FOOD Report food & grocery shortages / price increases here: 2024 Edition

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bracketquant

Veteran Member
The bad news, here, is chicken.

The discount supermarket has gone to a new supplier. Old packaging was the white foam tray, with thin cello wrap. New packaging is thick clear vacuum sealing, chicken parts are now multiple links almost like with sausage links.

Shoppers are now tossing them around in the open coolers, making a mess of what is supposed to be about 4 different cuts of chicken. And the worst part is the new cost is up about 50%, overnight, from previous prices. I'll have to check and see if expiration dates are extended longer than the previous product. And then visit on expiration day.
 
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WalknTrot

Veteran Member
I think eggs were in the neighborhood of 3.79/dozen at Walmart yesterday. I'll be freezing some from the old hens before they hit the road in a few weeks, but also probably if I find them on sale soon. At least want to make sure I have a few put away for the winter in case things get spare.

It's that time of year, even maybe a little early, but this morning I ordered the flats of canned vegetables that I always stock up on and use over the winter. I averaged less than $1.00/can, which is tolerable. Also called for a propane fill yesterday. As long as the 500 gallon tank was down to 30%, might as well - with the price at $1.79.

The way things are going, who knows what tomorrow will bring.
 
TxGal

TxGal

Day by day
We paid $5.99 a dozen for Gerry's organic, free range eggs at a Kroger in College Station yesterday. Almost didn't buy them, but we try to get the free range/organic when possible. This was an 'emergency stop' rather than a routine stop as we were at medical appts.

Costco's are usually much, much cheaper for organic eggs, when they have them, last two times we were there they didn't. We'll see if they have them next week.

Our hens are aging out now, we likely won't replace them (we're aging, too!). But, we do have several local sources identified and contact made in our general home area, thankfully. We have a good number of people sellings eggs out here in the country, all really great folks. Last I heard they were selling for $3-$3.50 a dozen, and they use the same feed source that we do, so we're fine with that.

We also stopped at the Aldi in College Station for a stock-up on canned fruit & vegetables. Canned corn was .63 a can, cut green beans .63 a can, whole/sliced potatoes .95 a can, carrots .95 a can, and peaches and pear slices were $1.39 a can in light syrup. Lots of people were stocking up. Lots.
 
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moldy

Veteran Member
Eggs here are about $4.75/dozen. And I watch prices, but I swear in the last 2 weeks they have skyrocketed again. I reached for a marked down loaf of King's Hawaiian bread - 50% off it was still $4.81!! Yeah, back on the shelf you go. I haven't figured out yet how to make a passable (to me) loaf of it, but I'll keep trying.

Visited with a friend that runs a food bank and asked her if the clients would eat turnips and beets (the last several years, that has been a no). She walked me thru it - empty empty shelves. There was a case of small PB jars, and maybe 5 cases of cans (vegetables,I think). "There is no food." is what she told me. She does not get county or city funding, only a pittance from United Way. Even the big food banks are empty. This is not hitting the news like it usually does.
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
moldy said:
Visited with a friend that runs a food bank and asked her if the clients would eat turnips and beets (the last several years, that has been a no). She walked me thru it - empty empty shelves. There was a case of small PB jars, and maybe 5 cases of cans (vegetables,I think). "There is no food." is what she told me. She does not get county or city funding, only a pittance from United Way. Even the big food banks are empty. This is not hitting the news like it usually does.
Click to expand...

This is a huge problem here in central Iowa as well. We used to hear about food bank needs maybe a couple of time a year, now it’s weekly.
 
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bracketquant

Veteran Member
5 pounds of potatoes (new thin-skinned russets) were $1.50 each this week at WalMart.

I think that I will work on building a mini root cellar up against one of the basement windows that can fit up to about 50 pounds of them.

Summer clothing on sale. Wrangler heavyweight pocket Ts at $1, marked down from $12.99 each. I bought all they had in my size, except for leaving the one with no price tag.
 
mzkitty

mzkitty

I give up.
Well, here's Wegmans eggs this week. I didn't need any.

