As Food Costs Rise, People Are Buying More Ramen and...Spam?
The Associated Press is saying that rising food costs are driving people to buy more Spam, despite the fact that the Spam itself is more expensive. Are you really doing this?
The price of Spam is up too, with the average 12 oz. can costing about $2.62. That's an increase of 17 cents, or nearly 7 percent, from the same time last year. But it's not stopping sales, as the pork meat in a can seems like a good alternative to consumers.
Kimberly Quan, a stay-at-home mom of three who lives just outside San Francisco, has been feeding her family more Spam in the last six months as she tries to make her food budget go further.
She cooks meals like Spam fried rice and Spam sandwiches two or three times a month, up from once a month previously.
Pulling Spam from the shelf prevents last-minute grocery store trips and overspending, said Quan, 38, of Pleasanton, Calif.
"It's canned meat and it's in the cupboard and if everything else is gone from the fridge, it's there," she said.
Spam's maker, Hormel Foods Corp., reported last week that it saw strong sales of Spam in the second quarter, helping push up its profits 14 percent. According to sales information coming from Hormel, provided by The Nielsen Co., Spam sales were up 10.6 percent in the 12-week period ending May 3, compared to last year. In the last 24 weeks, sales were up nearly 9 percent.
The Austin, Minn.-based company, also known for the Jennie-O Turkey Store, has embarked on its first national advertising campaign for the 71-year-old brand in several years. They've credited the sales increase to that, along with new products like individually packaged "Spam Singles" slices. Also helping sales, executives said in an earnings conference call, was the fact that people looking to save money are skipping restaurant meals and eating more at home.
Spam Singles? According to the article Spam costs about $3.49 per lbs. Is this a good deal? Our local grocery store in Brooklyn has boneless chicken breasts on sale for $2.49 per lbs.
Another woman in the article says she's feeding her kids ramen more often:
April Smith has been changing the way she feeds her family in Broken Arrow, Okla., to keep up with rising costs. This summer the 33-year-old administrative assistant will feed her two boys, ages 11 and 8, more ramen for lunch. Normally they eat the noodle soup on Saturdays, but since ramen costs about a dime per pack, they'll get it twice a week. Smith says she'll throw in some leftover frozen vegetables to make it more nutritious.
"Since it's cheap and easy, I figure why not let them eat it twice a week instead of once a week," Smith said.
What are you doing to save money at the grocery store? Is canned meat involved?
Sales of Spam rise as consumers trim food costs [AP]
(Photo: jodsey )
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Comments:
Rice + chicken + broccoli
Pasta + chicken + broccoli
Those are my two most common means I cook
And they are relatively cheap
BUT unlike a lot of America I try to eat normal serving sizes, that probably saves me a lot
people should see how crazy it is over in south korea; those bricks of spam are like gold...
i remember fondly many nights of spam and ramen...::sigh:: if my body was only like that now i could still do it, but eating that stuff is what put me in this position in the first place...
Ummmm...we just buy more meat when it's on sale and load up the freezer (esp. chicken and steak).
The grocery prices are hitting the news hard right now, but our personal grocery budget jumped up and leveled out almost a year ago and has been pretty consistent ever since. Knock on wood, but everything has seemed pretty stabile for the past few months from my observations.
the deal is, its not that they are getting poorer, its just that gas is so pricey now people can't afford to drive to McDonalds as much.
people are lazy or busy and just don't have the time to whip up a meal under 30 mins.
Also worth mentioning that 18 months ago, we went to one grocery store (Publix). Now we go to three of them in rotation, depending on sale prices and what we need (Publix, Winn-Dixie, Walmart Neighborhood Market)
I can buy a FRESH (And I mean fresh) chicken roaster for $1.49/lb. It's the same price in the grocery store. 1 4 lb chicken is generally 2 - 3 meals for the two of us and costs slightly under $6 or about $2/meal/person. Actually, the last one, we ate chicken legs and thighs for the first night. The wings for a snack and then the meat, I picked off and made 6 servings of chicken pot pie.
You can eat less processed food for less, yes.
@Nissan288: Yeah, in my house we eat kimchee bok-keum bahp with egg and spam pretty regularly. Admittedly it is completely unrelated to overall food costs.
Food prices in America are up 4%
Food prices in the World are up +20%
Sooooo....America FTW
Ramen has the nutritional value of a cardboard box. Try buying only meat on sale. Ground chuck is still around $2/lb so why would you buy spam for $3.50/lb? Makes no sense to me.
Shelf stability is a factor here. Not everyone has a lot of storage space especially for frozen food. I lived for years in apartments and it was difficult to keep myself in much frozen food. Buying shelf-stable items meant fewer trips to the grocery store; even if the item was a bit more expensive, avoiding a trip or not having the temptation to just order delivery food was worth it.
