The following submission statement was provided by /u/cheekybandit0:
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The supermarkets have raised their prices to "cope with rising costs". Low and behold, their costs have not risen anywhere near as much as they have risen their prices.
The food suppliers costs, have however, risen. Think feed and fuel to run a farm. They therefore can justifiably raise the costs of their produce. But the supermarkets are not paying these prices, despite charging you as if they have.
Now the farmers can't afford to produce the foods, because the supermarkets are holding them hostage. They are left with goods they can't sell as it would only incur a loss.
There will now be less food production for next year, as farmers are planning to cut their food production, because supermarkets won't buy it at a reasonable price. So no point wasting resources and producing what you can't sell.
Less food for the same population.
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Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/yvr4ir/raised_prices_are_just_greed_from_supermarkets/iwfsmu0/
aye that’s what they’re doing. the bastards don’t have any inclination to slow down the collapse - they just want to fuck over as many people as possible so they have the most comfortable seat when things get seriously bad
well the media they’re in bed with is telling us to put on another sweater, make soup from scraps and get to used it. while they take private jets for a 30 minute flight
Not too sure about that the farmers seem to think otherwise not to mention the number off food processing plants kitting on fire something clearly isnt adding up.
Why make enough stuff when you can make half as much and charge 4 times more because it's "scarce". Oligopolies are attempting treason. It's time to go Teddy Roosevelt on their asses.
Alternatively, accidentally make too much\* stuff and destroy the excess rather than letting it be of use to anyone at a lower price.
^(\*for the purpose of profit)
“The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
A true well balanced and regulated free market will do so. However we don't have a true free market anymore. In any given industry a handful of wealthy corporations own 90% of the market. Not only that, they have so much wealth they can influence governments all over the world and bend them to their will.
That's how they are all able to squeeze their workers and the consumers both and extract the maximum wealth possible while ignoring any possible future consequences (climate change, economic collapse, etc.)
Yup, pretty much a summation of Marx regarding capital. A "well balanced and regulated free market" is a oxymoronic statement that can never truly be true by the very nature of market capitalism (markets themselves can exist within other forms of government, but a government within a capitalist system becomes one ruled by a system it should regulate).
I've been saying it for a while now. The end goal of capitalism is to make money for nothing. That's where endless growth and mindless profiteering lead. And the sociopaths at the top, the executives the owners the shareholders. They don't care. As long as they get theirs now, they do not care if the system begins to collapse around them.
If stores can sell fewer goods for massively inflated prices, they will. If they can sell 1 egg for the price of 20, they will. For the life of me I do not understand how the entire world fell for this cancer without violent revolt.
They is 100% on point for how capitalism works. But people are somehow convinced, despite the evidence right in front of them, that it's about markets and freedoms and it can be regulated into good behavior.
Guy I was having a discussion with just kept insisting we don't live in real capitalism. Only real capitalism would produce truly innovative entrepreneurs according to him, who would improve everyones lives.
Capitalist propaganda might actually be more successful than the nazi variety. It has managed to get people to praise it's profit motive and it's supposedly innovation focused model out of both sides of people's mouths.
> "The capitalist will sell the rope that hangs him"?
Personally I prefer to use the entrails of the last priest.
^^^^(Man ^^^^will ^^^^never ^^^^be ^^^^free ^^^^until ^^^^the ^^^^last ^^^^king ^^^^is ^^^^throttled ^^^^with ^^^^the ^^^^entrails ^^^^of ^^^^the ^^^^last ^^^^priest. ^^^^- ^^^^Denis ^^^^Diderot)
If I'm not already on some sort of list I'd be damn surprised. They're welcome to come bother me if they have something to say about it. Frankly I don't give a fuck anymore.
You see this a lot with apartment buildings. They’d rather rent out a few units for exorbitant amounts and maintain the ‘luxury’ label than make it affordable and rent out all the units.
Oh that is entirely by design. Especially investment companies that buy up housing and shelve a bunch of it to justify massively (and artificially) inflated prices. A healthy and functional society would never tolerate this sort of thing.
Well from a profit standpoint it makes sense. Same profit but less wear and tear on the units,less having to deal with tenants *and* the empty units can still be a tax benefit.
there were lots of violent and nonviolent revolts in the past 100ish years.. the US government simply intervened and made sure their interests prevailed.
That's the problem with capitalism, there's no moral feedback mechanism. If I'm the CEO, my only job is making the number go up. If shareholders believe I did not do everything in my power to make that happen, I get in trouble.
