And the dam breaks...

Who says they havent already? :p

Fast food has really taken a dive in the last 6 months. Maybe its just my bad perception, but except for Carls Jr/Hardees, I havent had a decent burger in a fast food place lately. Seems the meat is skimpy and gristly, the toppings are skimpy and of poor quality, and they just dont taste that good. And the prices are up.

I had been a big fan of jack in the box's "big cheeseburger", which is about quarter pounder size. It had been 99c, then $1.29, now its up to $1.69 and the last two I got werent that palatable.
 
Thats almost gotta go. I did the math on just buying the same hotdogs and buns in the store and it was getting in the range of a buck fifty.
 
Sit-down restaurants in the Midwest are obviously feeling the pinch.
Prices are rising, food quality is declining(sometimes precipitously), portions are shrinking and the fewer waitresses are serving at the doubletime.

This deterioration has been ongoing over the past several years and is likely to accelerate in '08.

In a few places the food has become so bad that it's literally unpalatable.

By the way, last week I started a preliminary reconnoiter of the amply stocked pet food aisles at the big W. Interesting to watch the old couples debating which brand to choose for supper. Think I ask the for some pointers so I'll be prepared for Clinton/Huckabee miracle of 2009.
 
cute fuzzy bunny said:
Costco has always had roast chicken for $4.99, pizza for $7.99-8.99, and of course the venerable hotdog and a drink for $1.50.

The chicken just went up to $5.99 and the pizza to $9.99. So far the hotdog is safe from a price increase.
Click to expand...

You are getting ripped off :bat: In VA I just bought the chicken yesterday for $4.99. Also, the pizza went up but they introduced a new "meatsa" pizza with about a 1/2 pound of sausage, beef, pepperoni, canadian bacon, etc.

I think that counts as a hedonic adjustment - probably lowered inflation by .1% >:D
 
Personally I believe in the hybrid approach. Just sat down with an appetizer consisting of Whole foods French goat cheese ($6) served on seseme seed water crackers ($1.50) and BV Cabernet Savignon ($7 at Costco, great deal!!!). I don't worry about food inflation -- that's why I purchased all those 10yr TIPS when rates were high :).
 
New record at Whole Food Market a couple of weeks ago - $390!!!

Previous record had been just a wee bit over $300.......

Audrey
 
The other day I set a grocery record at Trader Joe's... $150 for six very heavy bags of groceries (I walked three blocks with them and had to take a few breaks). That's $25 per bag. I remembered that when I was growing up my mom used to divide the grocery bill by the number of bags to get a "cost per bag" which was helpful for her in budgeting. I'll have to ask my mom what it was, but I think I remember her saying $20 per bag from the local independent grocery store. According to my CPI inflation calculator, today's $25 would have been worth between $10 and $15 around that time, so by that measure the real inflation is less than the CPI. I think there is something to that... Trader Joes is able to offer better deals than grocery stores of the past, by using economies of scale that local stores of the past couldn't touch. On the other hand my local grocery store is now an upscale Whole-foods-wannabe that costs me around $40 a bag. We have a wider range of choices today.

Anyone else tracked inflation via the average cost of a bag of groceries?
 
DJRR said:
You are getting ripped off :bat: In VA I just bought the chicken yesterday for $4.99.
Click to expand...

The price change happened 2 days ago, so maybe its regional or just hasnt hit you yet. It does now come in a nifty package thats hard to open, so no more spilled chicken juice in the back of my car.

Also, the pizza went up but they introduced a new "meatsa" pizza with about a 1/2 pound of sausage, beef, pepperoni, canadian bacon, etc.
Click to expand...

Yep, that was my lunch while watching football. Darn good pizza.
 
Forgive the ignorant city boy, but does Costco have a restaurant of some sort? I always thought it was a big-box store.

Does it have a restaurant on the side like the Woolworth stores of yore?
 
The rotisserie chicken in Hawaii was still $4.99 this week. Althought, I am pretty sure that the Costco whole Pizza are still $9.99. Not that I care since Kirkland Pizza I think sucks, well at least compared to my made-from-scratch pizza.
 
