It’s very clear that the majority of Americans don’t pay close attention to prices when they shop. I was raised to save as much money as possible and ONLY buy store brand or food on sale, so i’ve been closely checking prices for over 20 years.
The last year has been DRASTIC. Red meat has gone up 40-60% where i live, pork has gone up 10%, chips have gone up 20%, chicken has only gone up 5% luckily. Egg prices don’t matter cause most of those fluctuations were caused by avian flu, not inflation.
I don’t drink coffee, but most american’s do, Prices on coffee have gone up 100%.
Also those who track sales, beer went up about 5% to counteract the aluminum tariffs as we only supply 6% of the global aluminum supply. So i’d imagine all canned items will go up once aluminum reserves are gone at manufacturers and they have to restock. They also don’t put these on sale as often and if they do, it’s only $1 off, not the usual $3 or $4 off.
This is all on top of the fact the majority of americans are seeing 10-40% increases on insurance premiums for their cars and homes, energy bills are skyrocketing, water bills have gone up at least 10% in my area, Health insurance is about to double or TRIPLE for millions with the Big Bill Act the GOP passed.
2026 is going to be record prices across the board, so i hope everyone’s been saving since 2024 when they saw Donald was going into office.
Coffee prices have also doubled or nearly doubled in most of Europe. So has cocoa. If climate change keeps hitting those crops they’re going to be unattainable luxuries soon enough.
Good luck to you all in the US, soon enough you’ll be back on pioneer diets.
Wtf are you talking about. Coffee prices have not doubled this year in Europe, that’s an outrageous claim. 25% at most, and that is itself already a totally absurd level of inflation.
I disagree that Americans don’t pay attention to prices. Americans paying attention to prices was one of the biggest reasons why Biden lost. Biden and Harris were claiming that they’d beat inflation, that the economy was great, that America was on the right track and Harris just needed to continue Biden’s policies - and Americans looked at their grocery bills and didn’t buy it.
And that’s what gives me a certain amount of hope in 2026. Because if people are going to bed hungry - and they will be - no amount of shitposting by Donnie and his cronies is going to convince them they’re full.
people’s understanding of prices has very little to do with economic reality. and yes, Harris royally fucked up by insisting that broad econonomic indicators being good meant that it was good for the average citizen. Truth is the american economic is great if you are in the upper middle class or better and since the democratic doner base is often wealthier liberals… so it’s total blind spot for them. Harris was not listening to with auto workers in the Midwest… hence Trump got their votes because he was listening to them.
that’s why you go to food banks. or calorie count to maximize your calories per dollar. i’ve been there.
but things cost what they cost. whether you think they should cost that much… that’s the perception. a lot of USA foodstuffs are highly subsidized and others are not. Red meat is a luxury food and is priced accordingly and if anything it’s still underpriced vastly compared to it’s true cost.
Pork and chicken are much cheaper. I can get a whole chicken for $2/lbs… do that’s mostly what I eat for protein these days. I’d be insane if I was buying red meat at the $15-25/lb it costs. but i also thought it was insane back when it was only 10/lb.
If you are buying lobster or other high priced foods while financially struggling… that’s just making bad choices.
Red meat is a luxury food and is priced accordingly
Its really not. If you look at the beef industry profit margins in the last 6 years, they got supercharged during and after the pandemic because they realized that due to the restrictions placed on imports they could charge whatever they wanted for beef.
It’s very clear that the majority of Americans don’t pay close attention to prices when they shop. I was raised to save as much money as possible and ONLY buy store brand or food on sale, so i’ve been closely checking prices for over 20 years.
The last year has been DRASTIC. Red meat has gone up 40-60% where i live, pork has gone up 10%, chips have gone up 20%, chicken has only gone up 5% luckily. Egg prices don’t matter cause most of those fluctuations were caused by avian flu, not inflation.
I don’t drink coffee, but most american’s do, Prices on coffee have gone up 100%.
Also those who track sales, beer went up about 5% to counteract the aluminum tariffs as we only supply 6% of the global aluminum supply. So i’d imagine all canned items will go up once aluminum reserves are gone at manufacturers and they have to restock. They also don’t put these on sale as often and if they do, it’s only $1 off, not the usual $3 or $4 off.
This is all on top of the fact the majority of americans are seeing 10-40% increases on insurance premiums for their cars and homes, energy bills are skyrocketing, water bills have gone up at least 10% in my area, Health insurance is about to double or TRIPLE for millions with the Big Bill Act the GOP passed.
2026 is going to be record prices across the board, so i hope everyone’s been saving since 2024 when they saw Donald was going into office.
Coffee prices have also doubled or nearly doubled in most of Europe. So has cocoa. If climate change keeps hitting those crops they’re going to be unattainable luxuries soon enough.
Good luck to you all in the US, soon enough you’ll be back on pioneer diets.
Wtf are you talking about. Coffee prices have not doubled this year in Europe, that’s an outrageous claim. 25% at most, and that is itself already a totally absurd level of inflation.
I was in Europe last week and I’ll be there again next week- what are you talking about?
https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/coffee
https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/cocoa
The price on store shelves lags behind by a few weeks/months.
It’s not a US-only phenomenon that those prices rose a lot, that’s all I was saying.
I disagree that Americans don’t pay attention to prices. Americans paying attention to prices was one of the biggest reasons why Biden lost. Biden and Harris were claiming that they’d beat inflation, that the economy was great, that America was on the right track and Harris just needed to continue Biden’s policies - and Americans looked at their grocery bills and didn’t buy it.
And that’s what gives me a certain amount of hope in 2026. Because if people are going to bed hungry - and they will be - no amount of shitposting by Donnie and his cronies is going to convince them they’re full.
prices are about perception. just like politics.
people’s understanding of prices has very little to do with economic reality. and yes, Harris royally fucked up by insisting that broad econonomic indicators being good meant that it was good for the average citizen. Truth is the american economic is great if you are in the upper middle class or better and since the democratic doner base is often wealthier liberals… so it’s total blind spot for them. Harris was not listening to with auto workers in the Midwest… hence Trump got their votes because he was listening to them.
Not when the cost of your food exceeds the amount of money in your bank account.
that’s why you go to food banks. or calorie count to maximize your calories per dollar. i’ve been there.
but things cost what they cost. whether you think they should cost that much… that’s the perception. a lot of USA foodstuffs are highly subsidized and others are not. Red meat is a luxury food and is priced accordingly and if anything it’s still underpriced vastly compared to it’s true cost.
Pork and chicken are much cheaper. I can get a whole chicken for $2/lbs… do that’s mostly what I eat for protein these days. I’d be insane if I was buying red meat at the $15-25/lb it costs. but i also thought it was insane back when it was only 10/lb.
If you are buying lobster or other high priced foods while financially struggling… that’s just making bad choices.
Its really not. If you look at the beef industry profit margins in the last 6 years, they got supercharged during and after the pandemic because they realized that due to the restrictions placed on imports they could charge whatever they wanted for beef.
https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-products/cattle-beef/statistics-information
Beef consumption rates haven’t changed much at all in the last 20 years. Yet profit margins have more that doubled.
Chicken price increases at least have the excuse of the bird flu epidemic wiping out millions of birds in a really short period of time.