Thare's inflation and then there's

[Dave's Not Here Man]

$5/dozen for fucking eggs. At Walmart even. I haven't checked Lidl or Aldi but WTAF, Brandon? I was told there was this massive bill passed that had the words inflation and reduction in the title. How's that working out for you and your pocketbook so far?

As far as eggs, I don't even eat the nasty fucking things but cook with them once in a while. She loves as many as she can fitt'n her pie hole but both kids have chickens, so at least she'll have as many as she wants during the warm months fo free free.

[minx]

Supply chain. Isn't that the reason for everything now?

All joking aside, I think food prices are going to skyrocket - during the lockdowns, a lot of animals were put down because there was no way to get them to market, or get feed easily. Now we're seeing the repercussions, as the backlog of supplies has run out.

But $5/dozen is cheep - Publix had them at over $8/dozen on Monday. For that price, I'll buy a damn chicken!

[k9krap]

I love eggs but I just threw away my last frittata meal. It’s been in the fridge for a month - past the “use by’ date by a few weeks.

[minx]

I like eggs, but can live without them. Spouse has to start his morning with them.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

My grandmother (the one I drank with in LBG) was the only one who ever made eggs I would eat. I have never been able to recreate them. She scrambled in bacon grease in a cast iron pan, but other than that, no joy.

As it relates to inflation- There's no justification short of the apocalypse I could accept for staple foods rising 500% or more. And I really don't see any headlines about how our masters intend to address it, other than master youngking slapping off the grocery tax, which is literally just pennies on the dollar.

[minx]

I'm not sure there's a great way to reduce it on food. One way would be to encourage and financially help out smaller farmers so food doesn't have to travel as far - perhaps if they got some of the subsidies that corporate farmers get that would bring local food to a more affordable price.

And people need to get back into the mindset of what a growing season is. If you're on the East coast, strawberries don't grow in the winter!

Don't see either happening. In the meantime, many food banks are struggling to keep enough on their shelves to distribute.

The whole situation is crap.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

I can't think of any great answers either, but plenty of not great one. Biggest issue is identifying the cause. I don't believe there's a single reason, nor a simple matter of supply and demand. So what's left? Well, there's the fact that a hand full of corporations own the vast majority of the food producers (I think you indirectly addressed that in your comments about small farms). www.wideopeneats.com/biggest-food-companies/

[Dave's Not Here Man]

timely

www.wtkr.com/have-you-noticed-eggs-are-really-expensive-heres-why

[bobathon]

We're at the mercy of Big Chicken.

[minx]

And big beef, and big strawberry...

We've consolidated our food production into the hands of a few and it's not a good thing. For our country, for our workers, or for the land.

A long while back I read a book about the dust bowl (The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan - very well-written). One of the things mentioned is that the only way to repair things was to plant new grasses and let the land lay fallow until they took and started growing so the top soil wouldn't blow off - something that took years. The grasses only got replanted as quickly as they did, because FDR made it a key point of the CCC in the midwest.

Same type of issues are happening in the upper west right now - land is drying up and has been over-grazed. Farmers are losing cows at records numbers, filing bankruptcy at record numbers, and killing themselves in record numbers. And the majority have been sold a bill of goods by Republicans saying that government help is bad, and climate change isn't man-made.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

So the Avian flu. Okay, I might be able to accept that because I do remember them having to kill off millions of chickens not too long ago, but it does seem like it was long enough ago that they would have corrected and recovered from it by now.

In my jaded and cynical beady little eyes I see corporations starting these fires and don't want them put out immediately, and then when they are put out, Trump style, the costs never come back down because now they have to recover their losses via stock buybacks with their insurance money.

Read something about Shell Oil this morning. See if yall can find it.

[minx]

We share the same set of eyes my friend. I do think the supply chain issues have a role to play, but I think that hits small businesses super hard. Amazon didn't seem to have many problems filling orders, but local stores did. Wonder why that is...

