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To continue my “they’re cheating us on tuna these days” rant, coffee has gone waaaay up, too. I bought coffee this week and noticed the containers of Folgers looked odd at the grocery store. The big containers were on the bottom shelf and they were all the same but something was different. It wasn’t until I got home and sat the new coffee package next to the old package on the counter. Guess what? Yep, you guessed it. The new one is smaller and costs a dollar more.

Old Folger’s big container (the “big” one at my store, ymmv) of coffee: 38.4 oz - makes 305 6 oz cups - $7.99

New Folger’s big container: 27.8 oz - makes 240 6 oz cups - $8.99.

That’s a 37% increase in price. Did your paycheck go up 37% this summer? Mine didn’t. And I’m still not seeing any decrease in beef prices despite the ranchers selling their herds off for rock bottom prices due to the drought. Someone is getting rich and it’s not the consumer.

The large Folgers Coffee is 33.9 oz. in our area this week and as of yesterday it was $10.99 for the container. It was $9.85 for the 38.4 oz. container on June 29, 2011. I guess we still have the 27.8 oz. container to look forward to in the near future.

Bought Kraft mayo lately? The 32 oz jar is now 30 oz and about $1 more.
Pasta now in 12 oz ‘pound’ boxes.

The only items I haven’t noticed taking quantum leaps in price is fresh veggies. And when summer is over I suspect that will change also.

Funny, the CPI is flat. Of course they don’t count unneeded items such as food and fuel. /s

The price of coffee at retail tends to lag the wholesale price by about 60 days. Last year's crop, pretty much worldwide, was simply horrible due to **both** having had rain at the wrong time and a lack of rain at the wrong time. Plus, coffee consumption in China has gone more or less straight up for the past 3 years (this seems to be changing itself just now). Hence the huge price increases.

. Now for the good news. Wholesale arabica 'C' coffee, the type favoured in the US, peaked in price on 3 May at $3.11/lb and has now dropped back to within 2 cents/lb. of where it started the year. This year's crop is excellent, and the price would seem to have much further to fall, esp. if the mountains in Colombia, Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo and the coffee areas of Sao Paulo in Brazil get a normal rainfall in Oct-Dec. Better than even money that coffee prices, wholesale, return to the 1.50-1.70/lb range. T, his translates very roughly to about $2.97/lb at retail, or $5.20 for a 28-oz. can by Christmastime.

So, cheer for some nice rain in Sep-Oct-Nov in Colombia and Central Brazil, and cheer up!