1727509278076.png

And I know this isn't food, but a friend and I went to Savers this week. I can't believe all I scored for $147. I got 14 NEW name brand blouses and cardigan sweaters. I can tell they've never been worn. Probably what stores do seasonally, clear out the old stock. And included in that what appears to be a beautiful long winter jacket in royal blue with a fake fur hoodie. I'm beside myself with happiness. I needed some new things. If you have a Savers where you are, girl go get stuff !!

P.S. I forgot to include also two 5-packs of winter socks @6.98 each. Expensive but worth it. I'll give one pack to my son. You know how guys rip through socks. Oh, and a pair of suede-y looking Sketchers slip-ons in navy blue that did not look worn. I think those were $8.00. So actually the average price of each item works out pretty cheap,
 
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bracketquant

Veteran Member
At local discount supermarket, buying for the cats, but maybe I'll try it myself if I find a decent recipe...
chicken gizzards at .16/lb (20 cents for a 20 ounce container), about 15 pounds, most going in the freezer.

Their eggs are $3.99/dozen (large), lowest in the area. Also, I haven't seen a brown egg in about a year, nor any size other than large. I do bypass looking at eggs in all of the stores, here, outside of WalMart and this other one.
 
Milk-maid

Milk-maid

Girls with Guns Member
In a bit of a different vein, I was at the Farmer's Market here in Va. a few minutes ago.

Many of the farmers were not there after Helene passed through this region.

I was told many of them lost power... most of them are meat farmers with freezers.

I wonder how many of them had back-up generators, or will lose all their meat to spoilage.
Sickening to think about.
One of the farmers had just gotten back numerous cows from the processor.
Their freezers must be bursting. All their summer beef herd. :shkr:

And looking in a different light, downed trees are everywhere! Just driving thru my small town, they're lying on cars, across yards and remnants of where they'd been across roads... so I'm thinking even if they could get their meat to market, many back roads might be impassable due to trees across the roads.
 
psychgirl

psychgirl

TB Fanatic
Milk-maid said:
In a bit of a different vein, I was at the Farmer's Market here in Va. a few minutes ago.

Many of the farmers were not there after Helene passed through this region.

I was told many of them lost power... most of them are meat farmers with freezers.

I wonder how many of them had back-up generators, or will lose all their meat to spoilage.
Sickening to think about.
One of the farmers had just gotten back numerous cows from the processor.
Their freezers must be bursting. All their summer beef herd. :shkr:

And looking in a different light, downed trees are everywhere! Just driving thru my small town, they're lying on cars, across yards and remnants of where they'd been across roads... so I'm thinking even if they could get their meat to market, many back roads might be impassable due to trees across the roads.
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Oh wow that report is NOT good MM!!

That is really going to hurt those farmers, not to mention many others who were depending on that meat. I hope they have generators?

Things you don’t even think about!
I’m glad you’re ok though!
 
tnphil

tnphil

Don't screw with an engineer
psychgirl said:
Same here

Also, huge pork butts are .99 c/lb!
A friend told me then a coworker told me she bought four of them. Huge 20-30$ pork butts for 7-8$ each

I’ll need to check my freezer to see how I can wedge one in. Or just buy one today and put in the crock pot.
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We went for groceries last night, gotta get those 4X fuel points on Friday. :)
When I went Thursday, I thought I saw pork butts for $1.49/lb. I considered getting one, but not ready to cook it and no room in either freezer. Last night they were $1.99/lb. Still a good price, but if I can catch them cheaper, I will.

This is Kroger in middle-TN.
 
psychgirl

psychgirl

TB Fanatic
tnphil said:
We went for groceries last night, gotta get those 4X fuel points on Friday. :)
When I went Thursday, I thought I saw pork butts for $1.49/lb. I considered getting one, but not ready to cook it and no room in either freezer. Last night they were $1.99/lb. Still a good price, but if I can catch them cheaper, I will.

This is Kroger in middle-TN.
Click to expand...
Hmm
Well, either way, that is also a good price.

I can’t get to fiddling around on my big freezer until I get home later today.
Maybe I can find a smaller one to buy because I really don’t want to pass this sale up.
 
wobble

wobble

Veteran Member
I was trolling through the Manager Specials meats in Kroger a couple days ago and saw a tray of three thick sirloins. The package was about 8 inches by about 18 inches. There was a WAHOO!! sticker that read $48.69. WOW, what a deal!

