Time to get out the old WIN button.... I think I left it in the pocket of my brown polyester leisure suit.
Posted on 04/14/2008 2:50:45 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
U.S. Food Inflation Worst in 17 Years
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Steve Tarpin can bake a graham cracker crust in his sleep, but explaining why the price for his Key lime pies went from $20 to $25 required mastering a thornier topic: global economics.
He recently wrote a letter to his customers and posted it near the cash register listing the factors -- dairy prices driven higher by conglomerates buying up milk supplies, heat waves in Europe and California, demand from emerging markets and the weak dollar.
The owner of Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies in Brooklyn said he didn't want customers thinking he was "jacking up prices because I have a unique product."
"I have to justify it," he said.
The U.S. is wrestling with the worst food inflation in 17 years, and analysts expect new data due on Wednesday to show it's getting worse. That's putting the squeeze on poor families and forcing bakeries, bagel shops and delis to explain price increases to their customers.
U.S. food prices rose 4% in 2007, compared with an average 2.5% annual rise for the last 15 years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And the agency says 2008 could be worse, with a rise of as much as 4.5%.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
Absolutely more than “4%”.
3 weeks ago, I went bulk food shopping at Sam’s and 25 pounds of all purpose white flour was $7.25. Yesterday, I decided to check there to see the prices and the same bag of flour was over $10. As far as I can tell, as a housewife, the food inflation is 30%-50% on most items.
My business is not food, but I had to cut out every bit of waste, reconfigure my processes to save energy and I felt guilty raising my prices 7%-10% across the board. In addition, because I must get a certain rate of return just to survive, my major product was reduced in size. Only one customer (a notorious PIA) has complained, but I understand the baker feeling he had to justify his price rise.
So plant a garden this Summer...that is once all of that “Global Warming” melts off...
Just sayin’...
Local TV news ran a report 2 weeks ago that the number of food stamp applications had increased by about 30,000 over the previous month.
I was looking for a second job last night. OMG! A second job...
I am no where near dire straits, but things are being ‘burned’ through more quickly than anticipated. I have eliminated a number of extras as they really weren't used. Cable, dinners out, thermostat at 62, even car insurance went to minimal, health care is catastrophic.
The rainy day fund is not near flood stage. It needs a bit of rain right now. Between expensive car repairs recently and rising prices, it is just not happening.
I don't care to get back into my career job. After 8 years and the crazy changes going on within the field I don't think I'd keep my sanity. (Environmental, Health, Safety—last position was Field Safety Manger to decommission two nuclear reactors for NASA.)
I can't believe I am looking at a McDonald's job in the evenings.
Obviously .. and in response to this problem I'll be cutting back on my carbon footprint by ........ drum roll please ....
turning my food supply into fuel.
Please, no applause, I'm doing it for the children.
[/queue Elvis voice ] ... Thank you, thank you very much
I don't know what you sell but I hate it when that happens. I would rather the size stay the same and just pay whatever price increase is neccessary.
There is a government measure of food costs that I used to hear all the time, but never hear about now. Not sure when I stopped hearing about it, but the Average Market Basket, or some such, was once reported frequently. It was the cost of the same grocery items and some other household items purchased at certain intervals and reported as a measure of food.
Anyone ever about the Average Market Basket these days?
Or even the consequences of market imbalance, caused by flooding the world with what was previously a coveted currency.
No, it’s all the FED’s fault, as much as I’d like to blame Yappy Dog Chiwawa, she is partly (out of controll spending) but then so are 533-535 other Congresscritters! PRIMARILY the FED though...
I can tell, as a housewife, the food inflation is 30%-50% on most items.
Where Rude went wrong was his thinking the AP was talking about actual price calculations. We all know that "food inflation" is when people shop for food and then they inflate their story each time they tell it.
Folks understand so little about markets. I blame public education.
It’s time some folks learned gardening. And I don’t mean flowers.
As Miss Piggy used to say: “Never eat more than you can lift.”..or something like that.
I don’t know why people are complaining about the price of food now, because under slick willies administration, bread went from 99 cents a loaf to 1.79 cents a loaf, milk, meat, chicken, fish, everything went up and nobody complained. How come they are complaining now?????
Time to get out the old WIN button.... I think I left it in the pocket of my brown polyester leisure suit.
Just put in my tomatoes here in VA - Bigs Boys and Early Girls... also the obligatory zuchinis, (here if you accidently leave your car door unlocked, people will leave boxes of them on the front seat...) peppers of various sorts, and my vavorite, eggplant, the most visually beautifull of vegetables IMHO.
Gee!was’nt it just a month ago that I read that the commerce department was reporting that inflation was low.Even at that time a drunk would have noticed the price of everything was going through the roof.
The only question I have is when will this low inflation rate retun?
Here’s the ingedients for a key lime pie that serves eight: 16 graham crackers 3 tablespoons sugar 1/4 lb. butter 4 large egg yolks 14 oz. sweetened condensed milk 12 key limes.
What’s that $6 wholesale? No pie’s worth $25 to me or $20 for that matter.
You might excuse the general public for being ignorant of the causes of inflation but what about those in charge of the Fed Reserve, the Treasury, the Congress and the President. They are not ignorant, they just wish to keep the economy going until they are no longer in office. After all the economy has been headed in this direction for a good many years and each administration and congress has been able to delay the day of reckoning just a little longer. Their actions are both cruel and uncaring but unfortunately that is the kind of people we elect year after year.
I believe the day of reckoning is coming before those presently in office leave office.
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