Interesting posts thus far.
Maybe it's a west coast thing, but here if you're paying $700 or even $500 for groceries then you're shopping at the high end markets. My wife is a cashier at one of those, 2-3 bags, $450-900 but they charge 2-4x for the exact same items that other markets charge. The only time she buys there is when something is 50% off and then she gets an employee discount on top of it, otherwise it's more than simply going to another market.
Wallyland dry goods went up earlier this year, way up, but they are still half what Safeway/Albertsons charges for the exact same item.
Fruit and veggies are mostly the same prices at Safeway/Albertsons as they were in 2018/2019, maybe a few more cents per pound. Eggs, those recently went up. WOWZA but we had fair warning to expect it and sure enough it finally hit.
Costco, our bill hasn't really changed a lot since 2019 but most items we only buy when on sale and we generally get meats when those are at lower prices in the normal cycles, vacuum pack and freezer solves that for variety. Not long ago beef was super cheap so we enjoyed that, fish was really high but only for 6-8 mo and back down to the normal nose bleed prices. Beef is about $2/lb more than usual so other than roasts we just wait but there's still deal to be had. I usually get stuff like NY steaks in the bag and cut them myself, it was $2/lb less than cut. Why pay their people to cut meat, wages are costly and you're also adding contamination risk. Most stuff at costco waits for a sale and we stock up on it, like anything that will keep. Also like most places and Costco is no different, you need to know prices because many items are great deals, but many items are definitely NOT compared to other places.
Insurance home and auto, now that's went up, way up. Utilities, taxes, fees, etc. all those they have a monopoly or it's required by law so they just add to the prices all the time. We call them what they are, thieves.
I guess my point is while we did see priced spike for a bit due to covid supply issues, it's mostly back to normal for many goods. Anything labor intensive costs a lot more. We're back to spending again and this fall is no exception. I think there's lots of spending going on, just maybe in different ways. Many people buy on-line these days so in-store might be taking a hit.
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