Low inflation is good news, but when they say that food costs have dropped my BS detector tends to go off.
Perhaps the cost of food dipped a bit in the latest month reported, but long-term this indicator is highly suspect. It is based partly on "equivalents," meaning that if you can buy a second-rate product cheaper than a quality product, the lower-cost item sets the standard.
And has anyone noticed that while the price may be the same, the quantities of some products tend to shrink. For example, potato chips that used to come in six-ounce bags shrank to five and a half ounces, and now some are five ounces.. Of course, the "pound" bag of coffee long ago went to 12 or 13 ounces.
I wonder if the economists who prepare the numbers ever go into a supermarket to shop.. Maybe they send their maids to do it.
Food prices always drop this time of year. It's the beginning of the normal produce harvest across most of the USA. Not necessarily here in south Georgia since we're between produce crops, but most are coming in right now.
No news here on the food front.