As we all know, anecdotal data is better than so-called "evidence" from the deep-state food bureaucrats at the BLS or the USDA. Luckily, I just got back from my local Albertson's supermarket and was able to personally check on the price of bacon here in California. There were four brands. The cheapest was $6 and the most expensive was $8, with an overall average of $7.
Hah! The idiots at the USDA claimed bacon was selling for $6.37. I guess we showed them. This is what we mean by "doing your own research."
POSTSCRIPT: On a serious note, in case you care, the USDA was actually dead on. Their estimate is for the four-state southwestern area, which is the closest they come to just California. My guess is that bacon is cheaper outside of California, where they're still allowed to torture pigs, and that brought the average down.
The irony is weak with this one!
What did you do with the $15 packs , mr. Drum???!!! (They probably have Trump’s face on them. Never miss an opportunity to fleece his cult.)
Actually you find Trump’s face on the pork rump.
Looking at my "Schnuck's" app, and normalizing to 16 oz., bacon runs from $4.79 to $38.80 (the latter being pre-cooked turkey bacon, in a 2.1 oz pack). But with real uncooked bacon, coming in >= 12 oz. packages, going as high as $15.32/lb. There's probably like 20 different choices in that price range.
And that's without any "Schnoupons" to lower the price.
MO has always been a little surprisingly high for groceries, even pre-pandemic. (Store brand butter was often $4/lb, even pre-pandemic.)
I'd say that $7+/-$2 per lb gets you 95% of what they have in the bacon department.
(We get the thick cut from the butcher at "Fresh Thyme" -- not too salty, and often on sale for ~$5/lb.)
This seems bad. To much private equity is what’s making bacon expensive. Or something…
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/05/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html
A shrinking market: The stock market isn’t the economy (for the most part). And its influence over the macro environment has been fading for some time. At their peak in 1996, there were 7,300 publicly traded companies in the US. Today there are about 4,300. Nearly 90% of all firms with revenues greater than $100 million are now private, said Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management. Privately-owned firms also account for nearly 80% of all US jobs openings.
I bet the number of mutual funds kept going up...
ok, more like holding steady:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/255590/number-of-mutual-fund-companies-in-the-united-states/
With old fashioned retirement plans, their fund managers would invest the money with an eye to long term returns, with some percent of the money going towards riskier investments and some percent going toward hedges to manage risk.
With 401k's, everyone has to be their fund manager to some extent. In some cases, investors were steered to the company itself.
Even worse, the changes in tax laws meant the wealthy get more, and are looking for a sure thing. So money goes into buying up mobile home parks--it's not like the renters can up and move, so squeeze them. Buy up homes to rent back to those looking for homes. Buy up companies, charge huge fees, sell off the property (to rent back), load up debt--then run away. Always fun to do this to hospitals and water companies.
Even publicly traded companies will get in on this act to boost quarterly statements.
fyi: stock market did rather well today on news that job openings are falling...
I wonder if there's a correlation to companies bought up by Private Equity?
I assume you used a weighted average depending the number of packages of each brand sold, and adjusted for inflation since they were put on the shelf.
Supermarkets of course can adjust prices every week (or day, for that matter) if they want to since they are just in a computer (and a replaceable shelf tag) and not on an actual price tag on the item.
Always check your Albertson's app before shopping, I'm in Las Vegas and Farmer John's is 3.99 for 12 oz., 3 lbs. of Signature Select on sale for $8.91 (1 lb. package regular price today is $4.99), & otherwise several products from $5.99 - $6.99, so doesn't look much different here in Nevada if not clipping and getting the deals.
For me, the real inflation tracker for bacon is North Country Smokehouse bacon (currently $8.29 for 12 oz at Whole Foods).
I simply don't understand why a certain type of human delights in stupid lies about easy-to-verify price data.
The howler that killed the game was Dave Brooks' and his airport scotch, but one-time blogger Jane Galt posted her own insipid version and "hide the expensive item" seemed to be a Xitter game for a while.
The unifying feature seems to be a desire to be employed as a PR servant for the very wealthy embedded in the media.
What setting do you put the machine on to launder bacon - certainly not delicate.
Neuske’s farm in Wisconsin is selling a gourmet bacon assortment (without the gift box), three varieties for $44. 12oz each or 2lbs 4oz total. That’s’ about $18.88 a pound.
I’ve had it before, really good. They offered it for breakfast at Manny’s steak house in Minneapolis.
I have forgotten what good bacon is. I've been on turkey bacon for what seems like forever.
Pork belly. Mmm.