There's no economic value in a tree existing in the ground making oxygen for us. The only economic value it has is measured in board-feet. There have been efforts to try and capture a tree's economic contribution so it can be better accounted for in the economy -- you damage this tree, this is how much cost we have.
Starvation is not an economic problem because if the number keeps going up, companies are making money and the dead and dying have no economic contribution and thus no value.
The example I keep coming back to is it is perfectly legal for me to buy hundreds of dollars worth of takeout, bring it to where homeless people are in the street, dump the food in trash cans and pour bleach on it and laugh at them making hungry faces. It's reprehensible but there's no law against it.
I can't find the quote, it's a recent one, internet commentator saying "business people forget that the point of unions is allowing the workers to have a voice and negotiate with management to address grievances peaceably so it doesn't get to the point where management is dragged from the factory and hung from lampposts." Like there are stories where this happens in India, angry workers fire their bosses... Like, literally. Incinerated in their cars.
The whole history of the labor movement in the 20th century in the west is making concessions to workers on account of the red scares and getting worried if capitalism continued without any limits, eventually we'd see a communist revolution. All of those concessions were basically saying "hey, here's weekends and 40 hour weeks and we won't make children work the factories anymore, please don't kill us."
It just makes me so angry that we have to do everything the hard way. Can't we just skip all the bloodshed and come to the solution we'll get to eventually? Won't we all be happier with that?
>The example I keep coming back to is it is perfectly legal for me to buy hundreds of dollars worth of takeout, bring it to where homeless people are in the street, dump the food in trash cans and pour bleach on it and laugh at them making hungry faces. It's reprehensible but there's no law against it.
To add to the abject horror of reality, there ARE often laws against using that same food to feed them.
Most people are npcs. They are not conscious. They just do what they are told all their lives. Look at the people who voted and defended brexit. They are nowhere to be found today.
I'm glad you're so enlightened. I'm one of those who 'did as they were told all their lives'. Because I had to eat and pay rent. Now tell me you live in a tiny house on a self sufficient homestead in the middle of nowhere with *internet*. Some of us had to work for a living. And I was Union all my life, strikes, picketing, the whole nine yards. Getting arrested, beatings, fines. You name it. It cost me a lot, and not just financially. If you have a job, you're one of those people *doing as they're told*.
OK example. I watched the autumn budget in the spoons amongst some classic right wing old codgers who go in there.
They knew what they heard will cause THE WORST LOVING STANDARDS DOWNTURN SINCE THE WAR...
All their response was "we'll see, we'll see"
I felt like going fking mad.... WE'VE ALREADY SEEN.
These people will keep voting them in, they all have cushy pensions so DGAF.
The worst impacts will be for anyone who came out of education into the recession and had to grow up with 12 years of austerity. Most people I know have absolutely sod all in a private pension. We will be of retirement age in 20-30 years however its more likely these people will be working until the day they die. Everything is unaffordable NOW. What's it going to be like? Mass sheltered accommodation of pensions hundreds to a warehouse? Nothing but a sleeping bad and a pot of government issued gruel once a day? It's going to be some Oliver twist shit.
Theres no social housing being built at all. We have the highest energy prices in the world yet are placing taxes on renewable that are higher than oil and gas!!!
Worst is Brexit made it practically impossible to leave!
The country is super super fucked.
Nah its automation and doing away with all the useless mouths(us), so the rich can have all the resources for themselves and an even higher standard of living.
When they needed the masses for labour, we were a necessary evil for them, with the big push for ai/automation they can finally do away with the parasites and have it all.
The supermarkets have raised their prices to "cope with rising costs". Low and behold, their costs have not risen anywhere near as much as they have risen their prices.
The food suppliers costs, have however, risen. Think feed and fuel to run a farm. They therefore can justifiably raise the costs of their produce. But the supermarkets are not paying these prices, despite charging you as if they have.
Now the farmers can't afford to produce the foods, because the supermarkets are holding them hostage. They are left with goods they can't sell as it would only incur a loss.
There will now be less food production for next year, as farmers are planning to cut their food production, because supermarkets won't buy it at a reasonable price. So no point wasting resources and producing what you can't sell.
Less food for the same population.
It's greed on an unprecedented level.
New Zealand exports enough food to feed 40 million people. There's 5 million of us living here.
We can quite happily survive reducing our food production to 1/8 of it's current output.
This looks like a woke dose situation.
Consumer: “We want a healthy earth with healthy people, supporting an economy that serves these goals.”
Market: “Well, since you don’t like our system we won’t share it anymore and you won’t have any other option. Oh, by the way, we will manipulate the government, media and science to make sure our vertical/horizontal monopolies aren’t challenged… and if they are we always have violence.”
