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The US grocery slowdown is real

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111–120 of 150 posts

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#111

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.

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

Bay Area was the highest cost of living areas in 2022 as well. You seemed to have missed the point.

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#112
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything costs too much. I went to the grocery store yesterday I spent $50 to get a packet of bread, a dozen eggs, two yogurts, two yellow onions, a jalapeno, two tomatoes and a bunch of parsley. This covers breakfast for 2 days for my partner and I. In 2022, $150 would fetch the entire week’s groceries for the two of us. We are paying more, while having to change what we eat with cheaper/unhealthier options. Other…

I feel like some of that is maybe shopping at the wrong place. Which the article I guess covers by saying people are addressing by changing retailers to save money. Where I am in the US, you can get a dozen eggs for ~$2 at Walmart. A loaf of bread with 22 slices is like $2 to $6 depending on store brand vs name brand. The canned refried beans I buy are still $1.30 to $1.50 for 4-5 servings. Some stuff is way too expe…

When you have to start shopping down market because you can't afford your normal store that is an indicator that you have less buying power now.

Saying 'everything is fine, you just have to shop down market, you can no longer afford your normal store, you need to go to the poorest store now because you are poor now' is just rephrasing what is being said.

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#113
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…

I don’t have a Trader Joe’s around me. Sure I drive 20 mins away to one and then spend another hour going to a different place to shop for all the things Trader Joe’s doesn’t have, then yeah I could get things for cheaper. But that’s the point. You didn't need to do this a few years ago and now you do.

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#114
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything costs too much. I went to the grocery store yesterday I spent $50 to get a packet of bread, a dozen eggs, two yogurts, two yellow onions, a jalapeno, two tomatoes and a bunch of parsley. This covers breakfast for 2 days for my partner and I. In 2022, $150 would fetch the entire week’s groceries for the two of us. We are paying more, while having to change what we eat with cheaper/unhealthier options. Other…

I feel like some of that is maybe shopping at the wrong place. Which the article I guess covers by saying people are addressing by changing retailers to save money. Where I am in the US, you can get a dozen eggs for ~$2 at Walmart. A loaf of bread with 22 slices is like $2 to $6 depending on store brand vs name brand. The canned refried beans I buy are still $1.30 to $1.50 for 4-5 servings. Some stuff is way too expe…

I don’t have Walmart to go to but I do have a Costco. But like I mentioned in a different comment, I can’t do normal groceries there because of the space I have + how much I can consume before it all goes bad. I still shop for a lot of things at Costco, but the point I was trying to make was comparing my same exact situation from 4 years ago to today.

The article points to shopping around and buying cheaper brands to make it work. But that’s the point, you didn’t have to do it, but now you do because things are too expensive.

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#115
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Some people think society owes them.

Yes, society owes a social contract where if you work you can afford to live and have a roof over your head, food to eat, and clothes that aren't Temu plastic rags of worse quality than dystopian sci-fi fiction 'clothes issued to people on basic'.

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is hyperbolicly dramatic. Nobody will put you in jail of you don't sign a contract. And if you don't pay rent it's a beach of contract and civil matter. It can be very hard to force people to pay rent if they're not paying. All you can do is kick them out, eventually ,there is no jail.

Your dramatic post makes it seem like the cops can kick down your door to get rent. That's simply not true.

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#117
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is hyperbolicly dramatic. Nobody will put you in jail of you don't sign a contract. And if you don't pay rent it's a beach of contract and civil matter. It can be very hard to force people to pay rent if they're not paying. All you can do is kick them out, eventually ,there is no jail. Your dramatic post makes it seem like the cops can kick down your door to get rent. That's simply not true.

But it is true, from a certain perspective.

You're either homeless or you have a domicile somehow. So, many people enter into leases or rental agreements. Then they pay rent to maintain that home.

If you don't pay rent, you don't get arrested, but the constable is actually a law enforcement officer, and the constable is the #1 official who is involved in evictions, so yes, they will "kick down your door" to dislodge you from a place where you haven't paid rent.

And then what do you do, when you're homeless and on the streets? In most urban centers, it's illegal to sleep outdoors or trespass ("urban camping" laws), and so the homeless are often subject to arrest or sanctions because of the nature of their plight.

So the only logical response here is to get housed, pay rent, and keep paying, just to stay on the legal side of things. Ask me how I know.

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#119
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…

$5 a loaf of bread is truly diabolical.

Re: The US grocery slowdown is real

#120
post #81

They should just lead with people don't have any money to buy things because wages aren't increasing to match living expenses. It cuts back some of the fig leaves

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.

Walmart groceries have also gotten more expensive and Walmart owns the land that the vast majority of its stores are on.
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