Grocery shopping day today.

Time to go discover what's more expensive than it was just seven short days ago.

With the political fog machine set to "obfuscate" I forget, is Joe Biden somehow still to blame?

#FoodPrices
#PoliticalLies

I've long been infuriated by the endless and malicious pricing shell game that my local Safeway (Albertsons, Vons and other chains are also part of the same company, and I assume pull the same B.S.). It seems to be a very conscious effort to keep consumers in the dark as to what "regular" prices on products are, and the real value (if any) of a sale price on any given item.
For example, just walk into the soda aisle and try to figure out what the going price for an ounce of Coke or Pepsi is. There are countless buying options (larger and smaller cans, often four or five kinds of plastic bottles, six packs and eight packs, "regular" or "real" sales that apply to everyone, loyalty card prices, digital coupon, multiple purchase requirement sales, limited purchase sales, and more. It's easily possible on any give day to pay at least 100% more per ounce on the same ounce of beverage, depending on what version you get and what hoops you leap through and how much of your privacy and information you're willing to sacrifice.
Multiply this by thousands of items changing day by day, and it's an unending dance of scammery. When my grocery bill routinely drops 20-30% when I use a loyalty card, this just tells me that Safeway's "regular" prices are likely overcharging by a large percentage, if not all, of that discount.
But the pictured price tag just really cheesed me off. My wife and I live alone, so we don't need vast quantities of most items. But many Safeway sales require mass purchases, often on perishable items (and many produce items are no longer even AVAILABLE in small quantities). Often that's applied to salad, which I often eat a lot of, but not TEN BAGS AT A TIME or whatever. Four is a stretch to eat before some of it goes bad, canceling out some or all of the savings, and just pointlessly wasting food.
So I checked to see if I really needed to buy three bags this time. But it turns out, no. Look closely, See the math problem? Yeah. Buy one, get the sale price. But buy the STRONGLY suggested three, and Safeway charges you an extra penny for their trouble!
Yeah, it's ONLY a penny, but there are principles here, and again, if they do this over hundreds of thousands of sales, over hundreds or thousands of products, over months and years, it ads up. Plus, they've duped you into possibly buying more than you need AND goosed their bottom-line a little in the process.
It should be illegal. The whole SYSTEM should be illegal. And, IMHO, whoever came up with it should have their testicles or other tender parts nailed to a shopping cart out in the parking lot for everyone's enjoyment. Are we together on this?

#safeway #groceries #grocerieprices #albertsons #vons #foodprices #foodpriceinflation #latestagecapitalism

42% of #US. #adults expect #deportations to lead to higher #foodprices in their area

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/04/15/42-of-us-adults-expect-deportations-to-lead-to-higher-food-prices-in-their-area/

Olive oil prices ‘set to halve’ from record highs in relief for families https://www.diningandcooking.com/1981134/olive-oil-prices-set-to-halve-from-record-highs-in-relief-for-families/ #CostOfLivingCrisis #food #FoodAndDrink #FoodPrices #Mediterranean #MediterraneanOliveOil #OilPrices #Olive #OliveOil #Subscribers

_The Evening Post_, 23 March 1925:
PRICE OF BREAD
PROTEST TO GOVERNMENT
Holding that, on the figures adduced, the recent increase of 1d [ca. 80c today] in the price of the 2lb [900g] loaf is not justified, the three local #Labour members of Parliament, Messrs. P. Fraser, A. L. Monteith, and R. M‘Keen, will wait on Sir Francis Bell to-morrow morning to protest against the rise.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19250323.2.103

Food inflation was 0% last month, but grocery bills still hurt https://www.diningandcooking.com/1950123/food-inflation-was-0-last-month-but-grocery-bills-still-hurt/ #cpi #food #FoodPrices #GroceryPrices #inflation

Local food pantries won’t offer eggs for foreseeable future https://www.diningandcooking.com/1924102/local-food-pantries-wont-offer-eggs-for-foreseeable-future/ #BirdFlu #donations #EggShortage #food #FoodAssistance #FoodPantries #FoodPrices #KalamazooLoavesAndFishes #NutritionalGap

