… and much less from the tap ($0.01 to $0.015 per gallon in San Diego).
I can afford to spend frivolously on groceries and I love shopping. I don’t have many vices, so I’m willing to pay a bit more for something fabulous. And even I have started picking things up, looking at the price, and putting it back on the shelf.
Thank God our state has continued with it’s free lunch program. As teachers, it is a huge load off of our minds when we know kids are getting 2 good meals (I’d say 1 very good meal, as I don’t love that they load the kids up on carby stuff in the morning. Our lunches are excellent though). Unlike pre-Covid, I’ve noticed that the kids really want school lunch now. The majority of kids take it. I’d say 90% even though it’s a very high income area. Eating school lunch is definitely “cool”. The town I live in has a backpack program where they send kids home with backpacks of food for the weekend when they will not have access to school meals. Our food pantry delivers to people that can’t leave their homes. The pantry is open 2 days a week and there are always lines outside of it.
We started eating a lot of beans about 6 months ago when we went more plant based. We eat A LOT of beans. While beans are cheaper than meat, even canned beans have gone up a lot. I do a lot of batch cooking so that I can pack lunches and throw together quick dinners. Each week I cook an entire bag of dried beans (we use them in smothies rather than protein powder), some kind of gluten free grain, air-fried tofu or soy curls, about 6 sweet potatoes, squash or baby potatoes, and roast a bunch of veggies or shred up cabbage and kale. While we do this for health reasons, keeping it simple, having little waste (I freeze what we don’t use up), and using whole food/lost cost ingredients keep our bills down. I keep things interesting with toppings like sauces, pickeled veggies/onions, crunchy toppings and herbs. Luckily, I don’t mind repeats. I enjoy not having to think things out so will gradly eat the same lunch and dinner all week.
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It’s not a cherry picked sample. Nothing on my Costco receipt went up in price over 2024. I expect eggs would have had a notable increase. However, I don’t buy eggs.
I agree that rotisserie chicken is a loss leader at Costco, but not water and hearing aid batteries. Note that my earlier post listed approximately the same sticker price per gallon of water at Target and Costco, in spite of Target not requiring buying in bulk. Similarly I can get hearing aid batteries for roughly the same price online, if I buy in comparable bulk size. Unlike traditional supermarkets, Costco has extremely few loss leader products and instead achieves relatively low prices by negotiating low prices with suppliers and adding little margin above those negotiated prices.
Farmers markets have the most expensive prices around here so the only thing I get there is fresh fish for my GD.
There are farmers markets selling seasonal produce and there are local markets. The latter is just a local grocery store like a small supermarket that’s not a Kroger. No frills, no chichi stuff. Just the basics. The OP is talking about this kind.
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How much of food costs is the average household spend on CC, which is middle to upper class. My mom is constantly telling me that prices of fish, meat, eggs, fruits have gone up by a dollar here or there. I always ask her, “and are you not able to eat? How is it impacting your eating habit?”
I think for most of us on this forum, even when the price of eggs were between $5-10 we were still eating eggs.
What worries me are the people with children who are living from paycheck to paycheck, and the kids may not have food because of food costs.
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However, during the egg shortage, it was often not possible to get eggs at all.
Not around where I live, it was always about the right price. I wouldn’t be surprised that we probably got more supply because there were people who were be more willing to pay the price.
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Oh I understand now! We have places like that. It was a chain. It had several locations in town in shopping centers that peaked probably in the 1940s. Most have closed, but one is still open for sure. Maybe two.
They tend to run really good sales. I’m not sure if the other prices are cheaper. Meat is supposed to be good there and cheaper. A lot of people get steaks there. I don’t eat steak.
I go maybe once every year or two when I notice salmon is on sale. The cans can be over $1 cheaper than Walmart.
Looking in more detail at the previously linked CPI report, the largest increases and decreases are as follows. The overall weighted average across the standardized basket of food was +2.2%.
Largest Increases
- Eggs: +41%
- Other Condiments: +13%
- Coffee: +12%
- Beef: +9%
- Apples: +6.5%
- Candy: +6%
- Doughnuts: +6%
- Prepared Salads: +6%
- Food from Vending Machines: +5%
- Frozen Fish: +5%
Largest Decreases
- Tomatoes: -7%
- Lettuce: -6%
- Hot Dogs: -5%
- Frozen Vegetables: -5%
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No problem getting eggs here either. Semirural area with lots of farms, and chickens. Fresh eggs never got more than $6 a dozen…and really they are about $5 regularly at the farm.
We join a CSA in the summer and we get a very plentiful supply of produce every week…it’s $380 for 18 weeks. And we plan our meals around the fresh veggies we get every week.
But yes, we have the resources to get whatever food we need.
We buy cases of things when on sale so that when there are food bank food drives, we always have something to donate. Because we can.
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I want to come eat at your house!!
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Not to point out the obvious
Working poor don’t have the money to buy in bulk
Working poor feels increases more acutely than the upper middle class.
They don’t have reliable cars to get to the cheaper grocery stores. They don’t have the gas money to shop around.
Poor and working class people don’t stock up. Don’t buy in bulk and don’t wait for a sale. They buy what they can afford when they get paid. They do try to buy what is cheapest. What is cheapest when they have money. On payday
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Making another post lol
I don’t know who shops at Dollar General.
Their prices are good to ok
How they do that is to sell you items that are smaller than the ones at the grocery store. Are they cheaper, I’m dubious. The price is cheaper for less product.
The clientele is poor. They sometimes live in places where it’s hard to get to a grocery store.
The good news is that now DG is carrying produce in selected stores. I’m am happy about that development because you couldn’t buy anything fresh. No potatoes. No carrots. No salad fixing. It was pretty sad.
Are they helping food deserts? Yes. Are they driving small grocery stores out of business? Yes also.
In my town, the local grocery store is next to the dollar store. Which is next to a Dollar General. I’m glad there is some variety. I think all of it is more expensive than Walmart. Walmart is across town.
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I completely agree…there are too many folks who don’t have the ability to get food easily, stock up, etc.
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And now this…
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unfortunately, I don’t think this will be the last.
When we donate to the food pantries, we often donate canned items. These have a longer shelf life. In some places, getting “fresh” fruits and vegetables year round isn’t easy.
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The three Walmarts closest to my house have a vast array of snack foods, milk, cheese and bread, no fresh fruit besides bananas, bacon and various frozen breakfast meat sandwiches, and not a single fresh vegetable. A few frozen vegetable options if you like that lima bean/pea/corn combo.
You think this is a healthy diet? Recommending that poor people do their grocery shopping at Walmart belies an unawareness of what Walmarts in parts of the country look like. The ones in my area are a cardiovascular nightmare.
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Not near us…but the Walmart Super Stores have half a regular Walmart and half a grocery store Walmart. Full groceries. BUT they are often located where a car is needed.
I live in a semirural town. We don’t have a grocery store, or public transportation. We do have farms and farm stores, but you need to be able to get to them. And some folks can only do home delivery if there is no cost.
Here’s an unorthodox idea, but it’s working for us: Work at a grocery store.
Dh got a part-time retirement job at our local beloved grocer. While reading this thread, I had him look up on the app how much we’ve saved this year – more than $560 through June. We get 10% off store-brand items year-round and at least quarterly, such as starting tomorrow, we get 25% off. We also, of course, love the extra money, and they have a generous 401k match. We figured why turn down free money?
Anyway, if y’all aren’t interested, get your kids to work. We get two discount cards per family. I have a friend with two kids working for them, and she makes good use of their family discount.
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