Consumers Are Increasingly Pushing Back against Price Increases — and Winning

[Landon Caeli]

Unfortunately, a big part of the burden on ordinary people is high rents, and there's little that can be done about that at the individual level.

My lease expires next month, and the new price went up $500. From $3400 to $3900.

That's ridiculous. I also have two car payments - me and my wife have twin Mazda cx-5's, so I don't really have a lot of cash after bills.

...I would move, but my daughter has a group of friends that she really likes. It would break her heart.

I would buy a house, instead of throwing my money away, but I have a commitment phobia about it. As soon as I do, I know I'm going to have to leave for somewhere else, and sell it. I'd look like an idiot.

 

[The Barbarian]

Why does inflation exist? Why are we still reeling from covid?

Growing economies will have some inflation. Currently about 3.2%, which is a pretty good level. The economy seems to have pretty much recovered from the Trump pandemic. Our recovery is much better than that of most other nations.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/07/economy/us-economy-china-europe/index.html

 

[The Barbarian]

I would buy a house, instead of throwing my money away, but I have a commitment phobia about it. As soon as I do, I know I'm going to have to leave for somewhere else, and sell it. I'd look like an idiot.

Tough dilemma. It's being exacerbated by investors buying up properties to rent. You probably missed the sweet spot to buy; I figure that there's going to be a correction at some point, and hopefully, a lot of those investors will get burned for their greed in jacking up rents.

 

[RocksInMyHead]

I get the 10 pound bag of leg quarters on chicken and divide it up for the freezer. I also get liver - beef and chicken.

There's not much I've been able to find here less than 3 dollars a pound though. Meat here hasn't been going on sale much, I buy fresh fish on sale and cook it night of some, it's like day old but if you cook it right away it's fine.

As I recall, you said you've moved to a very rural/off-grid area. I wonder if that isn't a factor in your prices - smaller market means smaller order quantities, which can translate to higher wholesale prices (that are then passed on to the consumer). There's also probably less competition in the market. One of the advantages of living in a city is that I have about a dozen options for groceries within about 15-20 minutes - everything from a local specialty shop to farmers' markets to chain supermarkets to WalMart and Costco.

While I can't get any beef for under $3/lb regularly these days, pork generally hovers around $2.50-$4/lb regular price and can frequently be had for much less on sale. Chicken legs/thighs/quarters are $1.30/lb fresh, and go on sale for less than $1/lb roughly once a month. Boneless breasts are $2.50 (and currently on sale for $1.87 at my usual supermarket - I just checked prices as I was writing this up).

Whole chicken is more difficult to find - which is weird. You either get monster chickens that defy nature itself or chicken pieces, but a regular chicken to throw in a pot for soup seems to have gone the way of the dinosaurs... I'm not sure why either.

I don't usually buy whole chickens, but my mom has been making similar comments for years. I think it's a consequence of the way chickens have been bred in the US, at least as far as the factory farms go. If they're breeding for maximum breast size (and I'm pretty sure they are - anecdotally, they've gotten a lot larger than I remember then being as a kid in the '90s, and white meat is the preference of most Americans, so it makes sense to maximize it), the whole chicken is going to necessarily get larger.

 

[The Barbarian]

I can't afford meat anymore. When enough people can't afford to buy meat are you hoping the prices will go down? Do you think it's a good thing people can't afford healthy food?

In a free market, that's how it works. It's why we have a mixed system with some government intervention to help those less fortunate.

 

[Belk]

My lease expires next month, and the new price went up $500. From $3400 to $3900.

That's ridiculous. I also have two car payments - me and my wife have twin Mazda cx-5's, so I don't really have a lot of cash after bills.

...I would move, but my daughter has a group of friends that she really likes. It would break her heart.

I would buy a house, instead of throwing my money away, but I have a commitment phobia about it. As soon as I do, I know I'm going to have to leave for somewhere else, and sell it. I'd look like an idiot.

What are you renting? For that kind of money you could get a 4 bedroom 2 bath house in Seattle.

 

[DaisyDay]

I think they only do so out of a sense of nostalgia for the good old days when the Democrats were actually a labor party.

Or for lack of a acceptable alternative.

 

[DaisyDay]

Why does inflation exist? Why are we still reeling from covid?

What would you prefer, deflation, stagnation or inflation? and why?

Most economists think that there is an optimal inflation rate that allows for the economy to grow.