What is a dollar? (loans, limitations, debt, interest)

[Steve Bagu]

Getting to the point where a new kind of wheelbarrow is going to be needed carrying our money to buy groceries...either that or add some 00000's to the currency.

Recall buying a loaf of bread for 0.09 cents in the 1930's while today it's over $3 a loaf.

Am I missing something here?

[slackjaw]

Originally Posted by Steve Bagu

Recall buying a loaf of bread for 0.09 cents in the 1930's while today it's over $3 a loaf.

Sheesh where do you shop? I buy loaf of bread for half of what you do.

[Steve Bagu]

Surplus? bread at the day old store sells good quality bread for a $1.79 etc (2 for $3.50) and what I call bland crap bread for less. Bread etc is code dated as such so old and fresh are sold together in Calif. at the surplus? stores. Quantity may vary during the week.

All a matter of location...chain store volume and clientile of course.

[user_id]

You can get wheat bread for $.99/loaf in California. Even a freshly made loaf of "french" bread is $1.49. The ingredients to bread are very cheap, wholesale flour is only around $.30~$.40/pound.

Its odd, whenever people complain about high food prices they always quote prices well beyond what I pay. Are people lying or just really bad shoppers?

[Steve Bagu]

Try Hostess surplus for a reasonable prices of what I quoted and check the code dates.

Normal loaf is 24 oz and smaller. Cannot see a chain store selling any quality loaf for 0.99 cents. Has to be OLD or ??? at most.

I was in the grocery trade for 23 yrs and know the system well.

Wheat or White...ingredients determine the price of a loaf.

[user_id]

Originally Posted by Steve Bagu

I was in the grocery trade for 23 yrs and know the system well.

Wheat or White...ingredients determine the price of a loaf.

Apparently not, because the cost of the ingredients don't play a critical role in the price of the bread. The cost difference between a "gourmet" loaf and a basic loaf may be 10~20% yet the retail difference is 100~200% more. The ingredients are used strategically in price discrimination.

Retailers use very aggressive price discrimination with breads. Most grocery stores are going to have 3~4 levels of bread: 1.) Generic that is poorly packaged (usually the same bread in 2, just repackaged) 2.) Store bread that is packaged well, some additional variety. 3.) Gourmet loafs, same stuff as 2.) but with some added ingredients ("with honey", etc). 4.) Ultra Gourmet.

Anyhow, you can get a loaf wheat bread for $.99. You can get white bread for less. These are prices from large grocery stores. The ingredients for a basic wheat loaf are well below $.99 so I'm not sure why you think they must be questionable.

[jtur88]

When a dollar bought ten times as much bread, you had to work ten times as long to get that dollar. So what has changed?

[user_id]

Bread is actually cheaper today in real terms, but people are deeply entrenched in money illusion.

[slackjaw]

Originally Posted by user_id

Its odd, whenever people complain about high food prices they always quote prices well beyond what I pay. Are people lying or just really bad shoppers?

I've noticed this too. At the Fry's (Kroger) up the street from me a loaf of bread is about $1.50, either as prepackaged or as a fresh baked loaf of french bread picked up in back from the bakery area. Day old from the bakery is up front for $0.99. I'm sure you can spend more but that is the case for everything.

Newenglandgirl was just complaining about the costs of chicken but apparently can't stoop to eating the same chicken that 99% of other people eat she needs the $10/pound organic birds. Sorry, if your food snobbery extends to paying 5x what I pay for chicken then complaints about "today's prices" just don't register with me, your are making expensive lifestyle choices.

I've seen people complain about salmon prices that I couldn't imagine are possible unless you only eat salmon that was caught by a trained grizzly bear perched over a waterfall.


Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Consumer Price Index, Kroger, Pfizer, Merck, Ford and CarMax: Business Wire Business News - MSN Money
The actual cost of raw wheat is a very small fraction of the actual cost of a loaf of bread, so one would not want to exaggerate the likely impact of higher prices in the commodity pits on prices at the checkout counter.

[user_id]

Originally Posted by slackjaw

Newenglandgirl was just complaining about the costs of chicken but apparently can't stoop to eating the same chicken that 99% of other people eat she needs the $10/pound organic birds.

Yeah, I didn't get that. Even Health food stores like Sprouts (I think they have them in AZ) you can get all natural, etc Chicken for just a bit more than the grocery store. Maybe her chickens are given daily massages...I don't know.

I think it partially stems from not knowing how to cook well, but a lot of people seem to buy the same things every week. Yet the prices of most foods vary with the seasons, sales, etc. Some people solve this by shocking up, but I just buy whatever is cheap that week.