Food prices on the rise

[terracore]

I don't think there is a food price problem here, I think there is a food price competition problem here.

Whenever I go to a grocery store it is packed. Parking is usually a struggle, finding a cart at Safeway has sometimes been impossible, the aisles everywhere are crowded, shelves are frequently bare, where is the motivation to give us fair food prices?

You can survive the food prices but you have to shop with a long term strategy. Recently I purchased Farmer John bacon locally for $3.99 12 oz size. Yesterday at Foodland it was "on sale" for $6.99. What a rip off. Costco beats both prices and its a 16 ounce size. Spending money on gas looking for grocery deals isn't much of a factor when you stock up. Longs has some FANTASTIC deals but usually it's on less than a half dozen things at a time. Recently they had a great deal on chicken, beef, and vegetable stock and we bought a year's supply of it (since we don't use much canned stock that didn't equate to a huge purchase but you see what I mean). I've seen butter priced anywhere from $2 - $6 a pound. Butter freezes great. Meat prices are all over the place. The key is not driving around all over town shopping sales every week, the key is stocking up on sale items whenever you can. AND USE AMAZON PRIME. We have found incredible deals there like bottles of BBQ sauce for 39 cents (free shipping), cases of this and that for 1/3 of what we can buy them locally. We recently got 50 bags of chips there for less than 30 cents a bag (free shipping) google Amazon Warehouse Grocery Deals.

You can eat here affordably, but you need to shop smart, not just shop. The worst thing you can do is go to the nearest store and buy what you think you need at the time. You need to plan for the future and incorporate unpleasant visits to places like Walmart into the equation. And go EARLY in the morning while there are still things on the shelves.

Since we raise or hunt almost all our own meat one of the items we have to buy is livestock feed. For three weeks in a row when we went to Dels and Mirandas they were OUT of layer feed. The layer feed at Walmart is not a good feed, nor a good price, but at least they had it. Enter amazon. $19.99 for 50 pounds is more than the local price BUT no sales tax AND if you use the amazon store card, 5% off. Suddenly the price is nearly the same! Not even sure how they can ship at that price, probably a fluke that is going away but these are strategies you need to adopt to get food here at a good price.

Lastly, if you grow anything (guavas, pineapples, bananas, rabbits, lemons, avocados, lychee, whatever (and there are no good reasons to grow nothing)) then use that to reduce your grocery bill. You can trade/barter etc whatever you have with others who have something else.

If you want to see big grocery bills, move to northern Alaska.

ETA: spelling, understanding

[kalakoa]

Spending money on gas looking for grocery deals isn't much of a factor when you stock up.

Provided you can afford to do so, and have ways to store the groceries.

[Lee M-S]

Target has surprisingly good food prices, though not a huge selection.

"Loss leaders" is what they call those really cheap prices at Safeway and other grocery stores designed to draw you in and get you to buy the overpriced stuff as long as you're there. If you just buy the loss leaders, you do really well, and you have the added satisfaction of foiling the evil corporate plan.

We grow what we can--beans and kale grow really well here, though I've never had luck with snow peas, spinach or broccoli.

We also buy staple goods from Amazon and fresh stuff from farmers markets.

You're right about Alaska being worse; I've heard tales of a single cantaloupe priced at $17 there. Who the heck would buy it?



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[leilanidude]

I've heard tales of a single cantaloupe priced at $17 there. Who the heck would buy it?

People on EBT/food stamps?

[terracore]

quote:

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Originally posted by kalakoa

Spending money on gas looking for grocery deals isn't much of a factor when you stock up.

Provided you can afford to do so, and have ways to store the groceries.

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AND you have the means to get to the stores, and you are right, there are many people who cannot stock up nor store groceries (and that is even harder if you don't have reliable transportation).

I posted my struggling-middle-class shopping strategies, if somebody wants to post their EBT / assistance strategies, I'm sure that would be helpful to a lot of folks as well.

[shockwave rider]

Lee M-S: "Target has surprisingly good food prices, though not a huge selection. "

I was on the mainland a couple of times last year, all west coast, and ended up in Target stores in 3 different states. Virtually all the prices for the things we normally get at Target were virtually the same price as the prices in Hilo. We strictly buy dry goods, fruit juices, paper products, and frozen foods there, although not any instant type microwave meals since we cook from scratch for the most part. The meat and vegetable sections are not worth even walking through, but we hit them for the non perishables I listed once a month, the best deals on things like cereal and peanut butter are when EBT cards are renewed.

[Mimosa]

We do not eat out but once or twice a year for special occasions only.
Target does have good prices on the basics .
EBT people can buy fancy foods us tax payers generally are not able to afford - in the same breath EBT folks can also buy veg seed and fruit tree's with their EBT food stamps so they can grow their own veg and fruit .
By sticking to the basics in our nutrition plus raising much of our own as we are able to - we keep our nutrition costs down year in year out .
We compost all veg throw a ways .We make container gardens from 5 gallon buckets from the compost of throw away peels and coffee grounds - surprisingly over 100 gallons of prime soil a year from veg extras we all throw to the dump .
Has the cost gone up the person who started this thread has asked - we do not see it .
Simple basic nutrition - shopping on sale items only - lost leaders they are called in corporate terms .
Dairy is cheaper on mondays at Cost u less and Suisan .
Thursdays cheapest and in stock at Dels for chicken scratch .
We buy several bags at a time - kept in old large defunct chest freezers so no vermin get at the bags of scratch.
3 dozen eggs a day - we barter n trade and keep our ohana in eggs year round .
We go public library to read the local paper on sundays for the ad's of the week.The local paper is $1.75 and it is a wildly empty void paper of nothing much except the ad's for the week,target and Longs are best for canned goods and no limit on how much one can purchase .
We know our prices - we raise much of our own and have both freezers from solar and propane for the nutrition we raise and butcher .
With a bit of a change in your buying habits any one can drop their nutrition bill to even as it was 10 years ago .
Any one can plant veg in containers .

Mrs . Mimosa

[terracore]

Safeway, yesterday. Pork shoulder .99 cents / pound limit two. You can get a $27 shoulder for under $7.

[macuu222]

I guess that is one of those "lost leaders". I did take advantage of that and bought 2. They did the same thing with turkeys around Thanksgiving. It's just that I really don't want to have to examine every grocery store flyer, then drive all over town trying to find those "lost leaders" before they're sold out like it was some kind of scavenger hunt. I'd like to just go to the store (1 store) and get what I need. And I guess that is what grocery stores here are hoping the vast majority of people will do.

I do like the Safeway/Target combination building because I can get the deals at Safeway and then if there are things that I still need but refuse to pay their high prices...I can just walk over to target and find it for less (most of the time). I also closely examine and take note of the expiration dates on fresh meats and poultry and try to come into the store on the days that those items expire. Both Safeway and Target mark them down by as much as 50%

[terracore]

After Thanksgiving Costco was selling pork loins and organic turkeys for almost nothing. We got 2 turkeys for $4 each and the loins were about $6. Of course, we were already there and finding them was a coincidence. It wouldn't have been worth the trip over there to do that alone.

We bought a chest freezer at Home Depot for about ~200 and they delivered it for free. Surprisingly it didn't make a noticeable difference on our electricity bill. Since we don't open it very often it doesn't run very much.