So now I'm PO'D. Just got back from the grocery store and I

[yy4me]

am in a severe state of shock. Like all people with a brain, we do try and save as much as we can on groceries. I work 4 days a week now, my retired other half does a store run when we need something. This morning was the day that I decided I needed to go. Too many staples and other odds and ends to make him bother trying to find everything. Went to my local Market Basket grocery store. It is less $$$ that the Whole,Foods and Stop & Shop or TJ'S.

Geeze, $1.99 for a bunch of celery? No celery hearts, just a regular bunch. One thing after the other, higher by leaps and bounds. I don't know whether to buy some of the staples like paper-goods and put them away. If everything else is so $$$$, I think I might hit the CVS sale today and stock up on 12 packs of TP for 4.99.

I need laundry soap and like to use powder. Have been using Charlie's for years. For the life of me, other than Tide (Can't use, I have allergies) or some cheap brand, everything is now liquid. It is easier or cheaper for them to make liquid detergent?? Is the powder to costly to ship? Powder comes in paper, liquid in plastic. Wouldn't the powder be more eco-friendly?

I don't even know where this post should go in Cooking, in Frugal or the yet to be formed "Today's Bitchin" group.

Where are we all headed????

[Gormy Cuss]

1. It's hard to cut costs when one already lives frugally.

At least summer is here and soon the in-season produce will be cheap and plentiful.

The best way to save may be on the inedibles on your market list, like the TP and laundry soap. TJ's has a scentless powdered laundry soap and other cleansers and paper products. You can probably beat the prices with a good sale elsewhere but the shelf prices at TJ's are pretty good.

DeMoulas is cheaper than TJ's? I wouldn't have guessed that for most food other than produce.

[Phentex]

2. The powder is easier for me too....

I just can't seem to make the liquid detergent stretch as far. And the choices for powdered high efficiency are very limited! (at least where I shop)

Yes, prices are higher across the board. I used to be able to tell when a particular item had gone up in price. Now, it's ALL of them. The produce is out of control.

[grasswire]

3. how much is profiteering and how much is legitimate...

...because their own costs are up? We'll never know the answer to that.

[Warpy]

5. Back when I sold food, the markup was constant

and it was during another period of rapid inflation, the mid to late 70s. All the increased costs of growing, harvesting, processing, and transporting are being passed directly through. I don't think there is any real gouging going on and most of this is due to the increased cost of fuel, courtesy of the GOP economic bungling that brought us the 45 cent dollar.

In other words, it's going to get a whole lot worse. It took this country a good two decades to dig out of the last depression and it will likely take at least that long to dig out of this one.

[NJCher]

6. wrong-o

My husband is in the food industry and he has been telling me of price increases of various manufacturers. They admit upfront the increases are unjustified. Why are they doing it? Because they think they can get away with it.

His own company is taking a huge, huge price increase. Knowing what I know about marketing, I told him they'd better be ready to sacrifice market share.

You watch--and I am bookmarking this post--these prices will eventually go down.



Cher

[Warpy]

8. While some of it might be anticipatory

it's likely not gouging. I am sorry your own experience is with a gouger. Mine was not.

Don't expect those prices to go down. They won't. Increases are happening at every level because of the increase in fuel costs felt at every level.

[Tab]

10. I think there might be markup at the manufacturer

if they have a unique product - it's a natural form of capitalism to push the envelope and see how far you can go without pissing off (or losing) your customers, but among merchant resellers I think it's a really tight margin and doesn't vary much. If it did, someone else - either an entreprenurial sort or a big business with deep pockets - would come in and be a low-price spoiler. Except for some gourmet markets where price doesn't matter too much, I think everyone's running the same profit margin.

Similar to gasoline in some ways - people think gas station owners are making out like bandits, but the only ones making the money are the gas companies (e.g.: ExxonMobil) that are vertically integrated. The rest are just making a few pennies per transaction AND, in fact, I've heard some are running into trouble by accepting credit cards because their profit per sale hasn't changed much, but the percentage fee of accepting a card has doubled or tripled.

It's weird, and I agree, I think we'll be here for a while.

It's amazing how one man and his party (the GOP) can wreck a country for decades. I may be dead before this is cleared up but my son and his children will still have to deal with the aftermath.

Going to shut up now - getting into a bad mood.

