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Eggspensive

eggspensive.net

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Re: Eggspensive

#111

Post by 83 »

jonathanstrange wrote: post #12
jaqalopes wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is for Walmarts only per the info page. There must be a way to scrape that from their online grocery shopping website even without an api.

Naive as I am (& not living in the US), I've always thought these supermarket chains have uniform pricing and that's one reason why they're so popular.

I would be shocked if Walmart hasn't done the research to determine how high they can raise prices in a given area before people venture further out or to competitors. I'd be willing to bet affluence of area and distance to alternatives are significant factors in the pricing algorithm.

Re: Eggspensive

#112

Post by 93po »

jjeaff wrote: post #88
93po wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US government has extremely strong incentives to report inflation as low as possible, so it's likely less about "thinking" we're at negative and more that they pick and choose data to show it intentionally.

They have very specific baskets of goods and methodologies that they publish details on when changed. And it is done by an independent groups of government employees with lots of eyes, both public and private looking at every detail of what they do. I don't think they are simply cherry picking data.

There are a ton of issues with the official CPI numbers that none of this accounts for and even the BLS admits to in a limited extent. It doesn't account for people buying less expensive substitutes when items get expensive, it only includes "staples" despite consumers potentially spend a ton on newer items, it doesn't account for quality changes of items, it has an undue weight on urban areas, doesn't account for shrinkflation or other hidden forms of inflation, and lots of others.

The BLS isn't independent. The commissioner is hand picked by the senate, and it's currently someone who's very deeply rooted in establishment politics and has close connections to the Koch family, the fossil fuel industry, and Trump.

Re: Eggspensive

#113

Post by rootusrootus »

stuporglue wrote: post #70
samstave wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May you please give some price comparisons for fairly similar items youll find in germany vs us (grocery or otherwise) - lets not talk about healthcare and bribing politicians :-) - Since I am "posting too fast (thanks @Dang), Ill post my replies in this edit: @StuporGlue ; >> "Yeah, almost all of those prices are lower than in the US.... I think a gallon of milk is about $4.99 or $5.99 (usually ~$1+ higher if we are…

I'm in a suburb of Cologne right now. Looking on PicNic, an online grocery delivery service I see: Medium Eggs: €2.29 for a 10 pack (US$2.92/dozen) Whole HTT: (heat treated) box milk: €1.15/liter (US$4.46/gallon) Gala Apples: €2.35/kilo (US$1.09/pound) Unsalted Butter: €7.96/kg (US$3.69/pound) I usually save a little bit by going to Aldi or another discount grocery, but this is very close to shelf price for the non-d…

For comparison, at my local (Oregon) non-fancy (Kroger) grocery:

- dozen large eggs, $2.89

- shelf stable box milk, $19.28 [0]

- regular milk, $3.29/gal

- gala apples, $1.99/lb

- unsalted butter, $4.29/lb

[0] Shelf stable milk is more of a specialty item here, not an everyday staple for most people. Evaporated milk is more common, still about $1.50/can (12 oz). I'm not familiar with the term HTT so maybe I'm misunderstanding. All our milk is pasteurized.

Re: Eggspensive

#114

Post by flyingcircus3 »

NDizzle wrote: post #80
mtoner23 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol, they have armies of statisticians working on this stuff. its probably better than this person's side project website scraper.

I wish I could go back in time about 40 years, where I had the same faith in government that you have currently. (I'm age 43 at the moment)

[flagged]

Re: Eggspensive

#116

Post by rootusrootus »

jluxenberg wrote: post #107
voisin wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think eggs are expensive, tofu scramble is easily 5x the cost per gram of scrambled eggs!

Tofu scramble might be a little more expensive than egg-based version but 5x seems an exaggerated figure to me. A 14oz package of tofu is probably the equivalent of 4 eggs and costs $2-3. So maybe 1.5x the cost of egg-based version. (Here's a great basic recipe https://www.budgetbytes.com/vegetable-tofu-scramble/ ) Also, if you examine your diet you will probably find that you don't need to replace eggs with tofu 1:1…

> A 14oz package of tofu is probably the equivalent of 4 eggs and costs $2-3. So maybe 1.5x the cost of egg-based version.

