bert, interesting post—I think you have done this comparison before?
That said, I am not sure your basket is representative of a lot of families’ food basket.
I appreciate your efforts, and I think it would be even more informative to include some fresh fruits and vegetables, potatoes, more dairy (i.e., yogurt and cheese, etc.), and fish. Eh maybe some type of national brand cookie or sweet as well.
Regardless, thank you.
Have a nice rest of the day.
I understand your thoughts.
When I started the study back around Christmas, I had about 50 items on the list. It became apparent that I was not able to deal with that many items on a regular basis. So I pared the list down to 20
My reasoning that may in fact be faulty, was to track common food items that will detect a trend. I selected both national brands and store brands. I was not seeking typical family food baskets so much as a diverse selection that would reflect food price change.
The concept of a “food basket” might actually be erroneous if interpreted as a weekly family grocery purchase. The “basket” is composed of the twenty items and the change in the total over the base line is the product of the exercise
Your post points out the true fact that I do not know what I am doing. I wanted to learn about real food inflation that I knew was in process but said by many to get worse. That is, to observe the hypothesis that there is going to be inflation and food will be swept up in the price increases.
Like I said...... We’ll see