Grocery stores nickel and diming us by overcharging

[FelixDeCat]

Grocery and other item prices are up 80% since 2020 thanks to Bidenflation, greedflation and shrinkflation.

Unfortunately the only way companies can get by is to nickel and dime where they can to help cover the costs associated with criminals stealing things from the shelves due to lack of prosecution in liberal enclaves.

 

[Thump553]

Grocery and other item prices are up 80% since 2020 thanks to Bidenflation, greedflation and shrinkflation.

Unfortunately the only way companies can get by is to nickel and dime where they can to help cover the costs associated with criminals stealing things from the shelves due to lack of prosecution in liberal enclaves.

Any actual real documentation for your claim that groceries are up 80% since 2020? You have made that claim several times but it is not even remotely close to what I see in the real world here.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Any actual real documentation for your claim that groceries are up 80% since 2020? You have made that claim several times but it is not even remotely close to what I see in the real world here.

I've ranted a lot about increasing grocery prices on this forum and even I wouldn't say they've gone up 80%. 50 for some items maybe, it's probably closer to 30 average.

 

[feralkid]

Any actual real documentation for your claim that groceries are up 80% since 2020? You have made that claim several times but it is not even remotely close to what I see in the real world here.

Felix flunked math, shortly after his brain was replaced with rat droppings.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

My Target store does this bad behavior, fairly frequently.

For example, their store brand (Up & Up) of hand soap refill is usually 3.99 for 50oz. Now this weeks ad, if you buy four of them, you get a 5.00 Target gift card. Not a huge saving but buy more you get a discount.

These assholes have now raised the hand soap to 4.99, so in effect, buy four bottles and they give you back a dollar via that 5.00 GC, instead of the 5.00 you should get.

Pretty sure that's gotta be against some consumer law.

Target does the same crap with their game sales. They'll do a buy 2, get 1 free deal on PS5 games but then jack every game up to $60 to $70 for the sale so instead of buying 3 $40 games for $120 total before the sale you buy the first two for $60 each to get the third 'free' and it still costs you $120.

 

[Muse]

I have noticed this over and over at Walmart, where I'll see a pack of say Ballpark hot dogs listed on the shelf for $3.85 and then I get to the checkout at it's $4.65 and I thinking WTF for that price I might as well just spend the $4.97 for Nathan's. Or when they had some great ice cream bars for $1 package and I get to checkout and they're $1.20 each. Apparently same thing is happening at Dollar General, as exposed here by the More Perfect Union youtube channel. When you guys go grocery shopping check if you're being overcharged, I'm interested to see if everyone is doing this to hide price increases. No way I'm giving the benefit of the doubt to corporations as evil as Walmart and Dollar General.

I check my receipts always. If they make a mistake I call them out on the spot and insist on getting the lowest posted price I'd seen that's current, usually being what it says in front of the item. I've not given thought that they'd intentionally cheat you by having different prices, one where the item is on display and the other in their system. I figure they goofed up. Doesn't matter from my perspective. It was a lapse, they are responsible, they were derelict, I want the price I expected. It doesn't happen a lot. I usually know what I'm paying.

Now, people with enough money don't do those things, at least a lot of them. They toss things in their cart and don't pay attention to the price tag. That's NOT me.

I go a lot further than most people. For food items at least I keep data. I enter it from receipt when I get home. I can look up and tell you what I last paid for potatoes, coffee, butter, all that stuff, where I got it, the date. What the total was for the receipt. I sometimes add additional info for my possible edification at a later time.

My online purchases, I keep info on all that too. Sometimes not as thoroughly as I would like when I visit it later, but I make an effort to link the listing (whether Amazon, ebay, or whereever), the prices for items, dates, other pertinent info. I have found those things very useful many many times.

 

[brycejones]

Grocery and other item prices are up 80% since 2020 thanks to Bidenflation, greedflation and shrinkflation.

Unfortunately the only way companies can get by is to nickel and dime where they can to help cover the costs associated with criminals stealing things from the shelves due to lack of prosecution in liberal enclaves.

You must be on one hell of a bender.

 

[allisolm]

Grocery and other item prices are up 80% since 2020 thanks to Bidenflation, greedflation and shrinkflation.

Not finding anything even approaching 80%, but lots of 20%-25%. I have no idea what your other unnamed items might be in order to jack the total up to 80%. Perhaps you could clear that up.

"Prices have grown by 20 percent overall since 2020, with energy prices the most volatile"

Inflation Tracker [EconTax Blog]

July data for the US show annual inflation remained above pre-pandemic averages with the downward trend seen since mid-2022 slowing. Between June 2024 and June 2025, prices for US consumers grew by 2.7% and prices for CA consumers grew by 3.0%. There are some differences between the source of...

lao.ca.gov

"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of groceries has risen by 25.2 percent since February 2020."

