Another trip to the grocery store and [View all]

[moniss]

the '70's deja vu keeps on coming. Prices are all up again. Regular ground beef, not ground chuck, was $6.49/lb., salmon was $11.49 for 9 ounces, bad looking ribeye steak was $19.99/lb., most of the roasts were all pushing $10.99/lb., chicken breasts, not fresh but once frozen, were $7.99/lb.

The produce section was about the same as far as inventory on greens but any sale pricing was gone. I did notice that there was no fresh sweet corn or melons and there wasn't even a display for them so it wasn't just a matter of being sold out. I mention that because this is prime season for grilling outdoors and family gatherings etc. and in the upper Midwest corn on the cob and melons are synonymous with summer. I'm not saying they couldn't be had at some other chain but usually every chain has them.

I really stopped eating potato chips some time ago but I had a hankering for a sour cream and onion fix so I went looking in the snack aisle. I should have just bought some sour cream and a raw onion and gulped them down. The ones that were called "Party Size" the last I knew had always been around $6.00 or so for about 16 ounces or so. Well they still have the "Party Size" on the bag but now the bag has been reduced in size to what the lower tier had been and the price has gone to $7.49. I guess the "Party" is petering out.

The only bright spot for me is that I've been slugging a lot of low-sodium V8 lately and the 6-pack of 12 ounce cans has stayed the same price for the last couple of months. I nearly bought a blueberry pie that was tagged at 35% off until I saw that it was 3 days past the "best by" date and still would have cost almost $6.00. Last year those same pies were regular priced at $5.00+ and they had good sales and usually always sold out before passing the "best by" date. Maybe some spending by customers has begun to show up not just in cars and big ticket items but in grocery as well. It's going to be a bumpy ride.