[Dave's Not Here Man]

I've also noted the lack of discussion by anyone really, regarding the impact of the Trump tariffs, along with the global pandemic, and if/how that contributed to the current state of inflation. But it's also fair to question what other policies enacted via the current and previous administrations may have set this in motion. Could we go back to 2008 or maybe even 1980 and find that those policies laid the groundwork for this?

[minx]

It would be nice if someone actually did that.

Perhaps a flowchart of actions from 1975 forward with a corresponding list of prices and average wages.
Something like
1975 - start - cost of eggs 1.00, cost to rent a one-bedroom apt 10.00, average salary 15.00
1980 - government deregulation put in place -pensions eliminated for new employees - eggs .80, rent 10.50 salary 15.00

And so on. It can be made interactive, so folks can click on stuff to expand it and learn more.

Not that most people would even bother looking at the flow chart itself. It's all because one party or the other just did something and poof! Eggs are now $20 a dozen.


My personal paranoid position is that we don't really want to learn how we got here, cause then we'd also realize that we've completely screwed ourselves roundly and things aren't going to improve.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

It's sort of depressing to think that we are entirely at the mercy of people who don't want it to.

[minx]

It is, isn't it? And people who don't care to either. Until it directly affects them of course. That's when it matters.

Now can someone explain to me why the same eggs at Publix cost $2 more than the same eggs at Giant or Walmart? Are their chickens somehow better?

[Dave's Not Here Man]

I can't answer that but I'd like to think they use that mark up to hire humans to operate the registers and bag yo shit




Lol see?

I slay myself sometimes too!

[minx]

Hahaha!

They do seem to be well-stocked in that area

[Dave's Not Here Man]

One of my old sayings; Those that can afford to shop at Ukrops, do.

[minx]

Have to admit that I was a Ukrops addict. Their prices were good as long as you stayed away from the bakery section

Plus they had the kid area where you could drop your kid off and shop in peace. At that time in my life, I would have paid $10 for a dozen eggs and made them last for a month to get that service!

[k9krap]

Oh, minx. The bakery was the best part of Ukrops! I even found a place in Ashland (Martin’s, which seems to be a partner of Giant) that still had a Ukrops bakery. Unfortunately, they no longer carry those wonderful, fantastic, lovely iced pound cakes.  I haven’t found a bakery that sells decorated pound cakes since Ukrops closed. 

[bobathon]

I change my mind, it's not Big Chicken, it's Big Cloaca.

[minx]

Giant has eggs at $2.99/dz with a $25 purchase and a coupon.

I'm getting me a pack and selling em on the black market - how much do you think I can get?

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Wiped out at the one I go to. And people were swarming over the fucking. cheerios. for. fuck. sake. Whiskey. Tango. Alpha. Foxtrot?


PS- I kept right on easin thru and got dat eggo waffle hook up tho.... 2 boxes for FO DOALLHSSSS,,,,,,

LOL!

[bobathon]

Eggs where I shop were pretty well stocked. $4-$5 a dozen. Still beats the hell out of buying them in a restaurant.

[minx]

Cheerios are on sale - $1.49 a box until today. They were gone at my Giant, so I snagged 4 boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch instead. Going to see if I can get me 4 more boxes today to make a few lucky people happy at the food pantry next week.

Someone innocently asked if we happened to have any eggs yesterday. I politely said that unfortunately we hadn't gotten eggs in a long time. She stopped and said "Oh wait, what am I thinking?", and we all laughed -I said that if any of us had eggs we wouldn't need to play the lottery right now - agreement all around

This week's 'cold pack' - fish filets (mystery fish = they looked like large hockey pucks and I shuddered putting them into bags). Perdue chicken thighs - want to say 2-3 lbs. 1 pack of turkey bacon, and an 'assorted meat' - those vary. This week we had some sausage, some salmon cakes, extra chicken (like a small pack of breasts or tenderloins), and some lunch meats.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Trying to work my first online auction in years. It was bad back then with people paying very close to retail even on open box, and "like new" and it is even worse now/ at least on this one. I can't make no cach schminoleuns on stuff only 20% under retail. Ideally, 60% under or 20 under wholesale would be max.

There's a few things I might be able to get for myself a little cheaper than retail. But that wasn't my aim.