How Much More Expensive Is Food Now, Really?

The weird debate over who is gaslighting who about the cost of groceries.

nymag.com

"supermarket prices are now 25% higher than in January 2020"

Inflation is cooling. So why are food prices, from steak to fast-food meals, still rising?

Higher food prices partly caused the hotter-than-expected inflation report. Getting pinched at the grocery store is souring Americans on the economy.

www.cbsnews.com

"At home and away from home food costs rose, on aggregate, 25% during the period" (between January 2020 and December 2023.)

Inflation is cooling. So why are food prices, from steak to fast-food meals, still rising?

Higher food prices partly caused the hotter-than-expected inflation report. Getting pinched at the grocery store is souring Americans on the economy.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Brainonska511]

Target does the same crap with their game sales. They'll do a buy 2, get 1 free deal on PS5 games but then jack every game up to $60 to $70 for the sale so instead of buying 3 $40 games for $120 total before the sale you buy the first two for $60 each to get the third 'free' and it still costs you $120.

Here's a solution to that issue though: don't buy those things when they do that. If you pay even a modicum of attention shopping, you learn what are real sales and what are fake.

 

[Brainonska511]

Not finding anything even approaching 80%, but lots of 20%-25%. I have no idea what your other unnamed items might be in order to jack the total up to 80%. Perhaps you could clear that up.

"Prices have grown by 20 percent overall since 2020, with energy prices the most volatile"

Inflation Tracker [EconTax Blog]

July data for the US show annual inflation remained above pre-pandemic averages with the downward trend seen since mid-2022 slowing. Between June 2024 and June 2025, prices for US consumers grew by 2.7% and prices for CA consumers grew by 3.0%. There are some differences between the source of...

lao.ca.gov

"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of groceries has risen by 25.2 percent since February 2020."

How Much More Expensive Is Food Now, Really?

The weird debate over who is gaslighting who about the cost of groceries.

nymag.com

"supermarket prices are now 25% higher than in January 2020"

Inflation is cooling. So why are food prices, from steak to fast-food meals, still rising?

Higher food prices partly caused the hotter-than-expected inflation report. Getting pinched at the grocery store is souring Americans on the economy.

www.cbsnews.com

"At home and away from home food costs rose, on aggregate, 25% during the period" (between January 2020 and December 2023.)

Inflation is cooling. So why are food prices, from steak to fast-food meals, still rising?

Higher food prices partly caused the hotter-than-expected inflation report. Getting pinched at the grocery store is souring Americans on the economy.

www.cbsnews.com

Here's data from the USDA:

Food Price Outlook - Summary Findings | Economic Research Service

ERS research and reporting of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for food contributes to an understanding of which food categories experience substantial price changes, how consumers spend their incomes on food, and how and why prices change.

www.ers.usda.gov

The food-at-home (grocery store or supermarket food purchases) CPI increased 0.7 percent from December 2023 to January 2024 and was 1.2 percent higher than January 2023

Food-at-home prices are predicted to increase 1.6 percent, with a prediction interval of -1.8 to 5.3 percent,

Recent Historical Overview
Between the 1970s and early 2000s, food-at-home prices and food-away-from-home prices increased at similar rates. However, between 2009 and 2019, their growth rates diverged; while food-at-home prices deflated in 2016 and 2017,... In 2020, food-at-home prices increased 3.5 percent...In 2021, all food prices increased 3.9 percent as prices began accelerating in the second-half of the year....

In 2022, food prices increased by 9.9 percent, faster than any year since 1979. Food-at-home prices increased by 11.4 percent, while food-away-from-home prices increased by 7.7 percent. Food prices rose partly due to a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak that affected egg and poultry prices and the conflict in Ukraine, which compounded other economy-wide inflationary pressures such as high energy costs. All food price categories increased by more than 5 percent, and all food categories grew faster than their historical average rate.

In 2023, food prices increased by 5.8 percent. Food price growth slowed in 2023 as economy-wide inflationary pressures, supply chain issues, and wholesale food prices eased from 2022. Food-at-home prices increased by 5.0 percent, and food-away-from-home prices increased by 7.1 percent. While prices increased for all food categories except for pork, prices grew more slowly in 2023 than in 2022 for all categories.

It might be a bit flattened out by looking at all food-at-home prices combined, but it is nowhere close to 80%. And part of grocery shopping should be about substitution. If berries are $3 one week, but then not on sale the next week (ie, double the price), buy something else.

 

[Thump553]

I check my receipts always. If they make a mistake I call them out on the spot and insist on getting the lowest posted price I'd seen that's current, usually being what it says in front of the item. I've not given thought that they'd intentionally cheat you by having different prices, one where the item is on display and the other in their system. I figure they goofed up. Doesn't matter from my perspective. It was a lapse, they are responsible, they were derelict, I want the price I expected. It doesn't happen a lot. I usually know what I'm paying.

