rolling “Trump is gonna win” containment thread

"If the economy is bad for you, that's because you're a big fat lard with no impulse control," tho, how does that play?

I.e. The Whale

I thought those people were "doing it wrong" unlike you

People getting screwed by a lack of local stores are not doing it wrong, they're being done wrong. But that's not inflation at work.

Like, those stores are predatory no matter the state of the economy.

many places in America have a Dollar General and maybe a gas station mini mart, and that's it

Adequate nutrition should not be a luxury product for the select few, I think we can all agree on that, yes?

Josh in Chicago at 12:54 19 Jan 24

Just got back from the grocery store, actually, and I maintain that if your bill is considerably more than you're used to, like substantially, you maybe are doing it wrong. The only significantly inflated prices I saw were junk foods. Cookies, chips, that sort of thing. Breakfast cereal. But there were plenty of fruits and vegetables and proteins on sale. Head of cauliflower, $0.89 each. Gala apples, $0.89 a pound. Whole wheat sandwich bread loaf, $2.99. 18 pack of eggs, $4.99. Chicken breasts, $1.99 a pound. 12oz of bacon, $2.99. With tax, that's maybe a little over $20 for enough food to feed a family more than a few hearty breakfasts and at least a couple of dinners, not even accounting for pantry staples that last a long time. I'd say the headaches (and costs, direct and indirect) of food deserts hit harder than inflation in this case.

what did the first part mean Josh?

also to assume people don't know that their regular grocery shopping has gone up or not over time is so arrogant

xp The extreme couponers that I knew were selling the items that they got at flea markets.

xpost I think some wires have been crossed here. I was originally responding not to the idea that prices have gone up - they have - but that they've gone up $100 a cart. Per what you clipped, I meant that if you *do* have a local supermarket, then it's not that hard to shop within reason, and afaict prices are not totally unreasonable. That's not arrogance (I don't think). But I concluded by saying "the headaches (and costs, direct and indirect) of food deserts hit harder than inflation in this case." That is, if you *are* stuck with no local supermarket, or only a Dollar Tree or mini mart, then you are likely being taken advantage of. But that's not due to the fluctuating state of the economy (as such), it's due to the lack of an alternative. Which I guess is more micro-economic.

I'm pretty frugal while grocery shopping, but will happily spend $60 in a bar without thinking about it

I can walk to three grocery stores and I know how to read price tags. But I confess I have no idea what an apple cost six or eight or ten months ago. I can certainly see that I used to be decently solvent and am currently fucking broke (not poor, broke - there's a difference).

https://i.imgur.com/i9NvJQu.png

wonder where they do their shopping

Sorry, Josh, but you have been declared today's ILX Villain. Try again tomorrow.

My 2023 grocery spend was up 6% from 2022, which was about an additional $17.58 week.

At this point my vote is to prevent an 8-1 SCOTUS and little else.

100% this- although I would add that another general election loss could be what finally demolishes Trump’s political career.

Regarding SCOTUS, the maddening thing now is that we have to hold not just the presidency but also the Senate in order to make any headway there. And with the way voters tend to try to balance power between the Executive and Legislative branches, who knows how often we’ll have that scenario after this term? It feels like the stars have to align.

Carne, perhaps you already know this but presidential families do in fact have to pay for their own personal expenses. Presidents do okay, salary-wise (about the level of a bank VP). They get a bill when they leave. Only state functions are paid for from taxpayer funds.

you should always be stressed when you go to the grocery store. you should be constantly stressed and vigilant about money. this is called being "disciplined"

wanting the most basic protections so you can just get paid, relax, and enjoy your life is called radical leftism, and that's for little babies and whiners

I don't know the answer to this but do doordash and similar services factor into this? They've grown and now take up a larger proportion of budgets than in the past, but I don't know if they're still growing or if they've levelled out (and if so when)

Anvil, my wife likes the Misfit/Imperfect services but I tend to go for targeted trips to stores

if we would all watch the price is right more frequently, we might have a better idea of the prices of our favorite consumer products

you should always be stressed when you go to the grocery store. you should be constantly stressed and vigilant about money. this is called being "disciplined"

uh, the sustainable kind of discipline comes through establishing good overall habits. the thought and effort is front-loaded, but once these are solid there's no reason for constant tension and vigilance. once your knowledge base has been trained on repeated experience, it's simply a matter of applying what you know.

Perdue Farms are selling Approx. 1.2-lb. tray of thin-sliced Chicken Breast for $14.99

They were selling the same product for $12.99 on November 25th 2020

I tried Pete's but wayback struggled with it

Glad I could start this conversation, a little horrified at how some of you seem to view poor people, but alas.

Year to year, our grocery bill has gone up about 20% since early 2020, pre-pandemic. We don’t go to bars or go out to eat as much as we did when we had less money, but it’s not like that 20% is an insignificant number to us.

