Live data from Hacker News

The US grocery slowdown is real

bain.com

101–110 of 150 posts

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#101
post #92

Trump put a little orange thumb on the scale by choosing Walmart to be the winner on beef prices. Did they weigh for government interference? https://www.usatoday.com/story/grocery/2026/07/08/walmart-ro...

From your own article: >The Walmart price reductions "looks less like a turning point on food inflation and more like an aggressive summer promotion," David Ortega, a food economist and professor at Michigan State University Also the your claim that "Trump put a little orange thumb on the scale by choosing Walmart to be the winner on beef prices" doesn't make any sense. This isn't the soviet union. The government doe…

Yeah this is just trump taking credit for something that was already planned.

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#102
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By living expenses, you mean rent. You should just say rent. It cuts back on another fig leaf. Rent is the only part of our economy in which money is forcibly taken at gunpoint by someone who never did any work to earn it. The groceries at the grocery store are expensive because of the grocery store's rent, too.

We seemingly have very different experiences with rent. All rent I've paid was agreed upon prior to me being charged it, and guns were never involved. The people I rented from did the work of owning/managing the building and providing it for my use. Maybe this isn't a noble way to earn money, but I found it to be a really useful service, and it seems not dramatically different than most services I pay for (how much i…

Indentured servants agreed to be indentured servants. At gunpoint. It's literally illegal not to pay rent. They will put you in jail if you don't sign a rental contract. Consent under duress is not consent.

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#103
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meat is like $30/lb. What a joke, I see almost no one at the butcher counter in grocery stores anymore.

>Meat is like $30/lb. ??? Maybe if you're buying organic grass fed steaks every day, but chicken/pork is still available for less than $5, especially on sale. Kroger's weekly ad for Dallas, TX shows: 1. beef for $6.97/lb 2. pork for $1.99/lb 3. chicken breasts for $3.99/lb, or organic for $6.99/lb https://www.kroger.com/weeklyad

> 1. beef for $6.97/lb

You'll want to specify what type of beef. The price per pound varies immensely based upon what cut you're getting.

$6.97/lb is a price I can only assume refers to ground beef. Once you start talking about steaks, though, the price climbs rather quickly. Near me, sirloin regularly clocks between $14-16/lb, and NY strip/ribeye at the best of times may go on sale for close to $20/lb, but they also regularly exceed $30/lb.

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#104
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SF Bay Area. I will say that these are not Costco prices or a store where I’d be couponing, but it’s not Whole Foods either. I would love to go to Costco but unfortunately I do not have the space to accommodate the bulk quantities that I’d have to buy and consume.

hi! i live in SF. at trader joe's, these items would be priced at - $5 (bread loaf) + $5 (eggs) + $3 (yogurt) + $2 (onions) + $2 (tomatoes) + $1 (jalapeno) + $3 (parsley) = $21. i'm rounding up on eggs and bread since you might be buying a more expensive variety, and guesstimating parsley because i haven't bought it from trader joe's before. everything else is pulled from my last few shopping trips. if you're spendin…

It seems inflated roughly 40% to prove a point but regardless stuff is still too expensive and I don’t eat meat. Don’t know though yesterday was reading some comments here about people literally saying “$50k income a month in SF and you still can’t buy a house,” stuff like that is ridiculously out of touch.

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#105
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Early studies suggest that GLP-1s may be effective in treating opioid, alcohol and nicotine addiction. Researchers are examining whether the drugs can also help people who are addicted to gambling, sex and shopping, among other things." https://med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2025/04/ozempic-addic...

Yeah - powerful confounder to all the analyses of customer behavior. Even the article itself calls it out - there probably is a good way to segment it, as GLP1 availability is not uniform, some states regulate it more tightly etc.

The only state regulations I can find are whether their state insurance plans cover them.

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#106
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

12% of the adult population. I think it's a good theory.

> In the US today, about 15% of adults have tried GLP-1s, with 7% currently taking them, according to research based on Bain’s proprietary GLP-1 adoption model. Is the 12% from another source?

I got it from this RAND survey. https://glp1newsnow.substack.com/p/how-many-americans-are-ac...

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are you located? I think even NYCs groceries are not that expensive.

SF Bay Area. I will say that these are not Costco prices or a store where I’d be couponing, but it’s not Whole Foods either. I would love to go to Costco but unfortunately I do not have the space to accommodate the bulk quantities that I’d have to buy and consume.

>> Chooses to live in one of the highest cost of living, most expensive areas in the entire country

>> Complains that groceries are expensive

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#108
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Meat is like $30/lb. ??? Maybe if you're buying organic grass fed steaks every day, but chicken/pork is still available for less than $5, especially on sale. Kroger's weekly ad for Dallas, TX shows: 1. beef for $6.97/lb 2. pork for $1.99/lb 3. chicken breasts for $3.99/lb, or organic for $6.99/lb https://www.kroger.com/weeklyad

> 1. beef for $6.97/lb You'll want to specify what type of beef. The price per pound varies immensely based upon what cut you're getting. $6.97/lb is a price I can only assume refers to ground beef. Once you start talking about steaks, though, the price climbs rather quickly. Near me, sirloin regularly clocks between $14-16/lb, and NY strip/ribeye at the best of times may go on sale for close to $20/lb, but they also…

I get ribeye pretty regularly for $10/lb on sale in South Carolina. But, yeah. Normally it’s $15/lb here. Not something I’d be eating regularly.

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#109
post #60

Journalist Alfred Henry Lewis said over a century ago that civilization is only 9 meals away from anarchy. I fear in the coming years we are going to be testing that theory. Another quote that springs to mind is "Corporations behave like they're annoyed that they have to go through you to get to your money". The pandemic was a catalyst for a change in attitude by American corporations who were afraid to raise prices.…

Imagine how expensive it’s going to be for the world to help Russia if it collapses.

Depends. Russia has a lot of natural resources and some good land. I imagine the world will take its cut as a return on whatever help we render.

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#110
post #80

Consumers have been optimizing for convenience over being value shoppers. Grocery prices at Aldi, Walmart, Costco are amazingly low, especially when accounting for the freshness, quality, and variety of foods today vs. 30 years ago.

Although we are right in the middle of a cyclospora outbreak.
Post reply on HN