the cost of survival is going up

[97guns]

you guys see the food prices, its just the begining.

[greenskeeper]

yup although to the avg consumer the increases are "hidden" due to smaller product packaging.

[disneysteve]

yup although to the avg consumer the increases are "hidden" due to smaller product packaging.

This drives me crazy. Just raise the damn price. Stop artificially keeping the price the same by shrinking the package.

[kork13]

yup although to the avg consumer the increases are "hidden" due to smaller product packaging.

This drives me crazy. Just raise the damn price. Stop artificially keeping the price the same by shrinking the package.

Agreed, this kills me. I was shopping just this last week, and was reaching out to grab my standard fat-kid snack (I'm a sucker for granola bars), when I realized... "Hey, that box looks weird..." It took me a few seconds, but then it clicked. Instead of 10 bars, it's now only got 8 in it. And to top it off, they STILL raised the price. Used to be only $.10/bar, now it's $.29/bar. A bit ruthless, wouldn't you say? I almost missed it, but glad I caught it... I don't think I'll be getting those anymore, if nothing else out of principle. I'll survive.

you guys see the food prices, its just the begining.

as for this... Please take a few deep breaths and try to relax, the world isn't coming to an end just yet. It's simple inflation. Food companies and retailers have been wary over the last couple years, and have honestly made very few price increases, in spite of the fact that inflation has still been creeping up (albeit slowly, 1%-1.5%). Now that inflation has picked back up again (most recent reading: 3.4% annualized), and there are at least some good indications from around the world, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw broad-based price increases as companies attempt to make up for "lost time." If this pattern hasn't been so blastedly common, it might seem remarkable... but realistically, it's same-old, same-old. Please try to stay calm, the kittens spook easily.

[greenskeeper]

as for this... Please take a few deep breaths and try to relax, the world isn't coming to an end just yet. It's simple inflation. Food companies and retailers have been wary over the last couple years, and have honestly made very few price increases, in spite of the fact that inflation has still been creeping up (albeit slowly, 1%-1.5%). Now that inflation has picked back up again (most recent reading: 3.4% annualized), and there are at least some good indications from around the world, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw broad-based price increases as companies attempt to make up for "lost time." If this pattern hasn't been so blastedly common, it might seem remarkable... but realistically, it's same-old, same-old. Please try to stay calm, the kittens spook easily.

Except the expansion of our money supply in the last 5 years is unprecedented.

You can't trust govt inflation figures, they remove food and energy from the equation, two things that nobody can live without.

[disneysteve]

You can't trust govt inflation figures, they remove food and energy from the equation, two things that nobody can live without.

Yep. Always loved that. Let's tell people prices aren't going up while they watch gas soar 50 cents or 75 cents per gallon and the price of milk go up a dollar per gallon. Maybe new car prices haven't gone up much. Big deal. I haven't bought a car for 13 years. I buy milk and gas every week.

[elessar78]

I hope there's some positive unintended consequence to all this. Maybe people will eat less --> be healthier --> reduce the overall cost of health care in this country --> healthy people=increased productivity. Maybe we'll invest more in transportation infrastructure so people can drive less. Maybe we can plan our living areas so we can walk and bike more. Maybe packaging could be smaller so we don't need as many SUVs on the road. Maybe we can get back to eating locally grown food, to defray the cost of transporting our food.

I'm really not some hippie. I feel that I'm pretty rational guy. I think the American lifestyle is unsustainable and maybe it needs some external factors to force a correction.

[GrimJack]

The alcohol industry has been doing this, like, forever. First they invented a size bottle that did not exist - a fifth, then they dropped the alcohol content from 85 proof to 80 proof then they adopted 750 ml bottle - all to keep us from noticing the cost going up but the bottle size looked the same.

If you think food prices are high now, just wait; there is a drought from Texas to Mexico, China has a drought in about 1/3 of their most productive land (they produce 10% of the worlds wheat and don't export any of it), Hungary, Croatia, Turkmenistan, France, Serbia, and, as usual, parts of Africa. The price of food has to go up because there is less food available.

How the hell did I get from alcohol to food?

I digress...

[elessar78]

You think we have crazy wars over oil supply. Wait till we have to battle over water supply. They've been fighting over access to water in the middle east. The water supply out west can't really support all the people and agriculture going on.

[ThePlantGuy]

With the prices of many staples going up, learning to be a bit more self sufficient just might pay big dividends. Bushing up on gardening skills and learning to can might be a good place to start. Besides saving money, it's a lot healthier too.

[kv968]

You can't trust govt inflation figures, they remove food and energy from the equation, two things that nobody can live without.

Actually food and energy are represented in the CPI number. However due to things like geometric weighting, assuming substitution of certain items, "hedonic quality adjustments" and God only knows whatever else they can throw in, there's a lot of room for discepancies and manipulation.

Here's a chart of the CPI-U that we all hear about compared to the inflation rate that attempts to take out all of these tactics. Which one looks more accurate to you?

[kv968]

You can't trust govt inflation figures, they remove food and energy from the equation, two things that nobody can live without.

Actually food and energy are represented in the CPI number. However due to things like geometric weighting, assuming substitution of certain items, "hedonic quality adjustments" and God only knows whatever else they can throw in, there's a lot of room for discepancies and manipulation.

Here's a chart of the CPI-U that we all hear about compared to the inflation rate that attempts to take out all of these tactics. Which one looks more accurate to you?