Is Bloomin Brands, Inc. (BLMN) the Best Food Stock to Buy Under $20? https://www.diningandcooking.com/1902078/is-bloomin-brands-inc-blmn-the-best-food-stock-to-buy-under-20/ ##inc #BLMN #BloominBrands #BusinessResearchCompany #food #FoodPrices

Hürriyet Daily News (Turkey): Website listing supermarket prices may help fight inflation. “The searchable website… lists the current prices of goods sold by seven chain supermarkets, including discount grocers, across various categories such as food, fruit, meat, fish, chicken, dairy and cleaning products. Officials believe the application will exert ‘significant pressure’ on chain […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/02/13/hurriyet-daily-news-website-listing-supermarket-prices-may-help-fight-inflation/

It annoys me that two-pound sacks of coffee and tater tots now come in 28-oz "value sizes."

How dumb do they think we are? Pretty damned dumb, it seems!

That said, if we got outraged about every damned thing that comes across the transom, we'd be outraged all the time.

Pet a dog. Walk in the woods.

Melbourne Ska Orchestra - The Best Things In Life Are Free
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUVvBF9BWdg

Many Americans might feel a sense of deja vu as they read the price labels on egg shelves at the grocery store. Egg prices shot up in December 2022, after an earlier outbreak of avian flu, but eventually came back down after demand cooled following the holiday season.

But this year, prices have yet to fall. “Retail demand in January hasn’t really let up all that much,” Rispoli said. People have “gotten used to higher egg prices, so it’s not really acting as a deterrent”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/02/egg-prices-bird-flu

"A perfect storm of:

• ICE raids and threats causing farmworker shortages

• Egg prices skyrocketing from bird flu, with no end in sight

• 25% tariffs on Mexico, which supplied 63% of our vegetable imports and 47% of our fruit & nut imports in 2023

RIP grocery budgets"

~ Adam Carlson quoted by Greg Dworkin

#Trump #immigrants #FoodPrices #groceries #ICE #deportations #economy #Mexico #tariffs #agriculture

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/1/31/2300314/-Abbreviated-Pundit-Roundup-The-honeymoon-is-over-The-dregs-remain

Not exactly my usual art. Just a rant about this "google map."
#gulfofmexico #googlemap #art #collage #eggprices #foodprices #inflation #pixelfed

I'm thinking it might be time to try one of those grain-y egg substitutes I've been reading about on the Internet.

It's a dark time for the poultry business.

How's this for a quotation?

“It’s just robbery,” said Minneapolis resident Sage Mills, who bought eggs to bake a birthday cake last week. “Eggs used to be kind of a staple food for us, but now you know, you might as well just go out to eat."
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/01/28/egg-prices-are-soaring-dont-expect-that-to-change-anytime-soon

Just in case anyone here is expecting the price of eggs to fall soon (now that Trump is in office)...

Egg shortages, higher prices spike as bird flu grows

"An outbreak of avian influenza is growing and has affected nearly 13 million birds in the last 30 days, according to USDA data.
...
Egg prices are climbing to new record highs daily, Karyn Rispoli, managing editor for eggs in the Americas for price-reporting service Expana, tells Axios."

#FoodPrices #Eggs #BirdFlu

https://www.axios.com/2025/01/21/bird-flu-egg-prices-avian-influenza-trump

I am getting really tired of hearing that #FoodPrices are increasing because of #inflation caused by worker pay rises or climate change or conflict and supply chain difficulties. 5 minutes of online searching (and albeit no hard fact checking yet) led to this table of Tesco’s C-Suite compensation comparison over the last 5 years. Take a look and tell me if you still think it’s inflation causing this…or is it #greed (again). Don’t fall for it.

'#Farms will come to a stop': Farmer warns of soaring #FoodPrices and shortages under the #OrangeMenace

https://www.alternet.org/farmers-trump/

Want to fix food deserts and lower food prices? Enforce antitrust law, activist says • New Hampshire Bulletin https://www.diningandcooking.com/1789006/want-to-fix-food-deserts-and-lower-food-prices-enforce-antitrust-law-activist-says-new-hampshire-bulletin/ #AntitrustLaws #competition #food #FoodDeserts #FoodPrices #inflation