[NJCher]

11. they will go down

I've seen it before, from the marketing standpoint. The manufacturers think they can take the hit on market share and they find out they can't They commonly respond with a price decrease.

Did you see what happened last week with the airlines? They tried to increase prices by $20 per ticket and by the end of the week they had cancelled the $20 increase.



Cher

[hippywife]

4. I just did a search and

unfortunately there are no Aldis in MA. That is such a saver for me on most of our staples. I still spend a lot at the regular grocery even tho I'm buying less and less there all the time. I really don't know how some folks are making it. I took some eggs to a couple of my co-workers last week to help them out a little. Will probably do that regularly when our girls finally start laying.

I wish I knew where we were heading. I was wondering that yesterday. I was pretty young and not paying attention when we hit recession in the 70's. Now I know what my parents must have been struggling with and they had six kids!

I usually like liquid soap, myself, but have switched back to powder since I buy it from our co-op.

It probably wouldn't hurt to stock up on non-perishables when you see them at a really good price. I bought two eight packs of Bounty Basic paper towels for $8 a few months ago. They really are crappy towels, never tear on the perf, but they've lasted us a long time.

:hi:

[kestrel91316]

7. My general impression (not a scientific survey, BTW) is that

the sort of groceries I buy - produce, plain meats and dairy, staples like flour and sugar and such - have increased 100-200% in the past year at regular grocery stores like Ralph's. I am dead serious. Trader Joe's seems to be holding more steady but of course they lack variety and selection on so many things, and I don't generally buy their convenience foods.

San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.

[TreasonousBastard]

12. Not mine. Admittedly, I shop the sales and...

rarely buy anything not on sale, but prices I pay for most things have been relatively stable even out here where there is no great competition among stores.

Imported lamb is way up, of course, as the dollar shrinks, along with coffee and a few other things. And flour is rarely on sale any more so I'm paying the high price now that it's way up. Bread's up, but there's always something on sale when I don't feel like making my own, and even rye bread has held better than I thought it would. Milk and eggs are way up, but I always find someone has ice cream and butter on sale.

Just paid 79 cents a pound for chicken quarters, and have freezer full of top round London broil when it was under 2 bucks. Frozen veggies are pretty stable at around a buck for the 10oz package (was maybe as low as 80 cents on sale last year). In that same trip yesterday, I paid 79 cents a can for sardines, and 4 for 3 bucks for canned tuna. Edie's ice cream at half price, too. And Heinz ketchup for 2 bucks or a smaller Hunt's for a buck. Store brand pierogies for $1.79 and a buck for a pint of sour cream and 2 bucks for a quart of plain yogurt.

All not too far from what I paid a year ago, if not less.

(Note that I avoided buying the $7 a pound honey ham on sale and the $9 a pound cheeses-- those have gone way up from last year).

[Phentex]

13. My problem with freezing...

is that we lose power so often, I am always worried about losing stuff in both of the freezers. I think it would be smart to invest in a generator. My husband doesn't agree!

I'm trying to use meat as more of an accent in our meals rather than the main part of it. However, we all happen to love meat. *sigh*

[TreasonousBastard]

14. How long is the power off? Most freezers can...

stand a few hours of no power if you don't open the door.

Try a test-- stick thermometers in the freezers and turn them power off, checking the temp in an hour. The next day try it for two hours. Keep this up until you find the time it takes for the temp to drop to what you consider unsafe. (remembering that the ambient temperature will have some bearing on how fast the freezers warm up)

And yeah, we carnivores forget that many cuisines, like Chinese, traditionally have meat as a flavoring ingredient, not the main ingredient.

[Tab]

9. I usually go to the store dailiy

Just because I like it that way (as opposed to weekly).

My wife doesn't understand how I can drop $40 at the store. But when you think about it, everything is $3 or $4 anyway. I always try to use the express lane, and 10 items at $4 each = $40. Just going through the express lane is $40. And it doesn't take much more than a prescription or a bottle of vitamins to push it over the edge. A bag of dog food is $22 to $28. Gotta buy those once a week, usually, I think (I honestly don't track it, but I think we buy them weekly).

Prices go up, dollar goes down (thank you George! (NOT)). I haven't had a raise in 5 years, so this isn't cutting it. At least I'm employed - not everyone can claim that (and I've been there and done that for long stretches, and it's no fun).

I'm not sure which direction this is going - it may all turn around - but at the moment I don't really have the warm and fuzzies about it.