ECON Report food and grocery price increases/shortages here - UPDATE, new runs on the stores

[john70]

I just went to Publix (north central Florida) to get a few things. I walked the whole store just to get an idea of how things were holding up. This is not my normal Publix, but I went there as they have hand sanitizer It's still within 3 miles of my house.

I was surprised to see a BUNCH of tags limiting purchases on items. This was a first. There had been a couple before on things like eggs, cleaners and bleach, but this was a limit of 2 on things like instant oatmeal, soups, canned veggies, canned beans, all canned meats, canned pastas, rice, rice mixes, pasta mixes, pasta, potato mixes, peanut butter, jelly---basically all "prepper" type foods. They were all over the place! Still a limit of 1 on the hand sanitizer. No wipes or lysol spray. Some bleach, though only the smaller jugs.

Did not look at the freezer stuff or the meats, which I always thought were too expensive anyway, and my freezer is stuffed beyond capacity as it is.

Glad I have been prepping for years. I got what I was looking for and left. It was kind of depressing to see all of the limit signs.

YOU MUST BE TALKING ABOUT BY PUBLIX IN GAINESVILLE

I WENT SHOPPING SUNDAY.......I BOUGHT 2 OF ALMOST EVERYTHING THAT HAD A LIMIT OF 2
1 BAG OF SUGAR....25# 14.37
1 BAG OF RICE......20# 14.97

 

[Martinhouse]

Digger, I went to "our" Harp's real early this morning. They still had lots of the little trays of chicken livers, so I was able to get some. Thanks for mentioning them here yesterday. They also had a fair amount of flour but no yeast that I could spot.

 

[Dennis Olson]

Just got back from HEB. Meat was adequate. Prices on meat were pre-virus normal. Frozen case was only at about 70%. Half wore masks and half didn’t. Both doors were open for entry. Customer traffic was moderate. The store looked 95% normal. I looked down the baking aisle, and flour was full. Didn’t look for yeast.

 

[Loretta Van Riet]

Still cannot find cleaning supplies other than toilet bowl cleaner and now , some bleach. Was able to find a 4 pound bag of all purpose flour in an "off brand" that the store never carried before . Yeast was available!

Fruits and veggies plentiful. All meats available. Frozen foods were very picked over. Eggs were plentiful! It really bothered me that 5 weeks ago I could not find eggs! Limited supply of paper towels and toilet paper with limits.
This was "Jewel Foods", DuPage county, Illinoy.

 

[coloradohermit]

"Still cannot find cleaning supplies "
I went to Dollar Tree a couple of days ago and their cleaning supplies looked fully stocked. I didn't notice individual items or if they had disinfecting wipes because I was only looking for Spic N Span, which they had. But the shelves were full, so it might be worth looking there if you have a Dollar Tree near you.

 

[psychgirl]

Well, if your Kroger still has good meat prices you are lucky; get what you can immediately.

At Our Kroger (yesterday, we went around 5:30) the prices were almost to the level of frightening. This is central/north of Indianapolis in Hamilton county.

Now, prices in this town are always notoriously higher in everything right down to gasoline, staples, drugstore, and routine care for most anything we buy. Yes, I’ve checked and compared. Lots of reasons why, but won’t go into that here.

Meat yesterday was as follows, by what I saw:

Chicken -family packs were at least 2-3 $ higher/pk. The case was full. The fancier, organic and well known labeled brands were thin and very pricey.

Beef-selection was poor. There “was” beef in the cases but not much to choose from.

Ground beef prices I didn’t even bother to look at by this point because NONE of it was on sale and by the looks of the fairly full cases of it I’d guess really pricey.

Porterhouse steaks were 18-20$ for ONE STEAK! ONE, single steak in each package.

Ribeyes were sparse and at least 10-15$ each.

They had NO chuck roasts or individual chuck steak cuts. All of the other random cuts for roasts were so expensive, even for the tough cuts that I just stood and stared. I bought nothing.