Now, people with enough money don't do those things, at least a lot of them. They toss things in their cart and don't pay attention to the price tag. That's NOT me.

I go a lot further than most people. For food items at least I keep data. I enter it from receipt when I get home. I can look up and tell you what I last paid for potatoes, coffee, butter, all that stuff, where I got it, the date. What the total was for the receipt. I sometimes add additional info for my possible edification at a later time.

My online purchases, I keep info on all that too. Sometimes not as thoroughly as I would like when I visit it later, but I make an effort to link the listing (whether Amazon, ebay, or whereever), the prices for items, dates, other pertinent info. I have found those things very useful many many times.

Damn Muse I hereby designate you an honorary New England Yankee, Fifth Generation. You outdo me-I salute you.

 

[HomerJS]

Any actual real documentation for your claim that groceries are up 80% since 2020? You have made that claim several times but it is not even remotely close to what I see in the real world here.

He just lies.

Ask him to name one food product up 80% and we will easily refute it.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

He just lies.

Ask him to name one food product up 80% and we will easily refute it.

Sadly I can name a pretty bad one: Maruchan instant ramen went up from 15 cents a bag to 30-35 cents a bag at the two grocery chains in my city (HEB & Walmart). Same thing for the other cheap ramen from Nissin (Top Ramen). Not that I buy it, I always get the Nongshim red that has gone up more like 10% or the Samyang black and Samyang red that have gone up about 20%, but feel bad for people who bought the cheap ones and are now being charged 1/3 of the price of the actual good instant ramens. Seems like a lot of the cheapest groceries are what shot up in price. Cereal is another pretty ugly example, though I can't remember exact prices and guess it's probably closer to 40-50% (I just started buying generic brands since I didn't think name brands were worth the big price hike).

 

[manly]

Of course some items rapidly outpaced others in inflation; that's why you have to go by CPI and trust the professionals at BLS to do their jobs. You can't take Trumptard Felix de 🤡's word for it. Funny how people tried to school him with facts, because he doesn't even care. He thinks Trump is the greatest POTUS since Reagan, and even if Trump shot him dead on 5th Avenue in daylight, Felix would bleed out with a smile on his face.

 

[MtnMan]

Grocery and other item prices are up 80% since 2020 thanks to Bidenflation, greedflation and shrinkflation.

Unfortunately the only way companies can get by is to nickel and dime where they can to help cover the costs associated with criminals stealing things from the shelves due to lack of prosecution in liberal enclaves.

Let's be clear... THAT IS A FUCKING LIE!

The worst part is that you know it is a fucking lie... you have stooped to the level of pond scum with that crap, with apologies to pond scum which I hold in much higher esteem than your oxygen wasting existence.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Sadly I can name a pretty bad one: Maruchan instant ramen went up from 15 cents a bag to 30-35 cents a bag at the two grocery chains in my city (HEB & Walmart). Same thing for the other cheap ramen from Nissin (Top Ramen). Not that I buy it, I always get the Nongshim red that has gone up more like 10% or the Samyang black and Samyang red that have gone up about 20%, but feel bad for people who bought the cheap ones and are now being charged 1/3 of the price of the actual good instant ramens. Seems like a lot of the cheapest groceries are what shot up in price. Cereal is another pretty ugly example, though I can't remember exact prices and guess it's probably closer to 40-50% (I just started buying generic brands since I didn't think name brands were worth the big price hike).

Amen.

I did not even bring up car insurance up 80% since 2020 to cover the cost of those stupid worthless EVs.

If a battery is damaged, they total the car. Money doesn't grow on trees to pay for that fucking nonsense. So the cost is borne by the non EV driving folk. 😞

 

[FelixDeCat]

Here's a solution to that issue though: don't buy those things when they do that. If you pay even a modicum of attention shopping, you learn what are real sales and what are fake.

What...and eat off brand? Fuck that. 😀

 

[iRONic]

Money does grow on trees, you fucking 🤡 !

 

[Drach]

What...and eat off brand? Fuck that. 😀

Fine. Eat ass. It will cost you a lot less especially if its your own.
Meanwhile I'm paying $18 for my Easter spiral baked honey half ham in pricey California.
Please eat your own ass. It's far cheaper.

 

[pmv]

Haven't had this exact problem.

What I do find in my local supermarket, is they regularly mis-shelve items, such that the item actually on the shelf isn't the same one that the price label (and any associated special offer) below it refers to.

