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Prices.... Going Up!!!

Oasis8 said:
With other commodities the best you can do is shop for the lowest prices, only loss of sales will motivate businesses and corporations, unfortunately with the prevalence of many businesses falling under the ownership of single corporations this even can have a limited effect.
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Yes, a limited effect. Consolidation, an ongoing process of having a limited effect. I have seen the enemy and he is us. Two natures, ya know.
 
Also, initially a business or corporation may actually increase the cost of their product or service, hoping to offset the loss from the drop of number of sales.
Or they may reduce costs elsewhere, like with staff layoffs and other things.
 
YY1 said:
Thought about switching coffee brands last week.
Price checked the new desired brand. Nope.
Current brand (Chock Full O' Nuts) was $8.99 two years ago, then jumped to $10.61 (!?!).
Major brands (Folgers, Maxwell House) had been 10.99-12.99.
Our brand eventually realized their error and repriced at 9.89.
Last week they were back to 10.61.
Major brands at 14.99.
The new consideration (Community) is 16.99!
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Coffee lasts a long time, so I load up in sales. I drink decaf since getting sick and have come to like a Starbucks Blonde roast. Meijer sells it for $9.99/12 oz, and I buy it when it goes on sale for $6.99. About a month ago it went BOGO and we bought about a dozen bags; probably should have bought more. I drink about a bag/week at a pot a day which is about a buck a day. I probably spend less in a week than anyone buying two coffee shop coffees does in a day.

I’ve always bought thrifty and buy as much as I can store w/o going out of code. My freezer is full too, so I had to pass on the markdown turkeys this week. If I had room, I’d have a couple of them in a fridge as one literally can feed us for a week or longer.

As to gas, Costco is $2.54 by me today.

BTW, higher wages are a cost, so if folks get paid more prices go up, or someone gets laid off. Businesses aren’t going to eat that and pass it on in every touch in the chain to the end user. Like it or not, that’s the way it is.
 
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We bought a dozen or more when we smelled the initial increase.
...and at least four cans every time it was on sale.
So much that it actually became a storage issue.
 
YY1 said:
Thought about switching coffee brands last week.
Price checked the new desired brand. Nope.
Current brand (Chock Full O' Nuts) was $8.99 two years ago, then jumped to $10.61 (!?!).
Click to expand...
In the 70's when I worked in a grocery store, the owners would stock up on cans of major coffee (as in stacked to the ceiling) when the price was low.
They made out well when the prices rose again.
They were smart and had the liquidity to do it.

Nothing new.
A lot depends on the weather and crop yield.
 
GChief said:
We get bulk green beans and roast a batch for the week on Sundays :rockon:
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Wow, nice. I know people are just fine with month's old grounds but there's a roaster a few blocks away from me, and man the coffee from freshly roasted beans is amazing. And within a week, that exact ground won't have that same great flavor.
 
There's two maj strikes going on in Canada (dockworkers/postal staff) costing millions upon millions of dollars to the economy each day, along with a coalition government at the helm.

Then there's the possible coming "tariffs", which will affect both countries in a neg way.

So, for the many it's either eat or pay rent... but not both!

You can imagine what will happen food prices in the immediate future.


Q
 
Well, that’s nice to think, but folks here want their cake and eat it too. Companies source labor elsewhere as it is a major component of the price tag. Money talks and BS walks; lots of places have tried selling American only to have customers choose other imports with lower price tags. Companies would love to build things here, but those who buy their goods won’t foot the bill for the prices. Ironically, they’ll pop top dollar for a designer branded items as a vanity statement, but not pay a lesser premium for US produced products. Gotta love it….

Years ago I had a couple eye opening experiences. I was auditing some patio furniture built with South American wood and manufactured in Africa. That alway made me wonder at what shipping cost to send a container of lumber from South America, to Africa for construction, then to the US for sale. Then there was a WSJ article I read where furniture companies were shifting from China to Vietnam as the wages in Vietnam were massively cheaper than in China. I doubt many of those companies are coming back to North Carolina and the prices of US hardwood and American labor anytime soon as their costs, and subsequent wholesale prices would explode massively.
 
A lot of stuff that goes into American made items are sourced from over seas, including electronics, automotive and machinery.

It would take years and years and years, and a hell of a lot of investment $$$$$$$$$$$ to establish all American made if it ever happened. The eventual cost of the products would be high.
 
Everything is relative. Price is just a number. Hot dogs used to be a nickle, now they are $5 yet people are still eating them.
Maybe it's bad, maybe it's good but the nations of the world are competing with each other. There are winners and losers. Decide which team you want to play for.
 
DesertRatt said:
Make it here, consume it here, pay the taxes here, spread the benefits here, and let others feel free to do the same. Picking an apple and sending it 5,000 miles away to be eaten is just nonsensical.
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Except in a world where Capital prefers what serves it best...isolation is a nonstarter from every angle.
 
DR,
The global economy is managed by many long-standing institutions, not the least of which is the WTO. See here: https://www.trade.gov/wto-agreements
At least thousands of pages of rules, treaties, and legislation completely confine and control "capital" around the globe. It's not the free-for-all that many imagine and brag about in meaningless terms like "free-market." Western governments refer to this as the "rules-based order" of the world.

I'm not saying it is easy, quick, or painless.

Countries have invoked capital controls frequently, and some still do. https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/economics/capital-controls/

There are no natural laws that apply - the entire global economy is just made up of ideas.
 
DeadRock said:
"Make it here, consume it here, pay the taxes here, spread the benefits here, and let others feel free to do the same. Picking an apple and sending it 5,000 miles away to be eaten is just nonsensical."

This...
Click to expand...

Just for clarification though.....I am all for selling our goods to other countries. That kind of takes the "isolation" idea out of the discussion. The post WWII era is a good example of this effect. The US was "the world's producer." We made everything the world wanted/needed. Not coincidentally, that period was economically golden in this country.
 
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