Three grayish steaks for almost $50! I noticed how they put those mark down stickers over the contents of the product as well as the price.

I carefully peeled back the sticker to see what the original price was.

$78.11 for three sirloins approximately 8"X 6" and 1.5" thick.

I wish I had my camera.


Costco would have had more meat in a similar cut in packages selling from about $27 to about $37.
Five years ago that meat in Kroger would have been about $20.
 
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tnphil

tnphil

Don't screw with an engineer
Milk-maid said:
In a bit of a different vein, I was at the Farmer's Market here in Va. a few minutes ago.

Many of the farmers were not there after Helene passed through this region.

I was told many of them lost power... most of them are meat farmers with freezers.

I wonder how many of them had back-up generators, or will lose all their meat to spoilage.
Sickening to think about.
One of the farmers had just gotten back numerous cows from the processor.
Their freezers must be bursting. All their summer beef herd. :shkr:

And looking in a different light, downed trees are everywhere! Just driving thru my small town, they're lying on cars, across yards and remnants of where they'd been across roads... so I'm thinking even if they could get their meat to market, many back roads might be impassable due to trees across the roads.
Click to expand...
The good news is that if the freezer has a lot of fully-frozen items and you minimize opening the door, most freezers are insulated well enough that a day or even two without power is highly unlikely to allow spoilage. At worst, I might expect a few items on top to partially thaw after a few days. Just my personal experience, that will depend upon the specific freezer and how fully it's packed, etc.
 
wobble

wobble

Veteran Member
OH.. Speaking of Costco:

I went there to buy 4 cases of water and 1 bag of pumpkin seeds and one bag of cashews.

2 cases of 9+ water
2 cases of small Deer Park
1 bag of pumpkin seed.
1 bag of cashews
= Just under $61

I said "How much!?" and looked at my cart and the cashier says "Welcome to Costco" and then "Everyone has been saying that today".

WTF
 
V

Voortrekker

Veteran Member
wobble said:
OH.. Speaking of Costco:

I went there to buy 4 cases of water and 1 bag of pumpkin seeds and one bag of cashews.

2 cases of 9+ water
2 cases of small Deer Park
1 bag of pumpkin seed.
1 bag of cashews
= Just under $61

I said "How much!?" and looked at my cart and the cashier says "Welcome to Costco" and then "Everyone has been saying that today".

WTF
Click to expand...
Is that good or bad?
 
wobble

wobble

Veteran Member
Voortrekker said:
Is that good or bad?
Click to expand...
It's MFE.

I was just @Kroger a bit ago and took this pic of THREE OLD meat Kebobs in the OLD meat mark down section:
Screenshot_20240928-143523.png
Doh..I edited the wrong screen shot, but you can still see the MFE markdown price and the original
below the photo tools.
I was down sizing the pic in photo tools.

ETA: here is an unobstructed one in case people think i bothered to photoshop this bs:
rsz_20240928_142441_hdr_2_1.jpg


It's a huge pic!? I tried to shrink it..oh well.
 
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WalknTrot

Veteran Member
People pay stupid money for that prepared stuff. Like - is anybody so dumb that they can't spear meat, onion and bell pepper chunks on a stick? But I guess they are.

And to pay somebody at the grocery meat market to do that? It costs salary money which is reflected in the price.
 
nomifyle

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
WalknTrot said:
People pay stupid money for that prepared stuff. Like - is anybody so dumb that they can't spear meat, onion and bell pepper chunks on a stick? But I guess they are.

And to pay somebody at the grocery meat market to do that? It costs salary money which is reflected in the price.
Click to expand...

There are clueless people about doing things for themselves.
 
ainitfunny

ainitfunny

Saved, to glorify God.
wobble said:
OH.. Speaking of Costco:

I went there to buy 4 cases of water and 1 bag of pumpkin seeds and one bag of cashews.

2 cases of 9+ water
2 cases of small Deer Park
1 bag of pumpkin seed.
1 bag of cashews
= Just under $61

I said "How much!?" and looked at my cart and the cashier says "Welcome to Costco" and then "Everyone has been saying that today".

WTF
Click to expand...
Wobble, what is 2 cases of DEER PARK?
Sounds like THAT ran up your bill!
 
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