The notorious Grocery Shrink Ray was supposed to help prevent this, or so we were told by apologists for it, but Datamonitor is reporting that Kraft Foods, Kellogg’s, ConAgra, Sara Lee, and Tyson “are all expected to announce a hike in the prices of their products” in the near future. Here are some of the hikes you can expect, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
- Cereal makers General Mills and Kellogg Co. have both said they will raise prices. General Mills “said it needed to make up for cost increases that it expects will total 9 percent.”
- Kraft Foods, whose brands include Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia cream cheese, Oreos and Wheat Thins, will follow its 8% price increase earlier this year with another one to offset rising commodity costs.
- Sara Lee will raise prices 20% for its meat products like Jimmy Dean sausages and Ball Park Franks. Sara Lee’s COO gave this mangled explanation to Datamonitor: “Price increases vary a lot by type of products but the increases will be as low as zero and some products we will decrease on and other increases (will be) in excess of 20%.”
The Chicago Sun-Times advises,
Overall grocery prices are expected to rise 5 percent to 6 percent this year. But some categories are projected to post higher increases, such as eggs, fats and oils and cereals.
A report by the Food Institute, a research group for manufacturers, predicted 2008 increases of at least 9 percent for those products.
“Grocery bills going up — again” [Chicago Sun-Times]
“US food firms to increase prices again” [Datamonitor] (subscription only)
(Photo: Getty)
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So all those smug guys who said that rising gas prices would never affect them are going to apologize right?
Right?
I keep reading about ‘record profits’ for grocery stores and oil companies. Of course they are having ‘record profits’ they are using the current economic conditions to jack up their prices and pad their management salary/bonus and stock price. I certainly never see the same kind of ‘profit,’ and in fact I’m going to start running at a deficit soon with all these price hikes. And why do they get away with it? Because our government lets them and continues to give them and their rich CEO/stockholders tax breaks. Not like we peons in the public have any choice, we have to eat and we have to use some sort of transportation to get to work. Isn’t free market capitalism wonderful?
@ScubaSteveKzoo:
You hit the nail on the head! Despite having 2 teenagers in the house I usually buy pretty healthy stuff; however, we do like to BBQ. For the past several months I’ve been buying zero meat, & NO extra stuff like chips, ice cream, etc. I realized that I’m eating healthier now despite myself. The kids don’t complain as much as I thought they would!
Did anybody simply consider that they are raising prices because they can?
Why didn’t they lay the blame on fuel prices when the portions started shrinking?Why the hidden effort to sneak the same price on a lower amount of product?
Methinks accounting took a look and realized they could simply jack up prices by a percentage,lay the blame on big oil, and walk away rich.
Ya’know guys… Everyone is complaining about how food prices are going up, or product is shrinking.. Look back about 15 years ago. Things weren’t in huge containers or boxes…
They say America is the fattest country, and everyone is wanting the big foods. They’re making the big foods more expensive and/or smaller to make sure you’ll limit yourself on your food choices and not buy so much. If you ask me, its sort of a win/win situation. You’re getting healthier even though you’re not realizing it!
I’m sure it’s just like the oil companies…there’s a valid reason to raise prices, so what the hell…might as well take the opportunity to gouge! I wonder how many food corporation executives are putting in orders for new yachts?
Pretty soon it’s going to be back to eating ramen for dinner. Sheesh, I thought I left that behind in college.
Store brands are excellent if you find ones you like. Personally, I don’t have a problem with most store brand products and I buy the all the time. I probably save 30% off my food bill. It’s usually a trial and error process to find what you can and can’t live with.
@HogwartsAlum: It’s not too late to garden for this year, even as far north as Upstate New York you should be able to get in two or three more crops of greens beans, and sugar snap and snow peas won’t go in for a few weeks yet.Cucumbers and squash all are pretty quick as well. Summer greens like chard will grow well with some shade cloth.
Does this mean Americans will finally stop getting fat? I would double my monthly food bill in exchange for not having to look at the grotesquely obese.
@nonzenze: Does this mean Americans will finally stop getting fat? Seeing that poor people buy less-expensive, lower-quality foodstuffs that are usually more empty-calorie laden, I’d say no.
Seeing that stress (inflation, poverty) increases cortisol levels, which leads to weight gain, I’d say no.
For all of you who are so smug about an overabundance of food, you should know that as recently as WWI and II that malnutrition and consequent poor health were such problems among the American public that a large number of our young men were considered unfit for military service. This is a reason why we got school lunch and milk programs.
@RodAox: Are you talking about a CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture)? Those are pretty well worth it if you can get in on them before they reach capacity. Basically, you pay the farmer for a share of the whole season’s harvest up front, which in my area runs between $600-$750. You go to the farm yourself and pick up the goods weekly. It’s kind of like a grab bag, because what you get depends on what they happened to have ready that day, but you get enough of it to feed 4-6 people and you can always swap veggies with other members if you’re not keen on something you’ve gotten. Most farms have a variety of fruits and veggies; some will also do flowers, eggs, milk, cheese, or even meat. Assuming you do a lot of cooking (which is probably a wise idea right now) and you can find a CSA farm close by, you can save a ton of money.
@SexierThanJesus: I’ll kind of apologize. It’s led me to start playing thegrocerygame as I said above, and using coupons. Not out of any real necessity, but out of cheapness. Otherwise the trade-off is (a) fewer toys, (b) fewer vacations, (c) fewer nights out, (d) well, pretty much fewer anything that I like to do for fun. Because I’m a good consumerist, I’d never let it arrive at (e) fewer personal savings, but I recognize that for lots of people less fortunate than me, option (e) would be appealing.
@Clobberella: How long is the harvest season? Honestly, $600 or more sounds like the opposite of a bargain, especially if it’s only produce. Something like this should be thought of as cost per month that you get groceries. I’m guessing it’s not a 12-month deal. It would be worthwhile only if you have a large family and time and equipment to can and freeze.