Sirloin steaks were very thin and about 15$ for one steak.
Stew meat chunks were around 10$ for small packs of those little cubes.

Tenderloin/ Filet? Forget about that too! - went way up, at least by 5$/lb from what I remember. We try to have a splurge dinner once a month with Filets and a bottle of red wine. That ain’t gonna happen for awhile.

Pork/pork Chops-all of the different variety packs, no matter what the actual cut was, pre wrapped, were at least 9-12$ for each pack, and some higher than that.

They had ribs, and pork tenderloins but those were not on sale like they usually are and the prices higher than they were last week.

Bacon was the same picked over mess with a ton of Smithfield brand in two different areas lol. No one wants that crap!

Still same bare spots overall. The only meat I bought were two, sad little, half sized pork tenderloins because they were the ONLY ones in the mark down case that I could/would afford.

I saw a lot of people milling around just staring at the meat cases but not much in their carts.

It was not good. I’m going to investigate Meijer today, if I can.

 

[annieosage]

I just went and checked some prices online for Smith's (Kroger) compared to what I paid

Bone in Strip Steaks $9.99/ pound. Today $11.99/ pound
Chicken breast were $2.99/ pound same today
Rump Roast $5.99/ pound now $6.99/ pound
Chicken thighs $1.69/ pound now $1.79/ pound
Jennie-o ground turkey $6.19/ pound now $4.99/ pound
This one surprised me:
Family pack pork boneless sirloin shops then $4.29/ pound now $1.89/ pound

Maybe it hasn't reached us yet?

 

[WalknTrot]

Just a little "out and about" report from this morning. No actual shopping involved.

Got the 5:30 am call from the post office to come pick up my chicks that shipped Wednesday. I asked the postmaster what time they wanted me to come, (figuring maybe they had changed things) and he said anytime is fine before hours...just ring the doorbell in the back and we'll let you in. So, I got there about 6:30am - staff all bright and chipper - come on in! Nobody wearing masks, chit-chat...lots of chicks still coming in for folks...there must have been at least 20 boxes there from 3-4 different hatcheries chirping away on the shelves. Cool! So that's taken care of. Happy healthy chicks home safe.

Next this morning had a consult appt. with the orthopedic surgeon about my future shoulder joint replacements in "Big town". That was weird. It's a big downtown clinic building 6-ish floors, big parking ramps, one of those "where the heck am I" places for a country girl. Anyway...hardly any cars on even the closest floor of the ramp. Go inside, and they funneled me to the first floor where a gal took the "heat gun" temp, asked the usual exposure, symptom and travel questions, saw that I had a mask. Yes...I knew I'd never get near the place without one, so I FINALLY had to wear a flipping mask. Brought an N95 from home just to be contrary, and found that I immediately fell back into work/acceptance mode on that front. Wore them all the time for real and quite physical work back before retirement. Ho-hum....maybe a muscle memory thing plus good lungs. The building was like a tomb...hardly anybody there - haha! Even most of the lights off in the lobbies. Seemed like the sparse staff were all happy to see patients slowly filtering back. My surgeon is a cutie...really nice guy and competent, good answers to all my questions. The nurses said that it's getting better. People are crawling out from under their rocks into the daylight, and that they are going to be a LONG time catching up with all the back-logged so-called "elective" surgeries.

 

[okie-carbine]

Ground beef prices in SW OK are out of this world. $7.19/lb, even at sams.

 

[energy_wave]

Just got back from another food and beer run. The meat shortage is beginning to effect pork and chicken now. Pork was $4.19 a lb on sale and chicken $2.99 for split breast. Italian sausage $4.99 a lb. I watched people stop and look, then mumble how high the prices were and leave. I bought hot dogs $1.99 a pack. Brown eggs I picked up a few weeks ago for $1.00 are now $3.69 a doz. Someone keeps buying all the dam extra sharp cheddar cheese before I get there. Otherwise, I don't see any shortages. Last weeks beef short ribs are now in the freezer display. No one wanted to pay $30.00 for a pack of three ribs.

