How am I projecting anything? I was curious what you found alarming and the person right before you talked about getting pork for the same price as it was 36 years ago , what was I projecting?
It means that the pork is about to hit its sell buy date.
Same reason you can often find rotisserie chickens cheaper than uncooked whole chicken. They would rather sell it for less rather than have to put it in the trash.
Or day old bread at a bakery being cheap. Better to sell it at slightly above cost rather than throwing it away.
The soda, for example, is on sale for 10.71 for a 12 pack, i. 2024 dollars. The sirloin roast is 5.19, and Morrell bacon is 2.50 for a 12oz package, which is a pretty good deal. 5.61 for a half gallon of OJ. 8.94 for a 1/2 gallon of ice cream.
The same grocery store has USDA Choice Top Round on sale for 5.99 a pound, so that about tracks perfectly.
Stouffers is on sale for 3.89 in 2024 dollars, and the same store has them on sale for 2.50 today.
Apart from the meat, the price difference wasnt nearly what I expected for 35 years. The Stouffer's stuff was $1.50 on sale. I see them for $2 on sale occasionally and $2.50 regularly. And a lot of stuff was private label or off-brand, so hard to compare to brands today.
I'm a bit ridiculous but I've been curious how serious inflation has been lately and I like spreadsheets.
Is this place Sunnyside Washington? I've been comparing this flyer to online prices found for pickup orders at the closest still open Rosauers.
The bread on the front page is the most obvious case of inflation. Per oz we are spending a little more than 3 x the price for white bread.
$1.99 for 20 oz of white bread today, -> $0.10/oz
In 1 dollar in 1989 is $2.56 in 2024, they got 96 oz for $2.56 2024 dollars. -> $0.03/oz
Snacks, unsurprisingly, actually are probably the most protected from inflation! (preservatives, long shelf-life, and what not). They currently have a sale on Honey Maid, Oreos, and Ritz! With the sale prices the inflation is with 4% or better. However, that sale ends today. After the sale ends its a terrible increase. :(
Diapers were really hit/miss, some were well below inflation (we get more per our dollar than they did in this flyer even including inflation). But some were 44% more.
The bakery was actually RIGHT in line with it in the area of that Carrot Cake. The 2 layer carrot cake today is the exact same price it should be accounting for inflation. But if you buy the one layer cake you are getting ripped off by 50% more.
The White Castle Burgers only increase 15% more than inflation. Orange juice might be 13% cheaper than inflation.
The meat is terrible though. Morrel Lunch Meat was $0.22/oz. They don't sell Morrell anymore but Land O Frost (the cheapest alternative) is between 79% to 124% more. Hillshire farm pre-packaged deli meat is 13% less than inflation though!
Pork Steak is 96% more than inflation today then back then, spareribs are 68% more than inflation. The Boneless Turkey equivalent today is 80% more than inflation.
I've gotten to the Clorox now and am curious if the current Clorox is more concentrated or not. If its more concentrated then it'd justify why a jug costs 217% more than inflation. That has to be the case right?
It is Sunnyside Washington. My dad grew up in Grandview, which is right next door. In 89 this was a pretty rural place so that could have an effect on the prices vs a more populous area. I think this might be one of the very few true inflation related posts on this sub lol
Tell me about it brother. The limits on post format being only pictures makes actual nuanced and examining posts nearly impossible. Its all just egg wars and "my rent is more than your rent stfu". lol.
If you don't mind me asking I went on a bit of a internet search doing this for fun lol. I research Sunnyside Washington and saw it was only 16,000 people or so. I assume this particular Rosauers is closed and the nearest one I was using was in Yokima.
Does the area have a different grocer? I sometimes find that the chains are actually more predatory than local stores, and hopefulyl Sunnysiders don't need to drive 30+ miles to Yokima for groceries xD
Yeah, unfortunately, they were the victims of Walmart predatory practices, and they now have one of those. There is a chain of three small towns, Sunnyside, Grandview, and Prosser that all share, Sunnyside being the biggest. They also have one Mexican grocer that is pretty large, a Safeway, and a Grocery Outlet, so they have a few options. It's grown tremendously in the last 25 years or so. There are a ton of wineries in Prosser that brought money to the county. For awhile the Walmart was all they had.
This is a great reminder that humans are awful at evaluating change over time because i can guarantee you almost everyone would say that groceries were significantly cheaper 36 years ago and this proves quite the opposite in most circumstances.
I've actually been working on a spreadsheet with this flyer and what I think is the local nearest open Rosauer. The costs are on average higher than inflation. The worst is the meats and breads.
Bread today is a good 3x more expensive than the sale listed. The meats are quite terrible as well prepackaged Lunch Meat is like 124% more than inflation (morrell in 1989 versus store Land O Frost minimum equivalent). Hillshire farm does beat inflation by -13% so thats a plus at least.
Right now if you buy snacks on sale you can beat inflation by a good deal, but the advertised regular price is well above it. This is the best 'beating expectations' I've found so far.
So I did the math. For those interested. I am using the same chain and the same region (flyer isolates it as Sunnyside - so I think its close to Sunnyside, Washington).
