I'm in a blue state. Honestly other than core maskers re-emerging not much has changed except pricing on some things. Was in the nearby "big city" over the weekend and unmasked to masked ratio was 90:10 by eyeball tally.
Eggs; just bought a dozen at Aldi well under $3. Ground beef biggest change so we wait for the next sale and deal hop (Aldi, Trader Joe's, Target, regional chain discount store, and regional chain market). If you aren't hitting multiple stores and surfing their sales you will get hosed at the register.
Most noticeable price increases are junk food: chips, cookies, sugared cereal, etc. Some of them just make me laugh. We don't buy much anyway and aren't buying it at all now. Box of plain shredded wheat branded cereal $6+ (near $7 for frosted). Plain store brand though at $2.49, tastes the same. Plain oatmeal went up $1 which is ~30% increase but a 42 oz. container takes a month or more to plow thru so that isn't felt.
Biggest surprise is produce, not much change. Prices high on hot house stuff but they always are in winter. Bagged lettuce, spinach, & mixed greens up 30%. Everything else, cheap. Onions & potatoes, no change. Some specialty fruit/berries you definitely have to check around on price. Bought a pint of blueberries at Aldi for $1.79 a few weeks back. In other stores they were $4.49, perfect example why you deal hop.
It is laughable indeed. All these companies wanted to play covid and believe that I am going to pay 3x for something that I never needed now, when the reality is the rest of my life is going to be spent helping them all lose money.
This should be a top rated comment. If ~80 million of us curtailed our buying habits for 2 weeks we could bring everything to a dead stop. It's all based on consumption so just stop doing it.
We hit it weekly. Last year one week they had eggs at $0.55/12! Every week they have a loss leader on sale so I usually go there first. That item will always be something already on our list. This is just the way we do it, you'll figure out your own system.
Re: Food Cost
I'm in a blue state. Honestly other than core maskers re-emerging not much has changed except pricing on some things. Was in the nearby "big city" over the weekend and unmasked to masked ratio was 90:10 by eyeball tally.
Eggs; just bought a dozen at Aldi well under $3. Ground beef biggest change so we wait for the next sale and deal hop (Aldi, Trader Joe's, Target, regional chain discount store, and regional chain market). If you aren't hitting multiple stores and surfing their sales you will get hosed at the register.
Most noticeable price increases are junk food: chips, cookies, sugared cereal, etc. Some of them just make me laugh. We don't buy much anyway and aren't buying it at all now. Box of plain shredded wheat branded cereal $6+ (near $7 for frosted). Plain store brand though at $2.49, tastes the same. Plain oatmeal went up $1 which is ~30% increase but a 42 oz. container takes a month or more to plow thru so that isn't felt.
Biggest surprise is produce, not much change. Prices high on hot house stuff but they always are in winter. Bagged lettuce, spinach, & mixed greens up 30%. Everything else, cheap. Onions & potatoes, no change. Some specialty fruit/berries you definitely have to check around on price. Bought a pint of blueberries at Aldi for $1.79 a few weeks back. In other stores they were $4.49, perfect example why you deal hop.
It is laughable indeed. All these companies wanted to play covid and believe that I am going to pay 3x for something that I never needed now, when the reality is the rest of my life is going to be spent helping them all lose money.
^^^Nailed it!
This should be a top rated comment. If ~80 million of us curtailed our buying habits for 2 weeks we could bring everything to a dead stop. It's all based on consumption so just stop doing it.
Thanks for the tips, we just got an Aldi in our town, I’ll try it now.
We hit it weekly. Last year one week they had eggs at $0.55/12! Every week they have a loss leader on sale so I usually go there first. That item will always be something already on our list. This is just the way we do it, you'll figure out your own system.