They also haven't passed any significant legislation with the house majority. They have nothing to campaign on except the border and Trump.

I do think it is important, but the grocery prices are still high, especially in certain segments. Like meat across the board, but especially beef. Many things are never going back down, and some still feel like they are way overpriced.

I am still waiting for their jan 6 commission where they show us Antifa, black life matters, the cia and nancy pelosi were behind it all.

Mike Johnson is still blurring out the faces to protect the innocent.

President biden just called out grocery chains to lower prices, Don't think there's anything he can do but call them out though:


https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/u...od-prices.html

I know there isn't. Presidents get blamed for things that they have no control over. That is not likely to change anytime soon. Heck, I was just watching a Lefty talking about how there as a Nazi rally in "Biden's America." As if he formed it.

I think food sellers, retail and wholesale, are all happy with the situation. Those prices that were justifiable(?) at one time are giving them high profits now with their costs going down but not being passed on to the consumer. It won't change as long as nobody rocks the boat.

I don't think it's collusion (backroom agreements, setting prices) but stores around here aren't even trying to be competitive with each other like they used to. Holiday ads were crap, the usual loss leaders to get customers in were simply not there. Some of this is do to the store and some to the lack of allowances from the producers of goods. It only takes one company or chain to break the "truce", but right now they're all happy as they watch the bank accounts grow.

I'm not sure how, if, or when that cycle gets broken?

Interestingly Wegmans has a commercial out now about lowering prices.

Aren't things largely boiled down to just Walmart and Kroger at this point?

(Yes, I know Publix exists, in some places anyway.

I'm in Albertson's country - some things are just stupid expensive, but, I've found it easier to find really good sale prices just the last few weeks.

It's also nice to be a household member of a Whole Foods employee so we get 20% off everything there, and real time knowledge of the deals they have.

Don't know about large states, but in Iowa? No.

Talk is cheap and if he cared about fixing the high prices, he could go after companies for anti-competitive actions and price fixing. We already know the egg industry was doing it.

How do we know that the egg companies are doing it?

There's just a handful of big companies now who go out of their way not to compete with each other. Turning into the telecom industry.

Their numbers showed they lied about supply issues and they keep losing lawsuits over it.

Eggs range from $1.30'ish to $3+. Kroger & Publix brand eggs are good enough, don't have to pay extra for cage/range free eggs. I know you can see the difference, and might help your conscience, but doubt you can taste the difference. Overall, I've not been affected that much by grocery prices. There are plenty of brand name stuff that goes on sale to keep me happy.

The biggie for me are restaurant prices. Those don't seem to come down. Entrees that used to be $12-$14 are now $16-$18+. And college prices, would love for Joe to do something about that.

Heck, even prices for everyday cars (Corollas, Camrys, Accords) are coming back down to MSRP or below levels.

link?

*cries in Chicago*

Molson, can I be adopted?

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/23/high...up-claims.html

reuters.com

I took my son to Five Guys for lunch the other day. He got a plain hamburger, small fries, and a shake.

$23

Wendys is now like $12 for a meal. Feels like you could get one for $7-$8 a few years ago. Even Taco Bell is expensive and that place was perfect for tons of food for like $10.

Yeah. Like a lot of families we eat fast food a couple nights a week sometimes because of the timing of kids activities and wifes travel schedule. Just to feed my 13 and 10 year old and usually a Diet Coke for me (I don't do fast food except occasionally breakfast) it is easily in the $20-$23 range.

5 guys prices went through the roof with the pandemic and haven't come down. We've been trying cut back on eating out, especially doordash, because prices are getting out of hand.

I was curious about location differences, so I went & looked.

Same pricing within about $1 here IF you mean their standard Hamburger (which is a double)

If he got the "Little Hamburger" (which is a single) then the difference would be about $3.50 or so lower here.

That's a semi-frequent discussion here for several years now, dating back to at least Will's entire time in Miami. Once you get beyond the basic tacos, they get expensive in a hurry.

And with the new (to here, ymmv) surcharge of $0.49 per taco to add just basic onions, I can now actually get 3 tacos cheaper from 2-3 sit-down mexican restaurants in the area.

Though, to be fair about that, none of those really hit like TB tacos if you're in a certain mood

There was a time in college where you could go home with a grocery bag filled with Taco Bell tacos for like $20. It was the greatest poor college student restaurant that ever existed. McDonalds dollar menu up there as well. Tough to beat a $0.99 double cheeseburger which I don't think they even changed till like 5 years ago.

Now a quesadilla is near $7 near me.

FWIW

I know we are saving a ton of money not eating out. I get work gets in the way, but I've learn some pretty easy recipes from YT. I really wish we had cooked more when the kids were younger, too much fast food BS.

If you aren't too fussy with your food, don't expect perfection, and don't mind improvising some, do more home cooking.

Going to try some Garlic Naan this weekend!

The savings in $ is overwhelmed mightily here by the cost in time, patience, and aggravation.

I am (and have been for several years honestly) "I prefer mayo on my sandwich ... but that'd require me to get out the mayo, put it back, and dirty a knife that'll need to be washed ... so it ain't worth it" years old

Squeezable bottles, Jon.

... and dishwasher. Or just use paper plates and plastic cutlery.

I never kept track of food budget properly but I'm going to say that I'm easily saving 50% by not eating out much ... and I'm not as fat!