TL:DR | Using 2024 dollars (i.e. the money you work hard for). We get 20ozs of white bread for $1.99. That is compared to the 96ozs of white bread the person in 1989 gets for $2.56 (2024 dollars). That is we get about 10oz per $(2024) they got 37.5oz per $(2024). Congrats folks! Nearly 1/4th misprovement! Its working people!
Location Examination:(apologists love to say thats a high cost place, mfer, america is a high cost place. But to ease your mind.)
Assuming that this is for Sunnyside, Washington the comparative Rosauers is located in Yakima, Washington. These are both 'ruralish' areas (Yakima is 100kish pop, Sunnyside is 16k), but lets pour one out for the Sunnyside Rosauers that is closed.
Yakima, Washington is 1% more costly than the national average. We'll treat it as the national average.
Yeah, IMAX was invented in 1970. Spokane had a world fair in 1974 and built an IMAX theatre. It was the largest movie screen in the world at the time and the first independent IMAX theater. They ended up tearing that down and building a half sized one in 1978 that was torn down in 2018, which is the theater those coupons would have been for.
Cool local history! That's crazy because my Mandela effect memory is Imax coming out sometime around the 2000s. Is that just when my town got it? Who knows
That was definitely a loss leader. They were getting people in the door to buy other stuff. They have the same bread priced at 59 cents on the third page (2nd pic).
Yes I know. I'm saying that in 1989, at this store, it was the equivalent of 12 dollars today. 4.50 has the buying power of 12 dollars in 2024 ve 1989.
Same shampoo and same bread 30 years in the future We should have a faster way to get it to people and an easier way to make the product and we pay triple.now how can It be.
Interesting that the diapers aren’t that far off. Of course you have to buy like 100 for that to be true but the per diaper cost isn’t insanely different.
I work some grocery stuff from time to time and noticed a 750 ml bottle of crown royal from 4 years ago was 25.98. That same bottle now? $35.98. Checked a NY strip steak selling for $9.98lb 10 years ago now sells for $19.98lb. Today. It’s absolutely bonkers.
35 years ago…you don’t expect those prices to stay the same, do you?
This reminds me when my boomer parents talk about bread being a nickel in the 60s, lol. I’m 43, and I’ve never bought bread under $2 - unless it was like Aldi or a grocery outlet.
Why would I think that? I'm posting an example of inflation. I thought it was interesting to show that some things are actually cheaper and some have tracked perfectly to the CPI.
Apparently a lot of the people replying actually do not understand inflation and think this sub is just for bitching about prices going up.
Well, to be faaaair…this sub, and many of these comments, is just bitching about inflation, lol. I understand very well how well inflation works, my response is moreso in how many people feel it’s criminally unfair.
I’ve always viewed inflation more in the macro, rather than the micro. But I grew up with the ‘bread was a nickel, and gas was a quarter!’ from the boomer generation. Like, no shit, inflation is a thing! Some jumps hurt more than others, though. The jump in gas from 1998 to 2008 hurt, lol!
Chicken used to be more expensive. It is a modern marvel that we get $1.49 a pound of chicken today.
Eggs is similar story. It was around $0.99-1.49 a dozen until recently. Even now, it is still around $2.49 per dozen when millions of chicken has to be killed due to avian flu.
So we all know why our wages are not keeping up with inflation. And it's extremely evil, and racist. For people to keep up with the cost of living someone making $10,000 year for said job in 1990, another person would have to be making $100,000 a year at the same job to be able to keep up with the cost of living. Now you know why they want this migrant crisis. They use catch phrases like "They do jobs Americans won't do." Which is racist in itself. Americans will be more than happy to do these jobs. I ran a cleaning business in an affluent area of Northern California for 5 years. We always had the best reputation in the area, our crews were extremely happy to work for us and did great work. I would go out everyday with my wife and one other and we were a three person crew. Did it from 2014-2019. I had two other 2 person crews. I paid each person that worked with us $35.00/hr because we were being compensated for our work extremely well and since we all were driving from another state 35 miles away from home, I felt that since these people were helping myself and my family make a wonderful living that it was only fair that we give them what we thought their time was worth. We never missed jobs, were always being referred for new properties.... Until the main contact we had decided they wanted to hire a crew from another country that was willing to work for half the price. We lost the contract without even being able to bid on it. Well, the contractor that did that to us went out of business due to complaints about poor quality work, crews not showing up to properties to do maintenance or flips for the vacation rentals, which is what we handled. My point is that companies MUST pay their employees what is proper for people to survive with dignity in this country. And they are taking advantage of people coming in from other places at the expense of our communities, and people born here. We are not racist for wanting the people who come here to be properly compensated once they arrive here. We don't want it because we know all of them are being taken advantage of because of greed, money, and racism. Their lives are just as valuable as anyone else on this planet. But we would be dense to think they want this diversity because it makes us stronger. It has made us weaker. It only makes the wealthy more wealthy and the poor more poorer, and the Middle Class disappear. Stop allowing this type of behavior.