The chatter about how inflation has stopped rising and people just need to get used to those price points reads disturbingly like implicit defense of huge food corporations price-gouging consumers because they can.

many places in America have a Dollar General and maybe a gas station mini mart, and that's it

― Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, 19 January 2024 19:45 (one hour ago) link

The place where my mom lives has a Dollar General and a gas station mini mart AND a Family Dollar. That was built directly next to the Dollar General. And like ten miles of empty highway stretching off in each direction from there.

(cue theme song from The Jeffersons)

The wildly unscientific method by which I measure the rise of grocery bills is by the cost of the amount food I'm able to carry in two cloth tote bags on my walk home from work (i.e. not much). Pre-pandemic, that shit never came close to $100. Nowadays, I count myself lucky if it falls under $100.

I'm pretty frugal while grocery shopping, but will happily spend $60 in a bar without thinking about it

― Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, January 19, 2024 3:00 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

My man.

I read an article somewhere about how the big chain Dollar stores bully tiny crossroad towns into giving them massive tax breaks to build a store in their neglected berg.. and that becomes the de facto grocery store for miles around (think rural N Dakota, Nebraska, etc.).. people living on pot pies, ramen and instant coffee

butter and oil are wildly more expensive than they were, it's not just like junk food or whatever. also tons of stuff comes in sliiiiightly smaller packages - there's a million ways they get you

I once lived for three years on butter, rainbow pasta, herbes de Provence, nachos, and Vendange pinot grigio. Best years of my life but I don't recommend it as a life plan.

I used to have a local Safeway that was across the street from a Trader Joe's within walking distance from me. It was relatively small and I understood the logic of it. But that store abruptly closed, and now I have to drive to the Marina Safeway for items I can't get at Trader Joe's. It is not far but it is a much bigger store with what seems like 20 or 30 lanes of items - great if you want to spend hours shopping for food, but not for me

I went to them both today to stock up, to buy things that only one store or the other sells. Considering the common items, Safeway was easily twice or more as expensive as Trader Joe's. It was kind of shocking tbh

there is a growing list of items I get at TJ's because it's more affordable than the regular grocery

That’s crazy!

Yeah, Trader Joe's is waaayy cheaper for cheese, milk, frozen foods, decent wine, bread etc

But the meat & produce can be a little dodgy

Dan, they finally closed that weird dark Safeway like right next to the Bay St TJ's? I used to stop in either one on my way to or from work on Chestnut Street, very convenient for my commute.

Yes, that's the one. The whole block is now basically empty. I read that it's been bought but don't know any details

honestly felt like something out of the 90s tbh, i kinda loved it.

i have many strange memories of being in that Trader Joe’s rather early in the morning, more hungover than God, buying a salad and some
bubble water

When I was working in rural Texas every small town had a Dollar General and a Mr. Gatti’s pizza buffet. Not a goddamn thing otherwise but you could get terrible pizza and Dorito’s.

"i have many strange memories of being in that Trader Joe’s rather early in the morning, more hungover than God, buying a salad and some
bubble water"

that sounds very close to some experiences I had when I arrived in Sf in the early 80s

I recently learned that Trader Joe's is a regional spinoff of Aldi.

As I understand it, the Aldi business was inherited by two brothers and divided into two divisions: Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud. Aldi Nord operates in the US as Trader Joe's.

I was exited to visit an Aldi in Fresno, CA but it was pretty lackluster, didn't come close to Trader Joe's

Trader Joe's is not a publicly held company, so they're not obligated to say where they source products from (i.e. nation of origin).. sometimes they will say your pickles are from Bulgaria, but sometimes they say nothing at all

(the contain trump thread has become a grocery thread)

def don't want him anywhere near my groceries

TJ's started in 1967, I believe, and was bought by the German company in 1979. So not a spin off in the usual sense. When I first shopped there they had only 10-12 stores, all in SoCal.

Given how much so many commodities are subsidized in the US, there's really no excuse for prices of staple goods to go up. We literally have a strategic cheese reserve!

I'd give a pass for organic stuff, but TJ's seems to put pressure to keep those prices down, too -- not sure of the business reasoning behind that since that's exactly the stuff people are willing to pay more money for.

This is what we really need to see more of happening:

The economic headlines in Europe have been glowing recently: Inflation, according to official statistics, is finally coming down. But tell that to consumers still facing runaway prices when they head to the supermarket.

On Thursday, France’s biggest food retailer took a drastic step to confront the situation, announcing that it would no longer sell PepsiCo products because the prices were “unacceptably” high for consumers, escalating a showdown by French retailers to name and shame brands that aren’t lowering prices as inflation eases.

Carrefour, a global retail giant, put up posters Thursday throughout its 3,440 supermarkets in France where Lay’s potato chips, Pepsi and 7-Up soft drinks, as well as Doritos, Quaker cereals and other PepsiCo products, are typically displayed. “We are no longer selling this brand due to an unacceptable price increase,” the signs said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/business/france-carrefour-pepsi-prices.html

This, on the other hand, is what we really need to less less of happening - lads, the oracle has spoken.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/19/boris-johnson-says-trump-back-in-white-house-is-what-the-world-needs

Consolidation of the mainstream grocery store chains also certainly driving prices up too. Albertsons and Kroger seem to own every sub chain.