 

[lonestar09]

I too found a lot of price gouging of pet food on Amazon.

So I went over to Chewy.com and put in Pedigree dry dog food in their search engine Dry Pedigree - Free shipping | Chewy

What I have found with the cat food I buy from Amazon, they'll limit you to 6 boxes of 12 of Weruva BFF wet cat food pouches, the dry Purina Pro Plan cat food is 50+% more in price as opposed to Chewy.com

I have now been buying all my pet food from Pet Food, Products, Supplies at Low Prices - Free Shipping | Chewy.com with way lower prices and free shipping!

I no longer use Amazon as my 'go to' source for cat food.

It's Chewy who's getting my money now. V

Amazon does not have the lowest price anymore on a lot of items like they used to. It pays to shop around nowadays.

 

[lonestar09]

Those prices are outrageous!

Wally World's vaunted supply chain is collapsing and is a pathetic joke now.

That and/or bald faced profiteering.

That's what happens when you pay on a 60-90 schedule.

 

[danielboon]

Went to hannaford to get a few things a guy came in with no mask and was asked to leave he said he would just pull his shirt over his face. Nope that wasn't good enough. So he was escorted out.

 

[joannita]

Just got back from another food and beer run. The meat shortage is beginning to effect pork and chicken now. Pork was $4.19 a lb on sale and chicken $2.99 for split breast. Italian sausage $4.99 a lb. I watched people stop and look, then mumble how high the prices were and leave. I bought hot dogs $1.99 a pack. Brown eggs I picked up a few weeks ago for $1.00 are now $3.69 a doz. Someone keeps buying all the dam extra sharp cheddar cheese before I get there. Otherwise, I don't see any shortages. Last weeks beef short ribs are now in the freezer display. No one wanted to pay $30.00 for a pack of three ribs.

I ordered cheese from the Cuba Cheese Shoppe www.cubacheese.com

 

[Panner]

I love extra sharp cedar cheese, The sharper the better. I usually buy Cabots. They sell it at Costco, but I have been buying it at WallyWorld at a lower price. I have got to the point I keep an extra 2 lb package on hand. As soon as I open up a block, I buy a spare.

 

[mudlogger]

I love extra sharp cedar cheese, The sharper the better. I usually buy Cabots. They sell it at Costco, but I have been buying it at WallyWorld at a lower price. I have got to the point I keep an extra 2 lb package on hand. As soon as I open up a block, I buy a spare.

Back when we ate carbs, I used Cabot Pepperjack on homemade pizza instead of mozzarella. It was AWESOME!

 

[Panner]

I grew up on Amish extra sharp ceddar. We bought it fresh cut off a big wheel at the farmers market in York, PA. Never had any as good as that.

 

[Terrwyn]

Had an order from Aldis this morning and it had a lot of substitutes. There prices are good but it was stupid what they were out of. A run on green bell peppers? Please. Who even uses them around here. And only had low fat milk.
Plenty of organic orange juice though. Had hot dogs but no decent buns. Went on like that with pretty much the whole order. And we are only a few miles away from green houses and organic egg farms and dairy farms. And the coast and the central valley and the giant produce mart and one could almost think there is something dark and creepy going on below the surface to be out of so many things.

 

[Terrwyn]

Had an order from Aldis this morning and it had a lot of substitutes. There prices are good but it was stupid what they were out of. A run on green bell peppers? Please. Who even uses them around here. And only had low fat milk.
Plenty of organic orange juice though. Had hot dogs but no decent buns. Went on like that with pretty much the whole order. And we are only a few miles away from green houses and organic egg farms and dairy farms. And the coast and the central valley and the giant produce mart and one could almost think there is something dark and creepy going on below the surface to be out of so many things.

I meant to say no milk except non fat.