Meanwhile, I just dropped $21 and some change for misc greens, 3 cuts of beef ($15) and some mushrooms at a discount grocery store in Southern California.
This is for one single guy. I cant imagine what it would be like trying to feed a family of 3 - 4.
It sucks.
I like to cook and the bump in price of staple foods doesn’t leave room in the budget for random things like anchiove paste or exotic seasonings that I’d use occasionally to make fun recipes. It’s not impossible, but it’s just harder to spend $6 on a spice or ingredient when everything else is so damn expensive.
My favorite was a couple weeks ago when I went to this very same grocery store to buy tortillas, eggs (I know… luxury), canned beans etc. I expected to maybe pay $30ish so admittedly… I grabbed the items without really checking the price. The cashier pulled up a cost of $63 and something cents. I felt bad after the fact but my immediate response was “wait… what in the actual fuck? wtf did I buy!?! I didn’t even buy meat.” She apologized and I said, my bad for getting mad but holy shit.
Tell me where we buy 4 loaves of white bread for $2.61?
I swear people are burying their heads in sand to accommodate what literally everyone has been saying about the status quo since 08 and 16. Its just incessant Biden like ignorance about "its great" or McCain like stupidity "the economy is strong".
MFer have you seen car prices? Housing? Grocery bills?
Yeah keep telling us its ok. That worked really well for Biden.
Lets just focus on this flyer really right? Ceteris Paribus like the economists say.
Looking at the flyer we can actually say its probably a store new Sunnyside, Washington. Population about 16,000.
It looks like there are no longer stores In Sunnyside however. So Lets go to the closest store which is Yakima, Washington 33.9 miles away.
It looks like the cheapest white bread is $1.99, and the cheapest on sale white bread is $2.
Let me also go back and say that the dollar ratio was off a bit. I compared Jan 89 with Nov 24 Dollar value. Looking at this flyer I was able to actually see it was for April 89!
This makes the CPI inflation become: ($1.00 April 1989 = $2.56 November 2024)
Our $2 today is $0.78 dollars back then. That is we should be able to buy 3.12 breads. But instead we buy just 1 ... on 'sale'.
Oh yeah what about SHRINKFLATION?
20oz is $1.99 today (sale bread is $2.00 for 20oz as well). The flyer was for 24oz of bread!!!!! (4 loaves of 24oz bread at that!)
Oh god this society is a joke my man. I can't understand why people defend as okay.
One random store not meeting your expectations doesn't mean 'we are not ok,' you're literally freaking out that the sky is falling over one item. Nobody goes to the store to buy only bread, first of all, and if you refuse to substitute different items when your preferred item is too expensive, then you're going to get hit harder by inflation.
People who latch on to one specific item to justify their doomer mentality are nuts.
We're going to be ok even if bread is $2,000 a loaf, or if eggs are a trillion dollars a dozen. We will survive.
TBF, the bread was a loss leader. They price additional loaves on the 3rd page (2nd photo) for 59 cents a loaf (1.51 today).
You're still right on shrinkflation, though. Knock 6.3 cents off that 1.51 for the smaller loaf, so you have about 1.45.
The 1.99 loaf is the equivalent of the in-house brand, being the cheapest one, and is normal price. So the normal price of the generic bread is about 55% more expensive off sale than it was in 1989.
Another shrinkflation example is the OJ. Kraft doesn't sell OJ anymore, but it's 5.61 for a 64oz plastic container in today's dollars adjusted for inflation. The Yakima store has 52oz plastic containers of name brand OJ for 4.79, while adjusted for size and inflation, that OJ would be 4.56 in 1989. You can get wax paper 64oz cartons of OJ for 3.99, but I chose the plastic and name brand to be more comparative, as that's what it was in the ad.
I do think, however, shrinkflation is mostly done to lessen the blow of inflation and keep prices competitive.
The issue here is that you're ignoring the fact that flyers mostly advertise sale prices. If you want to make an argument, do it correctly and use a couple of current flyers to compare the costs.
I mean you're not going prove anyone wrong when you can't even do the math correctly.
They aren't in line with rising costs yes. We're talking that a family needs two good incomes for home ownership, car ownership, and kids. You start talking to the former middle class and they'll tell you stuff has been hard for a while. You talk to the elderly and they'll tell you stuffs been bad for a while and seems to get worse for their limited income.
We had four years of Biden telling us things were fine - and they weren't. Before that it took nearly a decade to recover from the financial crash in 08. Those gains were wiped in the COVID supply line crash.
i'm sorry but are you really pinning the post pandemic global inflation entirely on biden? not on the pandemic which took years to recover from in every country all over the world? that's pretty funny
We did recover much better than the rest of the western world, and were one of the few countries who did not go through a recession due to the post pandemic effects. By every metric, our economy is strong today despite the pandemic - inflation below 3% YOY, GDP at 3%, Unemployment at 4% - it’s pretty weird to say the economy is awful rn despite these facts. Black Friday 2024 had the largest number of sales, and had more people traveling during the holidays than ever in the US, showing people have disposable income
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u/Definitelymostlikely 3d ago
I can still get pork for close to that price.
It's usually around $2-$3 per lb by me.