Anonymous wrote:Trump! MAGAs must be so proud.

Anonymous wrote:Agree. A few years ago we used to be a $300/week family and could do mostly organic for that, and now we’re at $450 for the same stuff.

Crackers (which I don’t really buy, but noticed) are $6/box. Bread is $8/loaf. Eggs are $12 for a dozen. We pay $8-$9 for half a gallon of organic milk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just got back from my weekly grocery trip at the Giant in Potomac Yard. A bag of Stacy's pita chips was $11. Conventional Giant brand baby carrots were $3. Radishes were $3 a bunch. A case of garbage domestic lager (Coors, Miller) is THIRTY DOLLARS. I lived on $30 a week in college in the late 90s.

Two years ago, the chips were $6, and the carrots and radishes were routinely $0.99.

What the hell is actually going on? Where is the money going?

NYT reporting today that beer at home is up 3% just in the last year and beer at restaurants/bars is up 3.5%.

Anonymous wrote:I just got back from my weekly grocery trip at the Giant in Potomac Yard. A bag of Stacy's pita chips was $11. Conventional Giant brand baby carrots were $3. Radishes were $3 a bunch. A case of garbage domestic lager (Coors, Miller) is THIRTY DOLLARS. I lived on $30 a week in college in the late 90s.

Two years ago, the chips were $6, and the carrots and radishes were routinely $0.99.

What the hell is actually going on? Where is the money going?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you mitigate the rising prices by shopping at Aldi or some other discount store, looking for sales, going off brand, buying in bulk? Yes of course. But the whole point is if you have to do any or all of these to get back to prices you thought were reasonable a couple of years ago, the prices are overall up.

Yes, I can get cheaper bread or meat or orange juice or whatever else if I go to Aldi or buy a no name brand, but just a few years back I didn’t have to do that to spend a reasonable amount on groceries.

And of course, it all ignores the fact that most of DCUM can take the hit in prices or, at worst, do the shopping hacks to bring prices down a bit. But the bulk of the world outside of DCUM already shopped for sales, off brand, discount grocers etc. So they don’t have a lower tier to go down to.

+1. Well put.

Anonymous wrote:Can you mitigate the rising prices by shopping at Aldi or some other discount store, looking for sales, going off brand, buying in bulk? Yes of course. But the whole point is if you have to do any or all of these to get back to prices you thought were reasonable a couple of years ago, the prices are overall up.

Yes, I can get cheaper bread or meat or orange juice or whatever else if I go to Aldi or buy a no name brand, but just a few years back I didn’t have to do that to spend a reasonable amount on groceries.

And of course, it all ignores the fact that most of DCUM can take the hit in prices or, at worst, do the shopping hacks to bring prices down a bit. But the bulk of the world outside of DCUM already shopped for sales, off brand, discount grocers etc. So they don’t have a lower tier to go down to.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes a lot of things are so ludicrously priced I just no longer buy them. A box of entenmann’s donuts at Harris Teeter was $8. At a certain point you can’t justify spending $8-$10 an item on nutritionally void things like donuts or pita chips.

I did try Aldi for awhile but in all honesty some of the swaps are not worth it. The coffee was terrible and not strong enough, I felt like I was brewing tree bark. The cheese tastes like nothing. I’d buy blocks of cheddar to shred for things like tacos and chili and the cheddar had zero flavor, it was just like rubber. So unfortunately even though it’s less expensive it’s still sometimes not the better option. I will say things like chips and crackers and chocolate are worth getting there though.

I'm a big fan of Aldi but I echo your statements. The coffee, while cheap, is sub standard. They used to have a wide selection of whole beans but not anymore. The cheese is a real mystery. No flavor at all. But, that authentic, dark German chocolate is pretty awesome.