 

[straightstreet]

Just got back from another food and beer run. The meat shortage is beginning to effect pork and chicken now. Pork was $4.19 a lb on sale and chicken $2.99 for split breast. Italian sausage $4.99 a lb. I watched people stop and look, then mumble how high the prices were and leave. I bought hot dogs $1.99 a pack. Brown eggs I picked up a few weeks ago for $1.00 are now $3.69 a doz. Someone keeps buying all the dam extra sharp cheddar cheese before I get there. Otherwise, I don't see any shortages. Last weeks beef short ribs are now in the freezer display. No one wanted to pay $30.00 for a pack of three ribs.

Hotdogs are on "sale" here. Packs are 2/$5.00. A dozen eggs are $1.

 

[jesner]

I used to buy meat at the farmers market and was on a mailing list for one. They are now marketing direct to consumer. So check out your local farmers. One website to check is www.localharvest.org Enter your zip code and they list CSAs for veggies but also meats. I used to know a meat site but my brain seems to have misfiled that information.

 

[Dennis Olson]

I meant to say no milk except non fat.

Of course, you could have just edited your post...

 

[Terrwyn]

Of course, you could have just edited your post...

Oh Christ in a handbasket not you already this morning. Don't you have something better to do than pick on us tech challenged old people?

 

[SouthernBreeze]

We made a shopping run, Wednesday. Tupelo, MS. Went to Walmart and Sam's. No shortages on anything, except pork. Hams of all sizes and varieties were in abundance, though. So was bacon. I have 3 smoked half hams in my freezer so, I didn't buy any, but did buy two more packs of bacon. Prices are beginning to go up on everything here, but if you want to keep up a good stock, you'll have to pay the price. I do shop around for best prices, though. I didn't get a chance to go to Aldi's, and probably could have got better prices on some items there. Since meat prices are going through the roof, we're eating more sandwiches, hot dogs, bologna, and BBQ. Ya have to do what you have to to cut the costs down.

I was surprised to see that Walmart had yeast back in stock. Lots of it on the shelf, so I bought 4-3packs.

 

[ambereyes]

A few people made a run into the town nearest to pick up things for those that can't. Walmart was very low on beef but packed in on other meat items, eggs (99 a dozen). Paper products low, cleaning products good but no wipes. Smaller store (Lowe's) well stocked in beef and other meat products. Paper products good, plenty of yeast and baking supplies. No problem at either store for OTC meds. This was in west Texas.

 

[20Gauge]

Oh Christ in a handbasket not you already this morning. Don't you have something better to do than pick on us tech challenged old people?

No he does not!! That has been established several times in the past!!

 

[20Gauge]

Sams in SE GA is looking better, but they still have about 15% of the shelves empty. They do have a decent supply of meat, but that is only due to the limits of 1 per customer. Yeah a single package of meat per customer.

Rice is about gone, but we are seeing other things coming back like FLOUR and such.

 

[ShadowMan]

Now's the time to look to and locate all your local Community Supported Agriculture farms and outlets near you. Get acquainted with your LOCAL growers NOW. Get to know who is growing your food how they are growing it and learn to grow your own as much as you can.

A lot of discussion here about meat prices. Well we just filled our freezer with 1/2 a cow at an average cost of $4.32 a pound!! And the quality to soooooo much better than anything you'll find in a supermarket. We've bought into 1/2 a hog and will be getting into another 1/2 cow of Black Angus that will be ready next year. We're working on locating a local source of both Chicken and Fish. Our local CSA farm and our local Farmers Markets are great.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

I'm all for our local Farmer's Market. Whatever we can't grow, we try to get there. Thing is, the Farmer's Market is more expensive than what I pay at our local grocery stores. It's all organic and locally grown. Two chest freezers full of meat and other frozen items, so I only buy meat to refill what we eat every two weeks. I'm trying to curtail my spending on the more expensive cuts.

 

[packyderms_wife]

I'm all for our local Farmer's Market. Whatever we can't grow, we try to get there. Thing is, the Farmer's Market is more expensive than what I pay at our local grocery stores. It's all organic and locally grown. Two chest freezers full of meat and other frozen items, so I only buy meat to refill what we eat every two weeks. I'm trying to curtail my spending on the more expensive cuts.

