The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas • Hacker News Board

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

#171

Post by maneesh » Fri, Jul 22, 2022, 1:06 PM UTC

chomp wrote: post #66

nostromo wrote: post #51

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 thin…

You could almost elect Walter Mondale with this amount of cherry-picked data

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

#172

Post by Semaphor » Fri, Jul 22, 2022, 1:10 PM UTC

nostromo wrote: post #51

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’ve just done that with a selection of products I commonly buy (Germany). 2021 is January till March, 2022 is from July.

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

Rather painful to see, no idea what happened to Almonds though, maybe they were extra expensive in 2021. I skipped both cauliflower and celery sticks because prices fluctuate wildly for both. I left out meat as well, but ground beef almost doubled in price.

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

#173

Post by amanaplanacanal » Fri, Jul 22, 2022, 1:10 PM UTC

spywaregorilla wrote: post #162

jason-phillips wrote: post #83

For context, I live in San Saba and Lampasas, TX. San Saba is located two hours northwest of Austin where the population density is three people per square mile. While there is truth to the story about inflation hitting rural, poorer areas the hardest, this gentleman's quotes are a but of a stretch. > Brisket went from one sixty-nine a pound to seven Brisket has not been $1.69 for years, unless this gentleman has som…

> Absolutely, inflation hurts. For example, I know that small town governments who provide the critical infrastructure for their communities drive the equivalent of an F150 and the increase in gas prices strains city budgets, which may only be $1M per annum. Will they get by? Absolutely, because self-reliance is baked into their existence, the community rallies and supports its own, or they couldn't continue to live…

People have been migrating from rural to urban areas for hundreds of years. That has little to do with inflation.

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

#174

Post by spywaregorilla » Fri, Jul 22, 2022, 1:15 PM UTC

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #173

spywaregorilla wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Absolutely, inflation hurts. For example, I know that small town governments who provide the critical infrastructure for their communities drive the equivalent of an F150 and the increase in gas prices strains city budgets, which may only be $1M per annum. Will they get by? Absolutely, because self-reliance is baked into their existence, the community rallies and supports its own, or they couldn't continue to live…

People have been migrating from rural to urban areas for hundreds of years. That has little to do with inflation.

It has to do with economic pressures which make rural living harder and urban living easier. Inflation is one of those pressures.

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

#175

Post by lotsofpulp » Fri, Jul 22, 2022, 1:15 PM UTC

nonameiguess wrote: post #145

nostromo wrote: post #51

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=...

Thanks to buying almost everything from Amazon, I get a nice record of exactly how much I spent and can compare to the price being offered today, so I'm going to do that. I'm just going to go to 2020 and see what I can find: - Topo Chico 24 pack of 12 oz glass bottles: then $20.99, now not available (damn shame because it's my wife's favorite drink, but these seemed to disappear in the pandemic and never came back) -…

All of the price changes in my retail purchases are meaningless when compared to price increases in land, healthcare, education, and taxes since I started working in mid 2000s for the location I lived / wanted to live in.

Daycare has more than doubled, $20k+/year increase for 2 kids, land is hundreds of thousands more. How much price changes have affected you are very dependent on what resources you were/are aiming to buy and who you are competing against to secure it.

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

#176

Post by memcg » Fri, Jul 22, 2022, 1:23 PM UTC

buescher wrote: post #167

My barber just raised his price 25% for the first time in the 11 years I've been going to him. There's some sticktion to prices that's breaking free with the inflation we're seeing. I like to look at the USDA retail price surveys for meat: https://www.ams.usda.gov/market-news/retail Chicken prices are all over the map right now - wings are down from last year, as are bagged leg quarters. Boneless chicken breasts have…

Thanks for the link.

My consumption of beef and pork (Washington DC area) has increased since Covid began. Over the last decade, my grocery stores have moved from in-house butchers to regional processors, or better yet, vacuum sealed products. These products are clean and easier to freeze without repacking.

I have purchased at least more than 100 lbs of cooked, vacuum sealed beef brisket for $8-10 lb in the last year alone. The quality is consistently better than my local BBQ joint.

My approach is to compare and shop, not just buy.

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

#177

Post by amanaplanacanal » Fri, Jul 22, 2022, 1:26 PM UTC

rafaelero wrote: post #36

ch4s3 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Red meat consumption has been declining in the US since the early 2000s and more people than ever are vegetarians. I think it's time to update the trope about the "Western" diet.

Vegetable consumption is still very low. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/vegetable-consumption-per...

Can’t replace meat consumption with vegetable consumption. Not enough calories. If you are giving up meat, you are replacing it with grains and legumes.

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

#178

Post by lotsofpulp » Fri, Jul 22, 2022, 1:28 PM UTC

pottertheotter wrote: post #73

imgabe wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's misleading to talk about profits purely in absolute terms. The profit margin could stay the same while the absolute number doubles. If you make $10 profit on $100 revenue one year (a 10% margin) and $20 profit on $200 revenue the next year (still a 10% margin), profits "doubled" but the profit margin stayed the same. When you add in the inflation and the fact that the $20 this year is not worth as much as $20 wa…

It's a public company so no need to say it's misleading and hypothesize. Q1 sales up 23.6% (volume +0.3%, so all price), NI up 140.0%, and net margin up 94.1%.

Source for the numbers? The only relevant one is profit margin, which is up 0.43%, which is not material.

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/TSN/tyson-foods/pr...

Dec 2021 profit margin - 7.47%

Mar 2022 profit margin - 7.90%

Dec 2021 net income (profit)- $1.121B

Mar 2022 net income (profit) - $829B

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

#179

Post by typon » Fri, Jul 22, 2022, 1:29 PM UTC

This is what happens when leftist politicians run your state

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

#180

Post by catchnear4321 » Fri, Jul 22, 2022, 1:32 PM UTC

ceeplusplus wrote: post #50

InefficientRed wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but someone loses, and in this case the loser is the local restaurant that doesn't appear to have much pricing power.

Just means the restaurant wasn't very good to begin with. Chipotle, McD's, etc. have all raised prices nationally, and they operate in what has to be the most price sensitive market possible. I know the good restaurants in my area have doubled prices and people keep coming because they're the best. Rising prices differentiate the good businesses from the bad.

You are talking about a fundamentally different situation than the article, and than a lot of areas face. “The good restaurants in my area.” That implies a much larger selection than the typical small town, where there’s likely a McD’s but not a chipotle.

And as was already stated, the buying power in these towns tends to also be lower, maybe fluctuating due to tourists but nowhere near a city’s average. Your “people keep coming” and “doubled prices”comment suggests a much higher level of disposable income.

And throwing out corporate chains as part of this? The franchises are just tiny pieces of the whole. There’s a whole massive machine watching each limb, supplying it, and sometimes amputating it. Which, yet again, compare that to a mom and pop, it is nowhere near the same.

If you haven’t been to a small town, you should visit a few. Your disposable income would be welcome in a lot of great restaurants that are still struggling. A lot of not so great ones as well.