Having quick, easy-to-make items definitely helps reduce my eating out cost (I don't always have time, for example, to make rice; cooked rice pouches and frozen rice are worth a small premium to me).
Weekly vegetable box + rice + pasta + beans = many, many cheap, wholesome, and tasty meals.
"S"quirrels
"P"ossum
"A"nd
"M"ice
You can save a TON by going to the grocery store when they first open and buying the brown meat that's been marked down; I eat like a king because I purchase steaks that are close to their expiration date and freezing them.
@Ash78: ...we just buy more meat when it's on sale and load up the freezer (esp. chicken and steak).
Same here. I have enough chicken nuggets,sausages, and other various meats in my freezer to last for months. That and I've started accompanying some of my friends on their monthly trip to Costco, so that I can stock up on groceries that I either tend to go through quickly or have long shelf lives.
Geez, I am flashbacks from childhood...still cannot eat Spam or even smell it without gagging. How about making more soup and beans? It has got to healthy and more cost effective than Spam.
Really, people are idiots if they are paying that and thinking they are saving money buying Spam. I buy regularly priced chicken for less than that, and I'm talking boneless skinless breast, tenderloins and cutlets. Pork loin for $1.99/lb and London Broil for $2.49 lb. And, I'm not talking scouring the sales either. :/ And, it's not like it takes anymore time to stir fry that up than it does to make a stir fry with spam. Talk about lazy.
I don't know if I'm eating MORE of it, but Spam isn't something I sniff at, anyway, you bunch of snobs. ;) Seriously, Spam musubi? Spam and eggs with rice? At least once a month.
I found a great thrift store book from the 1960's called "365 WAYS TO COOK HAMBURGER"
Other than this, we're getting a chest freezer and buying half a cow from a farm in autumn. Also, we live in Oregon (berry capital of the world) so there's lots of U-pick farms.
@danno99: Dang you beat me to it.
"Waitress: Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam; spam bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam bacon spam tomato and spam." Ohhh man that's a classic.
i have to agree with the other posters so far, spam is not really that cheap. as far as longer shelf-life protein goes even eggs are cheaper than spam, and better for you.
buy fresh meat on sale and learn to cook and use your freezer. learn to be creative with eggs. grow your own herbs, tomatos, peppers (no yard needed). there are far better solutions than effing spam and ramen!
Nah. I rarely even buy frozen meats, never mind canned. I don't really make much of an effort to save money on food, other than not eating out too much.
Of course, things like the large, thick, fresh, 20-buck-a-piece steaks and chops are pretty much reserved for special occasions. But other than that I don't shy away from buying everyday fresh meats.
1. Spam doesn't get pumped full of water to drive the price per unit of actual meat up.
2. Spam just SEEMS like it ought to go better with instant ramen than does something like chicken breasts or steak, therefore it DOES go better.
3. Spam is quicker and easier to cook without fucking it up than other meats, better matching things like ramen.
4. I haven't noticed it here, but I suppose it's possible that meat prices in general have risen more than Spam prices in some locations. (Vegetables are what have really skyrocketed in AZ)
5. ""It's canned meat and it's in the cupboard and if everything else is gone from the fridge, it's there," she said." If you're buying things in bulk, all of a sudden fridge and freezer space is at a premium, therefore meat that can go in the cupboard is worth a little more.
6. The AVERAGE price of Spam has gone up. How was that determined? Surveying store shelves? Are sale prices included in that, and weighted for the actual quantity bought at those times? Has the actual price that people PAY per unit gone up? I've seen plenty of instances where the regular price of things has gone up, but occasionally the sale prices will be at pre-oil-price-hysteria levels, and I'll buy the shit out of it then (bell peppers). The same could be happening with Spam.
i read a lot on here how people buy and freeze their food, and it makes me shutter.
i guess that's fine if you don't care about the quality of your food, but freezing meat and poultry basically ruins all the natural flavor and texture, and people have to add overtly-processed sauces to create some semblance of flavor (and in the process, undo any nutritional gain.)
of course, you could grocery shop twice a week and always have fresh, unfrozen foods.
I like spam, but it's just cheaper to buy things like chicken breasts, hamburger, pork, etc.
Its only a good deal if you can only buy your groceries once every two-four weeks and don't have a giant freezer. Which actually applies to more people than we consumerist elitists (lol) think.
Actually, I tend to buy a lot of non-perishables once a month to fill in the days where my fresh food had gone bad.
@dry-roasted-peanuts: Seconded, since for almost 10 years now my family's been buying nothing but bulk and preparing everything ourselves.
Spam, or any processed food really, is never the savings it seems to be at the time. Buy what's on sale and throw it together in a creative way, add one or two "fancy" ingredients like Reggiano Parmesan or a really good wine and you're still way ahead, budget wise and taste wise.
