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The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

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Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my Costco the 180 box is just under 40 with tax, and thats for the medium eggs. If you want large its $60 for the box. So this seems believable…

How are they that much? I pay $1.49 for 18 eggs at Kroger

Those must be really low quality eggs? The Costco ones are not quite the bottom tier.

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#62
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Throughout most of R-BBQ’s existence, Rodriguez has worked other jobs as well, first at the health clinic in town, then at the school district. His heart was in the restaurant, but he was cognizant of his father’s railroad pension and the stability it provided. It says right in TFA article that the owner works other jobs to support himself. No doubt restaurants are a tough business. Lots of businesses fail. Should…

> It says right in TFA article that the owner works other jobs to support himself. Both bee_rider and InefficientRed's comments were clearly about the general effect and not the specific restaurant mentioned in the article. Regardless, the fact that Rodriguez has to work another job to support himself doesn't make it a 'side project'. > Yes, I've heard of many of these. It's always a person who went to the place once…

> In 2020 a beloved Syrian cheese and dessert shop, owned by a refugee, was forcibly evicted because their land lord tripled their rent. The lot remains vacant to this day. Was this personally my fault for not buying enough cheese?

Obviously every single instance of a restaurant closing is not going to be the same. Maybe the landlord hates Syrians. Maybe they're negotiating a deal where Starbucks will pay triple the rent for a 10 year NNN lease that will make more money even with the vacancy, maybe it's a money laundering front for the Russian mob, who knows?

I'm sorry your favorite cheese shop closed and it was probably not personally your fault for not buying enough cheese. Maybe you just live in a town that does not have enough cheese loving people to support a cheese shop, or there are uniquely evil landlords who have a vendetta against immigrant hard-luck stories. Sometimes businesses we like close. It happens.

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#63
post #38
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like the restaurant was a side project that was barely solvent to begin with. They could try raising prices, but if the customers leave then people simply aren't willing to pay what it costs to keep that place open and the demand to support that restaurant in that place just isn't there.

>It sounds like the restaurant was a side project that was barely solvent to begin with. It's actually hilarious how downvoted this comment is, considering how close it is to another sentiment that's actually popular (ie. make the same point, but make it about labor costs rather than evil corporations raising prices. Both are based on the claim that if a business isn't profitable enough, it shouldn't exist in the fir…

> Both are based on the claim that if a business isn't profitable enough, it shouldn't exist in the first place.

I think a little bit of empathy goes a long way. The past few years have wreaked havoc; many people and businesses are struggling to stay afloat. Coldly repeating the mantra that small businesses failing (many for reasons outside their control) is just 'the economy' is rubbing salt in the wound.

Even in the best of times, many great businesses weren't profitable for several years.

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#64
post #22

Sounds like inflation _and_ climate change. But they only talk about inflation.

Are you under the impression that droughts didn't happen in Texas until the 21st century? Can we stop calling all extreme weather climate change? It just gives talking points to the critics.

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#65

> This year, Tyson Foods, the country’s largest meat processor, saw its first-quarter profits nearly double. Meanwhile, all over Texas, barbecue places have shut their doors: Two Sawers BBQ, in Floresville; 1836 BBQ, in New Braunfels; Brisket Bar-BQ, in Bellaire. Kinda curious what the long term plan is here for Tyson -- just sell directly to customers after all the restaurants have closed, I guess?

Why not? Profit margins are up, but overall sales volume was also up 25%. If they can make more money by selling more product, why stop? https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/07/tyson-foods-higher-meat-pric...

Your statement is incorrect. Their sales volume was flat (up 0.3%), not 25%. The rest of the sales increase was price. Also, that's from Q1 (reported in February) so a bit old. Q2 (reported in May) saw a 16.1% increase in sales, with volumes down 1.5% and price up 17.6%.

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#66

I’ve seen some people showing actual price increases they’ve seen in their local communities. For a lot of folks it’s much higher than is being reported. Here’s one from a person in Seattle: https://preview.redd.it/max54wqv9kb91.png?width=1112&format=...

I'm super skeptical of posts like this because they seem cherry picked, or at best, have local price increases that aren't reflected elsewhere in the country. Half of those are restaurants, who have had challenges for the past 2 years outside of inflation. Gas has its own challenges, a head of lettuce at my local grocer is $1.52 which is cheaper than that person's 2021 price. Notably not included in that post is things like pork, which has fell in half since 2 years ago, and beef has had 4 straight months of decreases. Car prices are also down too from their peak.

My point isn't that inflation doesn't exist. It's a very difficult number to compute. My point is that people on the internet aren't good at picking unbiased points to base their data on.

Data like this is good to understand how the cost of living is increasing in certain segments, but we all need to remember (I make this mistake sometimes too) that an increase in the cost of living is not inflation.

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#67
post #26
post #23

Generally, this really sucks for the restaurant and the town but, "the price of food, particularly meat, has risen more than the over-all consumer-price index" Unpopular opinion: But maybe this is fine? In fact after inflation is under control, maybe real meat needs a heavy carbon tax to keep the prices high. We can rebuild the supply chain around fake meats as we slowly switch away. I know this all seems implausible…

fake meats are overly processed, and probably more expensive too. real chicken has far more protein and is better digested than fake meat. from a nutrition standpoint, the real thing is much better.

You know that there are more non-meat foods than just meat-substitutes, right?

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#68

> This year, Tyson Foods, the country’s largest meat processor, saw its first-quarter profits nearly double. Meanwhile, all over Texas, barbecue places have shut their doors: Two Sawers BBQ, in Floresville; 1836 BBQ, in New Braunfels; Brisket Bar-BQ, in Bellaire. Kinda curious what the long term plan is here for Tyson -- just sell directly to customers after all the restaurants have closed, I guess?

Except Tyson’s net income margin is like 7-8%, so ask yourself if Tyson acted as a nonprofit going forward and sold everything at ~7% discount, would that change anything? (Personally I don’t think it would)

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#69
post #23

Generally, this really sucks for the restaurant and the town but, "the price of food, particularly meat, has risen more than the over-all consumer-price index" Unpopular opinion: But maybe this is fine? In fact after inflation is under control, maybe real meat needs a heavy carbon tax to keep the prices high. We can rebuild the supply chain around fake meats as we slowly switch away. I know this all seems implausible…

I know it’s nice to pin it on the cow/meat lobby, but apart from the people who want to sell meat, there are an awful lot of people who want to buy it.

(Off-topic: There is a similar “problem” with guns. It’s nice to claim the NRA as the evil bugbear, but the real issue is the tens of millions of people who want to buy guns.)

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