Let them eat … peanut butter

[Omaha Steve]

http://thewritingonthewal.net/?p=3743

Let them eat … peanut butter

Marie Antoinette’s famous advice has been updated.

Recession Diet Just One Way to Tighten Belt

Stung by rising gasoline and food prices, Americans are finding creative ways to cut costs on routine items like groceries and clothing, forcing retailers, restaurants and manufacturers to decode the tastes of a suddenly thrifty public.
…
Wal-Mart Stores reports stronger-than-usual sales of peanut butter and spaghetti, while restaurants like Domino’s Pizza and Ruby Tuesday have suffered a falloff in orders, suggesting that many Americans are sticking to low-cost home-cooked meals.

Posted by Robert Feinman

[msongs]

1. less meat, more peanut butter = healthier people. the beef welfare farmers may not like it tho nt

[Warpy]

2. Peanut butter and store bread are pretty expensive.

When sales of dry beans go through the roof, I'll know we're really in trouble. When the grocery store runs out of cabbage before it runs out of lettuce, I'll know people are finally getting the message about nutrition in times of poverty.

I'm not surprised the takeout places are starting to feel the pinch, it's about time. I'm very sadly not surprised that what's replacing it is other fast food with no strategy for long term survival.

[msongs]

3. 2.5 loaf sourdough is 2.29, PB is 1.98 a jar. not too bad around here

[Warpy]

4. Brand X peanut butter $3.95

Balloon bread, pullman loaf (which is what people are probably buying if they're living on PB sandwiches) $2.95 and up.

Dry beans are a whole lot cheaper.

[Hekate]

5. Depends on your cooking and storage abilities, partly. I think a whole lot of folks have never...

...really learned to cook from scratch.

We're in for some rough times here.

Hekate

[Warpy]

6. Nothing was more sickening to me than watching HGTV

and watching yuppies insist on trophy kitchens and then sniff that they just NEVER cooked, like it was something best left to the lower classes.

Well, I know that most of those people are in foreclosure or getting very near it so I'm afraid I have little sympathy for their lack of kitchen skills. A trip to the library will get them a good basic book and they can copy a few recipes out of it to get them going. After all, they're the ones who went into hock for kitchens any caterer would swoon over, while my skill development occurred in some of the worst kitchens ever, one so small that the fridge had to be in the living room.

However, I'm afraid the sense of entitlement is far stronger than common sense is for these people or they wouldn't be in this fix. They'd have rented for less than half the cost of ownership and banked the difference. They'll be the types to live on bologna and wonder why they're getting sick all the time.

People with real sense will know enough to spend those last discretionary dollars on a cookbook.

[grasswire]

7. forget the sourdough...

...eventually people will have to eat those 99 cent sale loaves. I'm still buying pretty good bread while it's on sale (whole wheat, no HFCS), but I can see how it's going to be before too long.