Though I haven't really bought pre-packaged food in years, I can definitely vouch for the savings incurred by getting a little creative in the kitchen. For example, I can feed two of us for about three days on what I would spend taking us out to dinner once (think Ruby Tuesdays or Applebees or something on those lines). SOOO worth the few minutes extra it takes to cook for yourself.
@henrygates: We buy the 'family size' trays of whatever is on sale, and divide it up into meal-sized portions (for us, that's three portions per gallon-sized freezer bag) before putting it in the freezer. You see a lot of sales at the supermarket, but only when you buy 5 lbs. or more at a time.
As a Minnesotan, I thank you for sending your cash our way.
We do the freezer stuff like others have mentioned, only we tend to stick to ground turkey. Though we are fans of canned chicken / tuna because it's just easier to deal with some days (being able to make tortilla chicken soup without browning / chopping the chicken first saves time and effort).
I do have to admit we are scaling back on some things (like being more store brand friendly) and we are taking advantage of more food purchases at Costco.
People can be conditioned to eat things they wouldn't normally eat. It's sad.
More Ramen, please?
Yes, we are buying more Ramen...lots more...
Spam and Ramen? Try Spam and boxed Macaroni and Cheese. I eat like a king... a 14th century king weighing 300 lbs.
I went to Hawaii a couple of years ago and remember seeing a lot of locals buying Spam. I thought bad for these people, because I thought they couldn't afford to buy decent cuts of meat. Turns out, lots of people over there just really like Spam. When I returned from my trip, I coincidentally saw a random news article that said how Spam is more popular in Hawaii than anywhere else.
I think that giving your children the idea that cutting back on nutrition rather than cutting back on "nice to haves" is a poor message. Growing kids should be eating fresh fruit and veggies and meats as much as possible, even if it means cutting out cable and cell phones and other BS...giving them preservative filled processed food is a bad idea, period... how many of us are healthy on that sort of diet as an adult?
Rice or pasta, veggies (usually a salad), chicken or ground turkey. Thats pretty much what I eat everyday. I usually go to the grocery store twice a week and get the managers special and cook it that night or next night to keep things fresh.
I can't eat Spam, the two times I tried it in my life I ended up puking afterwards.
Now ramen, that's something I haven't had in a while, and supposedly I'm the perfect demographic for doing so. However, last night I was able to combine $1.00 of chicken and $0.50 in some frozen vegetables with soy sauce, pepper, ginger, and garlic to make a kick ass stir fry, with plenty to take to work the next day.
@KatieKate93:
Restaurants like Applebees and the rest in that type are rips offs. I can get good Chinese or Sushi for the cost of an $8.00+ burger at Applebees.
Still, going out is increasingly insane because of rising costs.
"...Spam?" Oh, you Americans and your irrational hatred of processed foods despite the fact that the Hostess fruit pie has a lot more ingredients.
You know, Asian people love spam, and use it as a meat substitute, it's kinda like having meat loaf on a Thursday night or something. Nothing beats veggies and spam on separate dishes for dinner every once in a while or so.
With rice prices going up, I hope I don't resort to ..ugh... American rice.
I've always wondered, why do Americans pronounce ramen the right way, "rah-men," instead of "ray-men?" While karate is "ka-ra-tea," and karaoke is "kar-e-o-ki?" Don't get me started on hari kari, which doesn't even mean "hara kiri."
I cook at home. That's how I save money. Spam is disgusting and so is ramen. Might as well fry up some tube socks.
@Angryrider: Isn't hara kiri is the late coke-bottle-glasses baseball announcer lovingly immortalized by Will Ferrell? "If you were a hot dog, and you couldn't afford Spam, would you eat yourself"
If you're eating corn-fed beef from the grocery store, it doesn't matter if you pay $1.00 a pound or $15.00 a pound. It's all assy and bad for you.
i'm sorry that caring about what you eat is snobbish--some people, such as myself, see food as something besides a trivial commodity for nutritional energy.
We buy Turkey Spam (around a quarter the fat of regular Spam) to make Spam musubi once or twice a month, but don't eat it otherwise. It's about $2.25 a can here for 12 ounces.
Spam is cheaper than going out to eat, of course, but not at all cheaper than fresh chicken or even fresh beef on sale. It isn't even cheaper than real ham on sale.
I can buy a huge chicken for around $5.00 and get 2 meals for 4-5 people out of (8 to 10 individual meals total), whereas Spam is 2.25 for one meal for 2-3 people. But it's a nice treat & so tasty.
Spam is probably more popular because a lot of people wouldn't know what to do with a raw chicken or a pot roast if it were staring them in the face, but pretty much anyone can open a can of Spam, dump it on a plate, slice it & put it on bread with mayo or mustard.
I feel sort of sorry for people who can't cook.
ewwww....
Monty Python references in 3...2...