Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Funny that you wrote this because we moved down last week and when I went to Piggly Wiggly I couldn't believe the high prices. All I kept muttering throughout the store to my husband was that the prices were crazy high. My food bill is definately going to be higher. My food store of choice is Trader Joes and am very disappointed that there isn't one closer than 70 miles away. We won't be living down there till end of year and when we next come down in a couple of weeks I am bringing down a lot of non perishables from TJ's. But you noticed what I did....VERY high prices on food
**On the other hand, gas prices were .50 lower a gallon
Piggly Wiggly, specifically the franchisee Piggly Wiggly Carolina, is almost out of business.
I do not know if Trader Joe's has scouted Myrtle Beach for a future store.
In the southeastern United States, our crops are subject to early warm springs quickly followed by cold snaps in April or May. Drought like conditions, having many hot and dry days and not enough rain, limits hay and grains grown to feed cattle. Growers and farmers have to make up for the costs by increasing their prices, and they are passed onto us.
I am in NY and when we are down in Myrtle beach food shopping the prices seem to be the same for us. If you shop sales use coupons and the club card you should be okay. We will be down in Feb. for a month so I will see if things have increased but everywhere you go prices have gone up.
Funny that you wrote this because we moved down last week and when I went to Piggly Wiggly I couldn't believe the high prices...
I can understand new tourists complaining about prices. I have little sympathy for new resident complaints. It's known as doing your homework. Cost of living expenses are not a la carte. When you choose MB, gouge-the-tourist pricing is part of the package. For family reasons, we spend a lot of time in upstate SC. Taxes are lower, insurance is way the hale lower, food - restaurants and groceries - is much cheaper, and the last gas we bought up there was $2.97/gal, the day before we paid $3.25/gal down here. We figure our out-of-pocket expenses up there would be about 25% lower than here. It's all about what's important to ya'.
It is all realtive to what you compare it to. Where we came from , taxes are higher, gas is WAY higher, housing is higher. Food is about the same. It is what it is - accept it or go back where you came from. Me, I will never go back!
Well with the standard pay here being 7.25 an hour it's far from relative in my opinion. As for homework yes I did my homework, just didn't do a lot of grocery shopping while I was doing it. LOL It's a huge case of "gouge-the-tourist" obviously. You can tell when the only thing on the shelves are name brands marked up 40% of the manufacturers suggested retail pricing. Nothing really off brand to choose from cause a box of "Valley's Choice" pasta dish at 3.49 would certainly look funny and the tourists would catch on. Unfortunately the locals get dragged into the mess in doing so. That's why my original question was "What do locals do about the food issue."
Costco for the bulk stuff, Walmart for a few things and Dollar General for a few others does okay for now. When spring gets here.... well going to have to put my green thumb to work on a big garden and some fruit trees. If you want something done right..... do it yourself. For my next trick I go shopping for Monsanto free seeds. That's probably going to be harder than finding a gallon of milk for under $4.
I shop at ALDI in NY and love it!!! They don't have a lot of brands to choose from, mostly their own brand but the stuff is good !!! How far is Florence? I noticed someone mentioned about the ALDI being in Florence. I was down in myrtle beach in July and noticed a lot of things being cheaper than in ny...we were paying at that time 3.89 for gas and it was like 3.45 there. Our taxes here are almost 12,000 a yr down there we are looking at a house that has 700 a yr for taxes. I called our car ins company as if I were moving now and my price would be a little more than 700 cheaper for my 6month policy, while we were there we went to walmart for some food shopping and the prices seemed around what we pay in NY but if the food prices are a little higher, I think the other savings will make up for it...and to get away from the snow...priceless...
Tourist inflation. We see the same thing on the Jersey Shore during the season and the locals suffer because of it. It would be interesting to see if the chains are higher by RT 17 than they are 50 miles inland.
Beach bound14 -- I am in NY also and do some shopping at Aldis .We are planning to move to Murrells Inlet in about a year. what part of NY are you from? I pay 12,000 in taxes and we are in rockland county Ny
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Cost of living expenses are not a la carte. When you choose MB, gouge-the-tourist pricing is part of the package. For family reasons, we spend a lot of time in upstate SC. Taxes are lower, insurance is way the hale lower, food - restaurants and groceries - is much cheaper, and the last gas we bought up there was $2.97/gal, the day before we paid $3.25/gal down here. We figure our out-of-pocket expenses up there would be about 25% lower than here. It's all about what's important to ya'. 