Same problem with high prices at the local farmers market... it's because the city charges them an arm and a leg to have their stands at the local market.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

Same problem with high prices at the local farmers market... it's because the city charges them an arm and a leg to have their stands at the local market.

I haven't thought of that, but you're probably right. It could be the same here, since it is in town. Ours has just opened for the season, and from what I'm hearing everything has gone way up from last year.

 

[Dennis Olson]

Oh Christ in a handbasket not you already this morning. Don't you have something better to do than pick on us tech challenged old people?

(snicker) No, I don’t. But I’m going to help you. I assume from your answer that you’re using a smartphone, and further, that you use it in the upright (portrait) orientation. Thus you don’t see the EDIT option.

Tap the ellipsis under your post (the three dots for you “tech challenged old people.”) The EDIT link will mysteriously appear. Tap that, edit post, and SAVE.

All done.

There, you learned something new this morning...

 

[Dennis Olson]

Now's the time to look to and locate all your local Community Supported Agriculture farms and outlets near you. Get acquainted with your LOCAL growers NOW. Get to know who is growing your food how they are growing it and learn to grow your own as much as you can.

A lot of discussion here about meat prices. Well we just filled our freezer with 1/2 a cow at an average cost of $4.32 a pound!! And the quality to soooooo much better than anything you'll find in a supermarket. We've bought into 1/2 a hog and will be getting into another 1/2 cow of Black Angus that will be ready next year. We're working on locating a local source of both Chicken and Fish. Our local CSA farm and our local Farmers Markets are great.

So evidently you have multiple large freezers. Many of use aren’t that lucky (sigh).

 

[tno5]

My area of Charlotte, NC - still really no meat products at all - especially chicken. So I did find some for online delivery. for 1.5 pounds of chicken thighs I paid $6.00 - used to be around 2.50 a pack of 8. But, since we really don't eat beef, we do eat chicken, I just hate paying that much for it. Now fresh asparagus was a good price, about 1.79 for a huge bunch. We also eat a lot of eat, trying to save the frozen veggies when fresh isn't available.

 

[mzkitty]

FL - Went shopping; meats there were plenty. I only looked at ground beef though, and the store brand was like $7 for regular and $8 for ground round. They still had plenty of my local grassfed on sale though so I got another one for $5.99, which I like much better anyway. Everything else was about the same, except the paper products aisles were still skinny.

 

[annieosage]

I wanted to make bacon wrapped jalapenos this weekend so decided to do a small curbside pickup. I wasn't going to waste a trip for jalapenos, bacon, and cream cheese so I added a few things. Got everything on my list except pork chops and ground turkey. They were all out. Pork chops on sale for $1.39/ pound so it didn't surprise me. No ground turkey of any brand.

In stock:
Bread- sourdough and white
Bacon- have 3 packs in the freezer but bought one just for this and not to use what I have while it's still available
Lemonade and ice- to mix with my Absolut
Diced tomatoes
Jalapenos
Russet potatoes to have with my steak tomorrow
Tortilla chips

 

[Terrwyn]

Have not been able to get mushroom soup so looked on Amazon. Almost 20 bucks for 4 cans pre ordered.
Went and checked Walmart and they had it back in along with cream of celery at cheap prices. Also had large packs of Angel toilet paper and Brawny towells. Other brands too. Prices are up though.

 

[packyderms_wife]

Have not been able to get mushroom soup so looked on Amazon. Almost 20 bucks for 4 cans pre ordered.
Went and checked Walmart and they had it back in along with cream of celery at cheap prices. Also had large packs of Angel toilet paper and Brawny towells. Other brands too. Prices are up though.

It's easy to make and can up, you'll need a pressure canner.

 

[undead]

meat has basically doubled in price in the last month

 

[parsonswife]

Was at Walmart (Oregon) and was shocked at the empty hard goodsvshelves over the weekend. I knew loads have been light due to China not shipping but was just there last 4 days ago and everything looked normal. Furniture kitchen appliances towels curtains....all sorts of holes everywhere.