that I will go to the letter/number coded aisle that they mentioned, on my own, just in case management is listening one aisle over. I've known a few workers that were fired or almost fired, over nothing. They were good workers, that today are almost impossible to replace.

[JRinPA]

You have some weird walmarts up there I think.

Between the potatoes and the chicken and the firings for dereliction of duty.

[worth1]

My evil sister worked at Walmart.
She took pleasure in ratting out coworkers and getting them fired.

[karstopography]

$2.55/dozen eggs aldi today. Had been way over $3/dozen. HEB dozen eggs $3.92.