Grocery prices surged 14.3% in May, study finds | Hacker News Reader

Grocery prices surged 14.3% in May, study finds

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38 pointspaulpauper13 comments

Near me, the price has varied greatly in the last few months by what you buy and when, I assume because the original driver is supply-line woes at the processors. Produce and canned stuff have been weird too, but meat especially was the most stark: Beef got expensive right away, but for a while pork was cheap, and then it wasn't anymore, and then all the chicken was gone entirely one day, and then seafood (in Ohio) was cheaper than any meat, and then the chicken came back, the other meat came back down a little and frozen shrimp shot up in price. A week ago at least two different supermarkets had cases full of bone-in beef shanks, a cut I'd never seen mass-marketed, so I got a couple and braised them. The best way to manage it is to be able to cook whatever's on sale that day.

I've been tracking my wholefoods purchases for the last year or so. Just ran my first report and was surprised to see prices have been oddly consistent throughout the year

https://i.imgur.com/LeLLhV0.png

Marie Antoinette noticed a similar stability in the price of fine cake.

Since you're aware of the inflation, you might be subconsciously substituting more affordable products, or your particular basket of goods hasn't experienced as much compared to the indexed basket, or both.

The graph above tracks products over time and for the most part I haven’t changed.

Will find a way to quantify how streaky an item is

Interesting, whole foods has a repurchase feature on amazon's website that shows previous purchase price so looking at some items for me (previous on 3/29):

``` 365 by Whole Foods Market, Almonds Sliced, 8 Ounce

Qty:1

$4.99 ($0.62/Ounce)

Previous price: $5.29

365 by Whole Foods Market, Artichoke Hearts, 14.1 Ounce

Qty:2

$2.49 ($0.18/Ounce)

Previous price: $2.24

365 by Whole Foods Market, Oil Olive Extra Virgin Mediterranean Blend, 33.8 Fl Oz

Qty:1

$8.99 ($0.27/Fl Oz)

Previous price: $8.69

Salmon Atlantic Farm Raised Portion, 6 Ounce

Qty:2

$6.99 ($1.17/Ounce)

Previous price: $5.99

```

That is probably because almost everything in Whole Foods is grossly inflated in the first place. Source: I used to work from them when I was in my late teens/early 20s.

We were instructed to inform customers that are pricers are higher because we are a smaller operation than competitors like Wal-Mart and other large changes, thus Whole Foods had to pay more that the other vendors for many of the same products.

The systems we used left me inclined to believe that the story we were instructed to explain, if true was... not the full picture to say the least.

However, this was years before Amazon even thought about taking over, so I cannot comment on how things are since the acquisition.

Considering that places like Trader Joes were at the same time as pre-Amazon whole foods, selling a lot of similar goods much cheaper, I'm inclined to believe that Whole Foods has almost always been more expensive than it could have been. But back in those days, the higher prices also got you stuff that you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else, and the employees were paid much better than most other retail. Post-Amazon, it feels like the high prices are just because.

>>Grocery prices surged 14.3% in May versus last year, study finds

You should update to the real title

The HN title currently says "Grocery prices surged 14.3% in May, study finds".

The article doesn't say prices surged 14.3% in May, but in the 12 months to May.

@dang

Anecdotally, as someone who doesn't shop around or look at price tags much, my grocery bill is probably 50% higher than 6 months ago

A strange thing, at least in NY: milk prices have (subjectively) increased dramatically in the last year, despite consistent surpluses (both nationally and within the state). The same has happened with eggs, although I don't know if the US has as much of a production surplus there.

I think this is because of the cost increase, rather than supply shortage. Both products require large amounts of input in terms of feed and energy.

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