Make sure you watch your sizes when you get a "bargain" somewhere else. Sometimes the package is the same, but the weight is less. I HATE that!

It took me a while to get over the sugar size! They all went to 4# - probably 3# before long!

I love my Keurig, and a friend told me how much cheaper the K-Cups were at one store compared to the other - well the cheaper one had 6 less in the box - the price per serving was actually more!

It is always a shock at the checkout anymore... sigh...

I totally agree. And prices aren't going up a nickel at a time either. They go up a dollar sometimes and even more. Cat food at Target last week was $5.00 and this week $ 6.69!!

Albertson's has Hormel Cure 81 Spiral Sliced Ham for $1.49 per pound and red grapes are 69 cents per pound. I bought both today and that's the best price I've seen on ham. Sugar prices have gone through the roof and the bags are all four pounds. I'm in Arizona, by the way.

I cant give you specific prices but I see the same thing in my area. Honestly it's hard to understand the why of it.

I am guessing that the "why" of the price hikes has a lot to do with the price of fuel. Somebody has to pick up the tab for the cost of shipping. We all must eat so guess who is picking up that tab.

Yes, much of it due to fuel for trucks, but decreasing sizing trying to cheat the public is not good. Boxes look the same, BIG, but look at ounces--SMALLer. Even Wallmart is not cheap. We have 4 stores in Minot, all owned by the same person, yet, other that Walmart no competation, and yes all the prices are different in each store. I think Bismarck has several different stores, along with Sam's club, which by the way is not always the cheapest. I think they have a Big Lots. I do get a bit upset at Minot because they do not encourage competation.

I got sugar today, too. I bought the Publix brand and it was $3.29 for 5 pounds. So if you divide per pound, Kathleen paid just under 60 cents per pound. I paid a little over 65 cents a pound. Such a deal you got, Kath!!

You should've seen my total--ick!

Grocery prices are sky high in Florida. I usually shop at the Navy commissary here but there are NO savings there. They are on par with Wal-Mart. My son is a trucker and he says that fuel prices are so high that the stores have to raise prices just to buy their stocks. The government just HAS to do something as we're all suffering.

They have been insane for a while now, I have been shopping sales and buying what's on sale and stocking up if I can. Sugar is on sale for $2.49 for a 5# bag, I'll probably buy 4 bags. The last 4 bags I got were only $1.99 but that was just an amazing price. Thank goodness we aren't really picky about what we eat, I just buy what's on sale and deal with it.

So what else is new?

I can still remember my mother coming back from grocery shopping at the A&P one Friday night in the late 1940ties & complaining to my father that the groceries she just bought cost something like $15, and a couple years back, she only paid $10 for the same products!

Besides, sugar is not good for you. At least that's what I've heard.

I found a marked down ham for .83cents a lb...@ Safeway. Eggs @ Walgreens(and Krogers) were $1 a dozen. Bacon @ Walgreens is $3 a lb. I make a stop every time I leave work and pick up one thing at a different store, buy extra and freeze it.

Even though the prices are going up and they seem to be outrageous it's interesting to know that we're actually spending a smaller % of our annual income on food. According to the USDA in 1940 Americans spent about 20% of their disposable income on food. Today it's about 10%.

I buy a lot of sugar, to make nectar for hummingbirds. So the price is important to me. I only buy it on sale, usually 10-20 pounds at a time. One year we used over 150 pounds in one summer.

I buy store brand whenever I can and try to be smart in the grocery store but I'm always shocked when I pay at the end. And it's just the 2 of us. I can't imagine having hungry teenagers to feed.

I must go through two pounds of sugar in, oh, six months? No teenagers here, and no hummingbirds -- well, no *dependent* ones. LOL

kfca37 -- I have my mother's Depression Era 'accounts' book. On one line she had underlined twice that she'd paid $1.06 for a dress. An extravagance!

Hi flamey,

How's the possibility of buying at a warehouse where the restaurants, hospitals, food services, etc. buy in quantities?

Lawn fertilizer is a heck of a lot dearer bought per 10 lb. packages than the farmers pay in 100 lb. bags - or in bulk.

o j

I guess it costs a ton of dollars getting all those food items here from China, South America, Turkey, etc. etc. etc. Not much of even our grocery items seem to originate from the US anymore, does it? I'm shocked when I track certain grocery items to find they were actually imported. Even though the familiar company name is on the label, if it doesn't say MADE in the USA or PACKAGED in the USA, it isn't. Or so I've been told. I've heard you have to check and know the UPC codes to see where it came from.

talk about cat food? it's the goldfish food i avoid at taget...i get the large can for the same price as target's small one...that's crazy!