I caught the end of an Applebee's commercial, so I didn't quite catch the whole pitch, but I think that the gist of it was "Now that fast food is as expensive as Applebee's, come enjoy a sit down meal"

And I thought that was a really smart pitch

Those suckers never have seemed to work right once you're past halfway or so.

I mean, mustard bottles handle it pretty well. But the mayo in the bottles?
I guess it's the thickness or something.

*this is actually a familiar topic on my FB wall. I know a guy who rails against bottled mayo the way I rail against, I dunno, self checkout or something.

Funny you bring that up. This discussion caused me to ponder the last time I used an actual plate -- i.e. non-styrofaom -- here.

I think it was Christmas.

Yeah, my son has complained to me in the past about not getting mayo in a squeeze bottle. I'm perfectly happy with a jar. I can go at that with either a knife, an iced tea spoon, or even a rubber spatula if I need to get the last bit out.

As for dishes, we burn through four cat bowls a day, so the dishwasher has to run regularly enough that dirty utensils aren't an issue. (Dishes have LONG been my chore, because either nobody else will do them or nobody else will load the washer right.)

Applebee's is actually quite a good value anymore. There burgers are pretty good as well.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

I don't know much about 5 guys but he is almost 14 so I'll assume it was a standard burger.

Applebee’s rolls out Date Night Pass, giving people 52 meals over the next year for $200 | Fortune

It is all based around activities for us and wife travelling. She has 8 straight weeks of travel she is in the midst of.

In a normal world I cook M-Th, pizza Friday, out Saturday, door dash Sunday but when she is away and can't help with either dinner or activities I am basically a single dad.

So for example on Mondays daughter has activity from 4-5. Theater from 5:15-6:30. Basketball from 7:30-8:30 so there is literally no chance to cook a meal so it's fast food on the way home from theater.

But my location is horrrrrribly erratic.

Back to back orders of their little sliders deal -- which is pretty good value -- produced one order that was REALLY good, followed by one that was literally inedible they were so thoroughly burned. We're talking briquets. I actually banged them on my desk & made a noise loud enough to be hear over the phone.

All this sidetrack brings me back to something I started to comment on earlier and didn't.

Yep, dine out prices suuuuuuck. But this fits into a recurring theme I've discussed with friends & family numerous times in recent months: what my lying eyes see daily doesn't match the narrative(s) I keep hearing.

I hear how terrrrrrible the economy is. Prices are definitely up, and noticeably so. But ...

Mid afternoon Tues traffic looks like rush hour around here. And it's not work stuff, it's people shopping, eating, etc. My roads are hot with traffic 7 days a week. If times are so tough, shouldn't gas consumption be more of an issue?

Food prices suck ... but most places here have a line around the building on the regular. Our Five Guys is never empty, and is packed at lunch. And our busiest places are generally the most expensive ones.

Will drove down to Macon to see a fairly obscure country artist tonight (Creed Fisher), drew 400-500 people at $25 - $40 per ticket ... but it was obvious that MAYBE 5% of the people in the crowd knew even the chorus of one song. This wasn't OMG-my-favorite-I-must-see-him, this was a crowd made up of "well, it's Friday so we "have" to go SOMEWHERE". And I assure you, these were not 1-percenters, these might barely have been 50-percenters. That's not behavior that fits with the times-are-tough narrative I keep hearing.

We've got perpetual labor shortage here, pay offers are absurdly high for the level of work but few to no takers, if everybody is in such dire straits, how come nobody seems willing to work?

It feels like things are bad & times are tough, I keep hearing how awful things are ... but what my eyes tell me are a very different story. And, nope, I'm not gonna tell you I can explain that disconnect. It's a complete fucking mystery to me, NGL.

Yeah, I empathize. I was flying to some project regularly Mon-Thu and know my wife carried the burden while I was eating at nice restaurants on per diem.

Haven't been to an Applebee's in a long while. Closest one has closed. Do remember liking their Bourbon Street steak and the riblets.

(Same with Bennigan's, remember their ribs literally fell off the bone)

Guessing that it's basically 3 groups of people. Those that have it bad, those that are okay, and those doing well. At one time, those that had it bad was (let's say) 50% of population, it's decreased now to 30%.

So, it's getting better for sure but there's still a higher than normal % of people that are hurting.

Some key areas like housing, affordable higher education, and high credit card debt are still messed up. A year ago, also toss in automobiles, groceries, stock market but now have now recovered some.

Slow process to recovery.

That's the issue, too. Those 50-percenters you see, especially down by Macon, I'm willing to bet 75% of them are sharing memes about gas prices with Trump vs. Biden, how shitty the economy is, etc. When in reality, the economy seems to be doing ok. What is happening is that the corporations are price-gauging people and they are paying it and blaming politicians. I mean, I'm willing to bet they even paid 25-30% fees on top of their ticket prices.

I heard a survey they took that when they asked people how they were doing majority said well but when the same people were asked about the state of the nation they said poorly.

Biden wins the South Carolina primary. Looks like he will get 97% of the vote. Turn out is very low, but South Carolina is an open primary state. I'm guessing many of the Dems choose not to vote in this uncompetitive primary so they can vote in the Republican primary later in the month.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

that's a great idea. vote for anyone but trump

Good news keeps on coming;


RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to step down. Because she did such a fabulous job I'm sure


https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/sta...31234953003031

Trump controls the cult so they send him money directly to pay for his plane and legal bills instead of the RNC. So in turn they fire her for not raising money.

When are these people ever going to learn at some point the leopards are going to eat their faces.