An example would be the label will announce a special offer for a 400g tin of pineapple chunks but the tins on the shelf above that label will be 400g tins of pineapple _slices_. And the price of those turns out to be higher, not carrying the special offer listed on the shelf. Despite being a near-identical product (that looks exactly the same unless you peer closely at the label). Happens repeatedly with all sorts of small variations in products (e.g. skimmed milk is on offer, but the milk on the shelf above the label telling you of the offer is semi-skimmed).

Don't really know if it's a cunning ploy or if it's just accidental careless shelving by the staff, but the need to carefully inspect every item to check it's what the label on the shelf it's on actually refers to, combined with the store's exasperating mania for moving items around the aisles on a regular basis (so every shopping trip is a workout as you wander round the entire store hunting for where they've put the items you want this week), and the fact all the tills are self-service (and no free bags), makes shopping even more tiring than it already is.

 

[feralkid]

Fine. Eat ass. It will cost you a lot less especially if its your own.
Meanwhile I'm paying $18 for my Easter spiral baked honey half ham in pricey California.
Please eat your own ass. It's far cheaper.

Or he could eat a hole in the ground...like Felix could tell the difference.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Haven't had this exact problem.

What I do find in my local supermarket, is they regularly mis-shelve items, such that the item actually on the shelf isn't the same one that the price label (and any associated special offer) below it refers to.

An example would be the label will announce a special offer for a 400g tin of pineapple chunks but the tins on the shelf above that label will be 400g tins of pineapple _slices_. And the price of those turns out to be higher, not carrying the special offer listed on the shelf. Despite being a near-identical product (that looks exactly the same unless you peer closely at the label). Happens repeatedly with all sorts of small variations in products (e.g. skimmed milk is on offer, but the milk on the shelf above the label telling you of the offer is semi-skimmed).

Don't really know if it's a cunning ploy or if it's just accidental careless shelving by the staff, but the need to carefully inspect every item to check it's what the label on the shelf it's on actually refers to, combined with the store's exasperating mania for moving items around the aisles on a regular basis (so every shopping trip is a workout as you wander round the entire store hunting for where they've put the items you want this week), and the fact all the tills are self-service (and no free bags), makes shopping even more tiring than it already is.

Again it’s a staffing issue. They do not have enough labor hours to properly complete the job.
Solution is to pay more or realize smaller profits or both.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Not finding anything even approaching 80%, but lots of 20%-25%. I have no idea what your other unnamed items might be in order to jack the total up to 80%. Perhaps you could clear that up.

"Prices have grown by 20 percent overall since 2020, with energy prices the most volatile"

Inflation Tracker [EconTax Blog]

July data for the US show annual inflation remained above pre-pandemic averages with the downward trend seen since mid-2022 slowing. Between June 2024 and June 2025, prices for US consumers grew by 2.7% and prices for CA consumers grew by 3.0%. There are some differences between the source of...

lao.ca.gov

"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of groceries has risen by 25.2 percent since February 2020."

How Much More Expensive Is Food Now, Really?

The weird debate over who is gaslighting who about the cost of groceries.

nymag.com

"supermarket prices are now 25% higher than in January 2020"

Inflation is cooling. So why are food prices, from steak to fast-food meals, still rising?

Higher food prices partly caused the hotter-than-expected inflation report. Getting pinched at the grocery store is souring Americans on the economy.

www.cbsnews.com

"At home and away from home food costs rose, on aggregate, 25% during the period" (between January 2020 and December 2023.)

Inflation is cooling. So why are food prices, from steak to fast-food meals, still rising?

Higher food prices partly caused the hotter-than-expected inflation report. Getting pinched at the grocery store is souring Americans on the economy.

www.cbsnews.com

Maybe some of my observations are more anecdotal as I cant give you precise comparisons since I did not to expecting by paying almost twice what I did four years ago for everyday items. Prices are BEYOND absurd in my opinion, even Walmart brand.

And I do remember the inflation of the early 1980s. You could buy a small home in the late 1970s for $18,000 and by the early 80s it was approaching $40,000. In 2019 my brother bought a home for $189,000 that now is estimated to be $275,000 on zillow. Granted it is an older neighborhood that is being gentrified with brand new homes which have a positive impact on values.....but still.

I have said in another thread we need even higher interest rates, higher income taxes and government austerity to finally bring back 2019 prices. But I know I am spitting in the wind as nobody listens.

 

[IronWing]

At the local convenience store, Crunch and Munch has gone up 58% in the past month ($1.89 to $2.99)! Of course, the price hadn't changed in the previous ~15 years. Thanks, Obama.

 

[IronWing]

I have said in another thread we need even higher interest rates, higher income taxes and government austerity to finally bring back 2019 prices. But I know I am spitting in the wind as nobody listens.

Are you willing to see your wages cut back to 2019 levels as well? Oh, that's right, you don't work.