We eat out at least twice a week and my inflation indicator has been going off. I watch for new menus. Almost every place we go to has issued a new menu (with of course new prices)

Also the loss leaders - example Chiles has eliminated free chips and salsa at happy hour and has raised the happy our drink special prices.
 
Costco has a little food court thing that sells (with several regional differences) pizza, hotdogs, polish sausages, chicken bakes (chicken, a sauce, green onions, bacon, etc in a pastry), ice cream, frozen coffee drinks, pretzels and the like. In the southwest, they also sell churros. They offer poutine in the northern ones.

I've noticed the "invisible inflation" on food products served in restaurants for some time now. Our former favorite fish and chips place went from thick pieces of fish to thin ones, with twice as much batter on them (yuck), the barbecue joint started charging 50c for extra sauce instead of giving it away, and a lot of places have taken their soda dispenser from "help yourself" to back behind the counter and dropping the free refills. Our former favorite mexican restaurant used to give a big scoop of guacamole with each entree and that disappeared. Our former favorite thai place started reducing meat and increasing unusual vegetables you wouldnt commonly find in thai food...then they went out of business.

Clif - the cooked pizza at the food court has been 9.99, but the take-and-bake has been at 7.99 and 8.99. You might try it again...they just reformulated the crust and its a lot better. It was very good some time ago, then they changed the crust and it wasnt as good, then they tried square pizzas for a while but it was the same so-so crust. The new stuff is pretty good. Still quite a bargain for this size, well topped pizza.
 
Just got my property tax assessment...100% increase from 3 yrs ago for the lot. Improvement declined 1%.
 
cute fuzzy bunny said:
Costco has a little food court thing ...
Click to expand...



Thanks. I'd read about the 7.99 pizzas here, but always assumed that was frozen (although as I write that I realize it doesn't sound very cheap for frozen pizza). But the $1.50 dog and a drink sounded more like a food court.
 
YouTube - costco food court

They sell a bunch of frozen pizzas, but their regular costco brand are fresh 16" pizzas. You can also call and order them cooked for pickup, or just buy a cooked whole or a slice (which is actually two slices) at the food court.
 
We are buying a freezer to take advantage of the bargains. Upick fruit in summer and those portion controlled TV entrees for lunches.

Maybe this will help in some way reduce the waste in food that is so prevalent in the US.

Yes, Sams Club has great and huge roast chickens. They fill the container to overflowing sometimes.
 
Little Caesers's used to sell two fairly large pizzas for the price of one.
They ere quite adequate too. You didn't feel hungry after you ate them.
You probably wouldn't get sick from them either. And they defiantly had some nutritive value within them. You could eat them and you would not starve to death.
Don't remember the price, but certainly inexpensive. I haven't fed on one in years.
 
sweetana3 said:
Yes, Sams Club has great and huge roast chickens. They fill the container to overflowing sometimes.
Click to expand...

The grocery store chickens just look scrawny and pathetic by comparison (and overpriced). When I go to Sam's I go straight over to check the rotisserie 'status'. Frequently, there is a line of folks waiting just for the birds. They can't unload the giant rotisserie fast enough....the customers are patient, but antsy. I time my shopping to pick up two chickens after the rush has subsided. The guy there told me they sell approx 1700 chickens per week!
 
jazz4cash said:
The grocery store chickens just look scrawny and pathetic by comparison (and overpriced). When I go to Sam's I go straight over to check the rotisserie 'status'. Frequently, there is a line of folks waiting just for the birds. They can't unload the giant rotisserie fast enough....the customers are patient, but antsy. I time my shopping to pick up two chickens after the rush has subsided. The guy there told me they sell approx 1700 chickens per week!
Click to expand...

The last grocery store rotisserie chicken that I bought was so scrawny and small, it could have been an anorexic pidgeon!!! :rant: It was a chicken but seriously, it was SAD.

Those chickens at Sam's sound great.
 
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