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U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

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Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#121

Post by yoyohello13 »

SoftTalker wrote: post #25
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes Americans are rich and are also very busy. Life seems to push so fast that I know a lot of people buy food away from home due to a sense that they don’t have time to cook. There must be rich individuals in other cultures who still eat at home because they have more freedom to take the time to do so. Americans on a global scale are rich but I expect that living expenses are so high too that many people who often e…

Eating at home takes less time than eating out. Maybe about the same if you include washing up and putting everything away. Getting prepared food via DoorDash, I guess might be quicker, but you're still sitting there for 30-60 minutes in most cases waiting for it to show up. You can roast a chicken and vegetables in the oven in that time.

What kind of food are you preparing? It takes 5mins to order DoorDash. It takes minimum 20-30mins to prepare and clean up after an average meal.

Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#122

Post by bequanna »

laidoffamazon wrote: post #79
bequanna wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compare food and housing costs vs earnings now and what they were 5 years ago. In reality, you don’t have to. You know that even if you have been getting a raise at work it is nowhere near what real inflation has been. This is objective reality. The economy is shitty for most.

Real disposable personal incomes are up from 5 years ago. The spike in 2020 was because of a flood of government money and all of the low wage workers being ejected from the workforce. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DSPIC96 The economy being fine to good is literally the only evidence available. Nobody is acting or voting like the economy is actually bad. We're seeing revealed preferences in action.

“Real disposable incomes” <- this is based on an inflation measuring methodology that intentionally under measures inflation

Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#123

Post by conjecTech »

edmundsauto wrote: post #119
conjecTech wrote: post #88

I have been fascinated by the price of oats recently. The 8lb box of oats I have been buying from Amazon for several years suddenly went from $15 to $32 in July. Paying $4/lb for grain feels excessive given that meat is cheaper than that in most of the country. I went looking for an explanation expecting there to been some huge crop loss, but found oat future prices have been relatively stable at around $0.15/lb. I l…

This may be due to how Amazon's "stock" works. Was it for sale by Amazon or a 3rd party? I have a(n unsupported) theory that gung-ho retailers try out amazon from time to time, in an effort to expand. Maybe they hire someone who knows how to sell there. They price based on how they do in store, then after a few months do a reconciliation and realize how much money they lose due to amazon's ads/stocking/shipping costs…

Its sold by amazon.

Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#124

Post by yoyohello13 »

laidoffamazon wrote: post #68
QuarterReptile wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as those are your only (or dominating) objectives.

Those are the objectives of everyone, or at least they were until a Democrat was in office. Now we're being told low interest rates are the dominating objective of having a good economy, even though they're lower than when my parents bought their first and only house in 1994 and lower than they were during the dot-com bubble.

Yeah we wouldn't want stupid measurements like 'happiness' and 'stress' to get in the way of GDP.

Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#125

Post by conjecTech »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #117
conjecTech wrote: post #88

I have been fascinated by the price of oats recently. The 8lb box of oats I have been buying from Amazon for several years suddenly went from $15 to $32 in July. Paying $4/lb for grain feels excessive given that meat is cheaper than that in most of the country. I went looking for an explanation expecting there to been some huge crop loss, but found oat future prices have been relatively stable at around $0.15/lb. I l…

Amazon pricing is not a reliable source of changes in cost of goods sold, especially if not shipped and sold by Amazon. Plus you are pricing in home delivery. I would use a retailer known to keep margins as low as possible like Costco as a better gauge. I buy rolled oats all the time, and between Costco and Trader Joe’s, I have not noticed any pricing swings in oats.

Agreed Amazon isnt the most reliable, but as I said, I corroborated this at a few other stores. Costco generally has fixed markups for its products (15%), as does Trader Joes. The fact that you haven't seen price fluctuations there aligns with my conclusion that the price volatility isnt being driven by increases in the cost of goods, but rather retailers who think they can trying to increase margins.

Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#126

Post by conjecTech »

dcchambers wrote: post #106
conjecTech wrote: post #88

I have been fascinated by the price of oats recently. The 8lb box of oats I have been buying from Amazon for several years suddenly went from $15 to $32 in July. Paying $4/lb for grain feels excessive given that meat is cheaper than that in most of the country. I went looking for an explanation expecting there to been some huge crop loss, but found oat future prices have been relatively stable at around $0.15/lb. I l…

It also doesn't really make any sense to buy a cheap pantry staple or cereal grain like oats online and have it shipped to you. The base product is so cheap but it's heavy so traditional consumer shipping is expensive (and wasteful/bad for the environment). There's a very good chance much of that price increase is due to increase cost of shipping. Even if Amazon gives you "free" shipping - they're building that price…

Deliveries of any reasonable size reduce vehicle miles travelled for goods. If a delivery driver can do 50 deliveries in a 10 mile route, that is much, much better than each one of those people driving to the store and back. I live in Brooklyn and Amazon has a grocery logistics hub less 5 miles from me. My carbon footprint is just fine.

Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#127

Post by claytonjy »

waythenewsgoes wrote: post #63
claytonjy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't age-adjusted homeownership rates roughly the same for millennials as it was for baby boomers? I won't argue that it's harder and more expensive, it sure is, but millennials seem to prioritize it enough to do whatever it takes to own a home, so home prices keep going up.

Not to flame but this is a very mis-informed opinion. Multiple sources[1][2] show that millennial homeownership rates when adjusted for age are lower across the board. Some highlights from these sources: [1] Today the millennial homeownership rate is 43 percent, well below the rates of generation X (67 percent) and the baby boomer and silent generations (77 percent). An important feature of millennial homeownership t…

I appreciate the pushback and the links!

The third chart in the apartment list link ("Homeownership has been in decline for decades") is exactly the plot I wanted. That chart makes the gap not look so dramatic as either your numbers or the paragraphs surrounding the chart: millennials are within 10% of the boomers at the same age. For the youngest and oldest millenials it's more like 5%.

I'm curious how this has changed since the article's publishing in 2020. Anecdotally, I know a lot of millennials who bought their first home since, but I don't know how widespread that is.

I think some amount of gap is reasonable, especially for the 20s cohort: less likely to have kids, more likely to want to live in a big dense city. Looks like millenials are closing the gap once they hit mid 30s or so, right around when they have their first or second kid and move to the burbs or further. I just can't see being worried or upset about that.

Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#128

Post by paxys »

vikingerik wrote: post #111
paxys wrote: post #38

> Real total food spending increased 11.4 percent in 2021 and 3.4 percent in 2022, driven by higher FAFH spending (up 19 percent in 2021 and 8 percent in 2022). Real FAH spending increased by 4 percent in 2021 but decreased by 2 percent in 2022. FAH = food at home FAFH = food away from home So, eating out is killing our wallets. Not really a surprise considering "dollar menu" items at McDonalds now cost $6 and a half…

One detail here: Up 19 percent in 2021 - remember that any number from that year is comparing to the low baseline from the pandemic shutdowns in 2020, so the real effect isn't as big as it looks from that. To see the real numbers, look at the annualized differential between 2019 and 2023.

Yes the percentages are wonky because of COVID but that doesn't change the fact that the absolute, inflation-adjusted number is the highest it has ever been.

Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#129

Post by tayo42 »

soperj wrote: post #89
tayo42 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easier then ever to learn to cook. Go on YouTube

What are you having for dinner tonight?

Not sure, I have some left over ground beef from making burgers earlier in the week, (sub the bread with lettuce) either Dan Dan noodles from a Chinese cookbook I have, or burrito bowls.

Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#130

Post by lightbritefight »

crazygringo wrote: post #78
paxys wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is meaningless when they can move items in and out of the menu as they please. The McChicken sandwich was a dollar menu staple ~10 years ago. I just checked the nearest McDonalds and it now costs $4.70.

All I said was don't exaggerate. The $6 is going too far. McChicken is $3.19 on my $1 $2 $3 menu, and my location is an expensive one. Some stuff has gone 3x. More stuff has gone 1.5x or 2x. Nothing at McD's has gone up 6x in the past twenty years.

His example of the McChicken increased from $1 to $4.70 in 10 years.

That's a 4.7x increase, which is close enough to 6x in colloquial conversation to convey the same point.

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