Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation • Hacker News Board

Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#21

Post by stevenwoo » Fri, Dec 22, 2023, 1:13 AM UTC

burningChrome wrote: post #16

xnx wrote: post #8

This soft landing will be viewed as one of the greatest economic achievements in history.

"soft landing" After three years of constant inflation and shrinkflation on the majority of products you buy? - a family size of cookies used to be 17.2oz, its now 14.6oz for the same price - laundry detergent scent enhancer - 13oz to 10oz and increased in price - a pack of frozen burritos went from 20 items to 18 for the same price - baby wipes in a smaller sized package and they increased in price - OJ went from a…

I picked up some staples today and for some items prices almost doubled even at Costco and the price is stuck there now, the three pack of half gallon lactate free milk and two dozen white eggs.

Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#22

Post by bryanlarsen » Fri, Dec 22, 2023, 1:15 AM UTC

burningChrome wrote: post #16

xnx wrote: post #8

This soft landing will be viewed as one of the greatest economic achievements in history.

"soft landing" After three years of constant inflation and shrinkflation on the majority of products you buy? - a family size of cookies used to be 17.2oz, its now 14.6oz for the same price - laundry detergent scent enhancer - 13oz to 10oz and increased in price - a pack of frozen burritos went from 20 items to 18 for the same price - baby wipes in a smaller sized package and they increased in price - OJ went from a…

I saw predictions of >10% unemployment, stock market down 50%, GDP contraction of 10%, etc.

Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#23

Post by jwtorres » Fri, Dec 22, 2023, 1:17 AM UTC

JaceLightning wrote: post #10

You know, they use food prices to calculate inflation...

They also use fuel, rent, and a bunch of other things. So I think it's valid to compare the two.

Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#24

Post by fshbbdssbbgdd » Fri, Dec 22, 2023, 1:24 AM UTC

burningChrome wrote: post #16

xnx wrote: post #8

This soft landing will be viewed as one of the greatest economic achievements in history.

"soft landing" After three years of constant inflation and shrinkflation on the majority of products you buy? - a family size of cookies used to be 17.2oz, its now 14.6oz for the same price - laundry detergent scent enhancer - 13oz to 10oz and increased in price - a pack of frozen burritos went from 20 items to 18 for the same price - baby wipes in a smaller sized package and they increased in price - OJ went from a…

I don’t know exactly what 3 year span your refer to, but the median wage increased 15% from Q1 2020 to Q1 2023.

Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#25

Post by adastra22 » Fri, Dec 22, 2023, 1:24 AM UTC

killingtime74 wrote: post #14

tekla wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to guess you didn't read your own sources > The raw death count gives us a sense of scale: for example, the US suffered roughly 470,000 excess deaths in 2020, compared to 352,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths during that year. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home Total Deaths 1,159,864 That roughly tracks.

However that two years of excess mortality is still less than one year of population growth. How do you answer that

Excess deaths.

Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#26

Post by EricDeb » Fri, Dec 22, 2023, 1:27 AM UTC

It's really housing that needs the fix and I dont think they have a solution to that one

Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#27

Post by hervature » Fri, Dec 22, 2023, 1:34 AM UTC

burningChrome wrote: post #16

xnx wrote: post #8

This soft landing will be viewed as one of the greatest economic achievements in history.

"soft landing" After three years of constant inflation and shrinkflation on the majority of products you buy? - a family size of cookies used to be 17.2oz, its now 14.6oz for the same price - laundry detergent scent enhancer - 13oz to 10oz and increased in price - a pack of frozen burritos went from 20 items to 18 for the same price - baby wipes in a smaller sized package and they increased in price - OJ went from a…

CPI adjusts prices on a per weight or per volume basis. Shrinkflation is definitely captured in the official metrics. The hidden inflation is in the service industry where it is impossible to capture whether or not your dentist gives you a toothbrush now or not. Or if you get a free smile with your Big Mac. This is what I call skimpflation but I think some people use it interchangeably with shrinkflation. Inflation is also always "constant" in the sense that the government wants to target a constant 2% inflation rate. I think you meant to say "constantly high".

Regardless, I agree with your sentiment that inflation is still above the 2% target and may prove to be sticky as incomes need to rise to meet the inflation we saw over the past 3 years. My prediction is that we'll be at 5% rates plus quantitative tightening for at least another full year. If they start doing rate cuts, I think we'll start going above 3% inflation and then the Fed has the tough job of taking the fruit punch bowl away from a market which thinks the party is just getting started. Going into an election year, that becomes politically difficult regardless of what they do.

Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#28

Post by vondur » Fri, Dec 22, 2023, 1:39 AM UTC

bhpm wrote: post #3

hnbad wrote: post #2

It's interesting that the article is quick to blame "increased labor costs" and low unemployment (???) for the price hikes but then doesn't explain why prices for some items actually went down again. Meanwhile overall wages don't seem to track inflation. It reads like some businesses had to increase wages to retain employees but this doesn't seem to be causative as these employees were asking for higher wages because…

It’s so weird to me that the labor story seems to leave out that 1m people died in the pandemic and also the largest generation in history is retiring.

I was under the assumption that the majority of people dying were at the 50+ age range. So not as many people that were employed.

Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#29

Post by dxbydt » Fri, Dec 22, 2023, 1:42 AM UTC

burningChrome wrote: post #16

xnx wrote: post #8

This soft landing will be viewed as one of the greatest economic achievements in history.

"soft landing" After three years of constant inflation and shrinkflation on the majority of products you buy? - a family size of cookies used to be 17.2oz, its now 14.6oz for the same price - laundry detergent scent enhancer - 13oz to 10oz and increased in price - a pack of frozen burritos went from 20 items to 18 for the same price - baby wipes in a smaller sized package and they increased in price - OJ went from a…

Am not into expensive things, but I do enjoy a pack of jarlsberg with smoked salmon once a week. Before the pandemic, I splurged $20 for a satisfying portion of both. But nowadays the portion size has gotten really small for the same price :(

Re: Food price hikes are no longer outpacing overall inflation

#30

Post by swells34 » Fri, Dec 22, 2023, 1:42 AM UTC

EricDeb wrote: post #26

It's really housing that needs the fix and I dont think they have a solution to that one

There is a bill in the works right now to keep mutual funds and similar from just scooping up every house they can for rent, I imagine there are very few actions that could make more of a difference.