I'm paying $2.89 for a dozen eggs, and from what I can tell that's pretty typical across the US. So it's more like 4x.

But, I'm in no danger of going vegan, so that's about all I have to say :).

Re: Eggspensive

#117

Post by hammock »

babypuncher wrote: post #108
hammock wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps not, but if you ordered your groceries online and all it took was a single click to get your eggs for $2.50 instead of $4.00, I wager you would. Ideally you don't even have to click, there is just the option of a click, which in and of itself would create the competitive environment needed to equilibrate the prices

Maybe, but I don't really like grocery delivery. It's expensive, and it will only get worse as all these gig economy companies transition from growing their user base to making a profit. It's already been happening with services like Grubhub. The delivery fees haven't changed much, but most restaurants by me charge 20-30% extra when you order through one of these apps instead of in store. This is to make up for the h…

Yeah I'm thinking two or three steps ahead so you have to have a little vision here. There are other intermediate problems to solve as you point out. On your dislike of grocery delivery, think about what you might have said about touchscreens back in the 90s - and don't come at me with some predictable contrarian "but I hate touchscreens in cars" please :)

Re: Eggspensive

#118

Post by msm_ »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #87
nostrademons wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't there a movie where a coffee exec sardonically talks about plying customers with "legal addictive stimulants"? Caffeine is addictive. There are a lot of caffeine addicts in the U.S. Starbucks sells a menu full of caffeine. That's why people buy from them.

Let’s think critically for a moment. Coffee is cheap to brew at home and it’s usually at the office. You can even take caffeine pills if you wanted to liken it to narcotic addiction. You sure as hell don’t need to go to Starbucks to get your fix, which is the most expensive way to get coffee, so that can’t be the reason people buy from them.

I'm not sure the logic applies. People may be addicted to caffeine, and willing to pay through the nose to get it in a form they like. If they suddenly become poor, they would probably drink instant coffee at home. But they're not.

It's similar to alcohol abuse. Many [0] people addicted to alcohol don't pick the cheapest option possible to get their fix, they go to pubs and bars with their friends if they can afford it.

[0]: I want to say "most people", but I can't find this statistics anywhere, and don't want to present my impressions as facts. So I'll stay on a safe side and just say "many people".

Re: Eggspensive

#119

Post by Dylan16807 »

pessimizer wrote: post #103
algoatecorn wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea seriously. The price increase is inconvenient, but hardly relevant in terms of calories/$. I eat 5-6 eggs each morning with some potatoes (my blood work is great btw, so take it easy armchair dietitians). Dietary cholesterol isn't what most people think. I digress. But that means my at-home breakfast went from: (5 eggs * $0.2) + (1 red potato * $0.20) = $1.20 to (5 eggs * $0.5) + (1 red potato * $0.20 = $2.70 I'l…

Your strange breakfast has increased in price by 150%. If this were happening across meals, that would mean that a family who formerly spent $400 a month on groceries is now spending $1000 a month on groceries. edit: assuming a total 20% tax rate and a $15 minimum wage, that $600 represents 50 additional hours of work a month.

> If this were happening across meals,

Yeah, it would be different if the situation was different.

Re: Eggspensive

#120

Post by Semaphor »

rootusrootus wrote: post #106
Semaphor wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It requires handing over quite some data, but here in Germany, I can get a digital PDF receipt from my main supermarket. There’s a parser on Github [0] that I contributed to (found it when I searched before writing it myself :D), and I use it to track price changes of items I buy. The situation could be a lot better, but at least it gives me some fun graphs. [0]: https://github.com/bietiekay/REWE-eBon-Parser

That's pretty common in the US well. Kroger stores do it, I imagine any store with a membership program is similar. Home Depot does it too, without a membership program, if you give them your email address at POS the first time you use a new card. I'm sure they love the data.

The data also comes with a 10% discount, so I feel fairly paid for it.
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