Anybody noticing price volatility?

[On Our own]

SO far it has been some up and some down, but to me anyway, pretty inexplicable price changes.

Milk went from $3.45 to $4.25 in two days.

But TP (wifezilla is it the same for you?) was exactly HALF of what it cost two weeks ago when I went to get it yesterday. - I stocked up!

Salt - weird one I paid $1.25 for a brand name a week ago and this week got the store brand for .35!!

Anyone else seeing this??

 

[DrakeMaiden]

I've seen milk and butter go back up after going down for a while. I heard there was a surplus of dairy, so I don't understand the price going back up. But then the same kind of unhinged pricing is also going on with oil/gas. The cost per barrel is still low, but the cost at the pump is going up.

 

[patandchickens]

I wonder whether you might just be noticing it more now, under the circumstances?

Prices have always done weird things to some considerable extent


Pat

 

[On Our own]

Maybe, but I am pretty price aware most of the time. I shop with cash, so I keep a running tally as I shop. I remember as a kid learning to shop with cash, now I think it is a lost art! And when I pull out my cash people look at me like I am weird. I take pride in being able to do a full grocery shop and get within a dollar or two of my set amount.

 

[Wifezilla]

Prices have been all over the place. Things you think should be cheap are expensive and stuff that was high is now dirt cheap. I have been coming home from the grocery store scratching my head in confusion a lot lately.

Example... cream prices. At Sam's, the price has gone up and the container size got smaller. At Costco, the price was down on a large container. It was cheaper for a 1/2 gallon of cream at Costco than it was for a quart at Sams.

Also...bare shelves, less selection, smaller containers...

ACK!

 

[Iceblink]

I have noticed the same thing, mostly at the commissary. Prices have always varied dramatically, and shelves will sometimes be empty for weeks. We couldn't buy lemon juice all summer, fall and winter because of a 'storm in the lemon orchard in an area of FL.' Yes, that sounds reasonable when you raise lemons locally, but I know dor a fact that the comm. sources from all over the world. And to be out of something for 3 seasons? CA lemons weren't hit, I know that for a fact because lemons were abundant at the farmers market just down the road.

Rice was also being rationed, 5lb per family.

I have noticed that while the prices for 'ingredients' have skyrocketed, the prices for heavily processed, prepackaged food has gone down.

It seems more than just confusing, it almost seems a little creepy and very ominous.

 

[enjoy the ride]

I read something on whether deflation or inflation is going on right now- they said that prices went up in some ways that are not reasonable because, after really marking down things in December, sellers do not really know what is a reasonable price or not. They have lost their feeling for their markets.

 

[lupinfarm]

Our butter is 5.90 for a brick.... and that's not even the expensive butter, Stirling Cremery (salted, which is the only kind of Stirling butter you can get sadly) is at least 6.25 a brick.

 

[On Our own]

I read something on whether deflation or inflation is going on right now- they said that prices went up in some ways that are not reasonable because, after really marking down things in December, sellers do not really know what is a reasonable price or not. They have lost their feeling for their markets.

As have I. I used to feel like I could tell what items would be going up or down depending on market conditions. I pay attention to things like the Baltic Dry and some crop reports. But, the price to conditions connections seem unhinged.

Agreed, this seems ominous to me.

 

[CJHames]

I've seen milk and butter go back up after going down for a while. I heard there was a surplus of dairy, so I don't understand the price going back up. But then the same kind of unhinged pricing is also going on with oil/gas. The cost per barrel is still low, but the cost at the pump is going up.

I watched the US Agribusiness Report this morning. They had a man from Rice Dairies on as a guest speaker. He's a dairy commodities trader on the CBOT. He said about 18 months ago cheese hit a peak (or a "bubble" as we call it now) because affluent Asians were "treating" themselves to cheese, as were many Americans flush with cash. So dairymen bred and bought extra cows. Then the bubble burst. Now the dairymen are stuck with too many cows to feed, which made prices for milk and cheese bottom out. He said they industry is going to kill 200,000-300,000 cows in the coming months, and it was his opinion they needed to kill more like 500,000.

I wonder what becomes of these animals? Hamburger I am guessing? So will the price of hamburger drop in the coming months, and then once the dairy herd is thinned out will the price of milk and cheese go back up? Will this help inflation rise? The CPI index came out Friday and it showed a 1% rise in prices in January. I can't believe we are out of the deflation spiral already. I think that has a way to go yet.

By the way, we paid $1.89 for a gallon milk today in WalMart in North Texas.

We certainly live in interesting times.