Our Target is cheaper on many items over Walmart--don't know why.
But on all items, watch the due date. Some stores do sell out of date stuff.

When the printer makes two or three Dollars where there used to be only one - so, though there's no more stuff, to speak of, than there was ... but there are a lot more dollars ... what can one expect?

ole joyful

Careful there marie-ndcal, bringing up the "W" store might get you banned from it! Remember I was ordered by one here to stay out of Malwart when I shared an experience! And when she bans you, the "go-gurlers" will chant their mantra too! LOL

There's lots of reasons for the prices fluctuating. Some good, some not so good. I understand that costs go up for utilities, labor, etc so I fully understand normal price increases, but one of my peeves is when the same store has locations within a few miles of each other and the prices vary, sometimes significantly. Walmart and Target are this way and the cost for fuel/transportation is clearly not the reason. Their COGS are the same and they come from the same supplier, probably on the same invoice so the cost to them is the same. Labor costs, taxes and utilities would be comparable so that can't be a rationalization. Store volume and size doesn't seem to make a difference. And curiously, the lower-affluent area will have the higher prices and I don't think they can rightfully blame it on shoplifting either. So 'splain that one to me will ya?

I don't look close enough at the more conventional grocery chains to notice, plus I don't buy as many groceries as I used to since I'm eating out more. And yes, I found out (and got lectured for it!) that Target is cheaper on a lot of things than is the "W" place that is so beloved and rabidly defended by some. Perhaps the Walton family is larger than I realized? :D

I still track prices on a lot of things. I like watching how the prices run. It has saved me a lot over the years. And I have my buying quirks as do most everyone. I have limits on what I'll spend for certain things. For instance there's just no way I'll pay $2+ for a pound of grapes. I will go without them, especially when they're not so good to start with!

I do wonder though on sugar - I wonder if the change from 5# to 4# isn't at least partially because of people doing less baking these days. With slice and bake cookies, cake and brownie mixes and canned pie fillings people might not be using as much sugar at one time and sales might have dropped a bit where dropping the size and price a bit could have helped their sales at least stabilize. Factor in the sales going to artificial sweeteners, dieters and yes some loss to the Chicken Littles ranting that sugar is such a killer. No stats on it, purely speculation, but it would make some sense for the downsizing. And yes I realize that there was a sugar spike at a few times so it would sound cheaper and yes they could have dropped price less proportionately that what they should. I also notice smaller bags of flour getting more shelf space which suggests that the smaller bag flour sales are increasing.

July is hottest month on record; drought expands to 63 percent of United States. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the cost of food will start increasing in stores across the country later this year. Too bad, Midwest droughts will raise the price of food. To think that the deficit of feed corn will raise the cost of feeding cows, pigs and chickens, and those costs will be reflected in consumer prices. In addition, the cost of milk and other dairy products will rise for the same reason.

Back in the 50's and 60's, when I was a wee one, my mom used to send me to the store for food she'd forgotten on her main shopping trip. I remember lettuce at ten cents a head, milk was 25 cents a quart, hamburger was 49 cents a pound. Ah, The Good Olde Days! On the other hand, it was hard to find fresh fruit and vegetables in the winter.

I remember that era Jannie. The income people earned was a heck of a lot less too. But I do remember the limited choices in the Midwest neighborhood A&P where we shopped. We ate a lot of frozen vegetables because there were so few fresh vegetables most of the year. When we moved to California, I loved the huge produce department year round in our stores. I have not cooked a package of frozen vegetables in many decades.

We rarely saw an orange or a banana when I was growing up, but we did have pears, peaches, cherries, berries which Mom canned. And apples that if you watched how/where you stored them would last long into the winter months. Same with home grown potatoes. We had huge gardens and Mom canned enough stuff that we rarely bought canned vegetables from the store.

Shirley

Prices of wheat, corn and soybeans have been going up substantially in recent weeks, due to the drought.

We in Ontario will have trouble with apples this year, for it was real warm for an extended period in March, then we had a frost when the blossoms came out, so cooked about 85% of our apple crop.

On the other hand ... check prices in various parts of the world, including Europe, and you'll find that we have some of the world's cheapest food.

Plus ... corn, and the multitude of products in which they use its various derivatives, might be cheaper if they were using less of it to make ethanol.

Seems to me that food for people should come higher on the prioority list than motor fuel.

ole joy(dare I say "fuelled"?)