Inflation.

[Sam Gamgee]

(It's not my intention to start a political discussion. Whose fault it is will always be a never-ending circular discussion and won't solve anything anyway. I'm only going to point out my experiences of late.)

I live in the DFW area, one of the areas (for some reason) hit hardest by inflation. I've been noticing the tab at the grocery store creeping up more and more. We are currently iced-in with our annual winter storm and I hit the store for some stuff to tide us over. I didn't even have the cart filled to the brim and it was about $250 (and this was at Walmart, not one of the hipster stores with organic everything). I've got a good job but a big family and am really starting to feel the stretch. I can only imagine what those are going through who have to get by on less. A pound of bacon actually cost me less than a carton of eggs. Absolute insanity! The scary thing is that it could actually get much, much worse.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Avian Flu has hurt the egg industry. Processed foods seem to be still inching higher and higher, but meats and veggies seem to be staying level. We never buy processed, ready to cook stuff, so we haven't had the sticker shock, except with eggs. Sausage and other breakfast meats seem to be dropping for us.

 

[daveinlax]

LoL Any post that needs a qualifier probably won’t last long but it was senior discount day at the store so we braved the lines. I’ve noticed prices are mostly trending down around here.

 

[Sam Gamgee]

Avian Flu has hurt the egg industry. Processed foods seem to be still inching higher and higher, but meats and veggies seem to be staying level. We never buy processed, ready to cook stuff, so we haven't had the sticker shock, except with eggs. Sausage and other breakfast meats seem to be dropping for us.

All items are up where I live, meats and veg included.

 

[kcghost]

Prices seem to have gone up for some unknown reason. I went in the other day to buy some fruit juice that has cost $2 a pop since the flood and all of a sudden it was $3.50. They always seem to have an excuse for when things go up and for some they just stay up.

 

[Sam Gamgee]

I've been buying the large loaves of French bread at WM for many years. They bake it in-house and it's been $1 for as long as I can recall. It recently went up to $1.47, and this past week up to $1.78. Average that out across the entire store and your bill is a lot more than it was a year or so ago.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Sam, I know how you hobbits eat. To bad you can't cellar back some breads like we do tobaccos.
Knowing the audience here, I also foresee this thread not lasting long. Not sure why we would want to discuss this here, but I guess if guys are gonna post about Bucees, ha ha, then.... so be it.

 

[Sam Gamgee]

Sam, I know how you hobbits eat. To bad you can't cellar back some breads like we do tobaccos.
Knowing the audience here, I also foresee this thread not lasting long. Not sure why we would want to discuss this here, but I guess if guys are gonna post about Bucees, ha ha, then.... so be it.

I don't enjoy political discussions and generally do not partake in them. I was mainly curious to hear about the experiences of others in other parts of the country. In the Dallas area, it's getting harder to make a dollar stretch. As far as why would we want to discuss, etc,. this is the General section and it's a general topic. Seems like a perfectly legitimate topic to me as if affects the everyday life of folk.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I don't enjoy political discussions and generally do not partake in them. I was mainly curious to hear about the experiences of others in other parts of the country. In the Dallas area, it's getting harder to make a dollar stretch. As far as why would we want to discuss, etc,. this is the General section and it's a general topic. Seems like a perfectly legitimate topic to me as if affects the everyday life of folk.

Our prices don't seem to be getting as high as what you've described, but as I said, we mostly just buy meat, paper goods, and some essentials. Eggs, I can wait till they get that fixed.
But, we grow and can the majority of our fruits and veggies.

I did see one lady in front of me at check out freaking out, but she had frozen, canned, and boxed foods mostly.

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

It isn't uncommon for me to get groceries from 3 different places in one week, with sales and prices driving what I pick up.

My anxiety came from not knowing what a good price was during the lengthy fluctuations in price. Interestingly, prices sort of plateaued and the cheapest grocer (with the lowest selection of goods) raised most prices to be in line with the regular grocer (who has a higher selection of goods).

I am starting to see better deals with meat and produce again; although heavy cream and eggs remain high. Thankfully, neither are staples in my fridge.

 

[Zack Miller]

I’m retired with no debt, no mortgage or car payments, etc. For us it’s an annoyance. For families of modest means who have to feed and clothe children travel to work, etc., it’s a catastrophe.

 

[Sam Gamgee]

I used to raise backyard chickens and had so many eggs I couldn't give them away. I'm thinking of getting some again.

 

[sablebrush52]

Lots of reasons for the current inflation, including gouging by businesses who see this as the perfect opportunity. Still, it's not as bad as the '70's, a robustly destructive stagflation that took double digit interest rates and two, count them, two recessions to finally kill.

People have been living on free money since the Great Recession, and that's partly to blame for the current state of affairs. Interest rates should have been gradually raised years and years ago. The party is over.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

The work place and manufacturing has been forever altered. There was an exodus of boomers from the job market. Simultaneously all retired at once over the course of about two years. They were a massive generation that were all clumped together age wise. There are not enough people of working age to fill the gap they left in the workforce. With wages rising people are leaving low paying jobs in favor of jobs willing to pay more. Low level manufacturing positions are not getting filled. This drives up the price of goods, it makes raw materials more expensive and harder to get. Transportation was one of the industry’s hardest hit by the Boomer & wage exodus. This drives up price of transporting the already more expensive goods and materials even further. At my company we cannot get micro chips for components to repair our automation equipment throughout the entire food processing industry, so equipment goes un-repaired further driving up the cost food. Avian flu, fuel prices, etc. The point is there is not any one single thing, political party, or any other source driving inflation. It’s a combination of many different factors, none of which have readily available solution.

 

[sablebrush52]

There was an exodus of boomers from the job market. Simultaneously all retired at once over the course of about two years. They were a massive generation that were all clumped together age wise.

This Boomer hasn't retired and hasn't got any plans to do so at the moment. I like what I do, so why give it up? I get to use my creativity on a daily basis, and that helps keep the noodle from drying up.

My family isn't the retiring type. Pop retired three times, finally hanging it up at 84. Retiring is probably what killed him. He only lived another 13 years.

None of my family retired before 70, because we all fought to get to work at what we like, instead of settling for something else.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

This Boomer hasn't retired and hasn't got any plans to do so at the moment.

It's one thing to hang onto what might be considered most people's dream job. But like, if you had a job cutting the heads off of chickens on an assembly line... you might think differently.

 

[Deano]

Get used to it. Nothing will drop in price to the level it was. They may come down a bit when the politics demand it but never to the level they were.

 

[sablebrush52]

It's one thing to hang onto what might be considered most people's dream job. But like, if you had a job cutting the heads off of chickens on an assembly line... you might think differently.

That would assume that I don't love cutting the heads off of chickens.

 

[bullet08]

Grocery prices have gone up here. With both kids in college, price of food isn't as shocking as their tuitions and expenses. Just noticed car insurance has skyrocketed. Gas prices are going up again.

 

[Laurent]

It’s all a conspiracy!! Lol. Prices are up here in Michigan, thankfully I have chickens, make my own bread from a 3 year old start I have and make my own pasta and sauce. Have to feed 3 kids and they’re teenager garbage disposals.