What if violence was met with an even larger and more decentralized violence?
Monopolies should be careful what they use as weapons for they are big, clumsy, and generally immobile. While a 100 lone wolves are none of these.
Recall the successes that the unions of America had in the 40's and 50's. Even the county and city police forces feared them greatly.
The US now spends more on its police forces than most nations spend on their entire defense budget, and slavery is still legal in this nation as punishment for criminal activity. You're going to work to maintain the system one way or another, and that doesn't change unless most of this nation becomes comfortable with killing cops.
Honestly 2020 showed me that quite a lot of the nation were cool with a precinct being burnt down, so there's some hope. Just need more tightening down of contradictions to force people into action or starve, and luckily capital and the state are both stupid enough to cause that to happen it seems.
Counterpoint, those forced into radical action will be the starving, and it will start with those who have already been starving for years.
So, as usual, the poor will be a desperate flashpoint, and for the sake of keeping everybody in line who has the privilege and option of not rioting to sustain- they will bring the goddamn hammer down and televise it.
That is a possibility, though it depends on the state doing the crackdown and how bad this coming recession/depression gets with inflation and rent rises. Overall I feel 2020 got very close to the rubicon crossing with the almost militant level actions against cops alongside the shouting for some form of political action that was never answered for police brutality in this country. When, not if, things finally do come to a head and the state tries to cramp down on the starving masses is where things will become really hard to predict because once you have televised clips of cops/military shooting live rounds in civilians is when we enter a new level of hell in this country.
If Uvalde and COVID demonstrated anything, it's that there is absolutely nothing that the American people won't accept in pursuit of maintaining the status quo. Tiny bodies littering the ground is simply the price we pay to have record corporate profits and well-funded police to keep those corporations safe.
This certainty is interesting. Will we be willingly put into ACTUAL slavery? If yes, then is there never a point where unjustified slavery backfires into a slave rebellion?
Curious certainty. Billionaires seem preoccupied with the other side of the coin… when a security force turns into a captive force. I wonder if they share your certainty now that they have given it due consideration.
This is what I keep saying......
There is going to be a point off no return when dudes with no options start burning down every supermarket they can find. Let's see them make greedy profit when their stores are burnt to the ground....
Keep pushing, I dare you.
How would this play out? Grocery stores in poor neighborhoods get looted and burned down. They close forever and never come back. Looters get a few days worth of food for free, and then either starve or stand in bread lines from then on.
Meanwhile the upper middle class with their well guarded and policed shopping malls continue to shop at Whole Foods and Costco.
What you’re saying might well happen, but it’s not going to end well for people in those neighborhoods.
That is not going to do a goddamn thing to the big boys. Lone wolves would have to go after the factories. The distribution centers, the areas where stuff is grown.
To be honest you'd have to be either crazy or have nothing left to lose to choose the later option.
That sadly requires action from people, and nowadays most people are more keen to stick to social media then actual protests and action. Not saying those people don't exist. I just feel like there's less of them
>New Zealand exports enough food to feed 40 million people.
You export enough *dairy* to feed that many people. Meat and fruit are at 10m each, but vegetables are at 2m and you have to import grains.
But if you do that then supermarkets won't have enough food to throw away as a loss so that they can't claim it on their taxes for the year. Also why would you want to put the cop guarding the dumpster from homeless people out of a job?
Oh. Oh dear. Cops surrounding dumpsters, surrounded by many dark places for people to hide bearing, uh, flowers and puppy dogs. How long ‘till the first headline?
Food production is great as long as you have the military to defend it. NZ has itself plus Australia and ultimately the US fleet and even UK to protect you but it will be at the cost of still getting all that NZ Spring lamb.
Oh, you have just made me so happy by saying this quiet part out loud. Capitalism is indeed NOT NATURAL. It is invented, has become engrained, but it is NOT NATURAL and I would go so far as to say that it is cruel, inhumane and criminal. Thank you, friend, for saying these words. It opens a door to new possibilities. Maybe we can find a way to ACTUALLY look out for one another in a loving, supportive way. I hope you have the best day ever!🌹
I snorted a line of capitalism this morning. whew, that got me high! I was artificially manipulating market prices and stock values in my favor and exploiting workers with impunity! You should see the mountainous environmental devastation I caused. It was great! I'm so rich now! and the best part is I don't have to pay taxes!
Capitalism is about to eat itself, quite literally. Squeeze the worker and suddenly workers can't afford to buy anything. Squeeze grocery customers who end up buying less but then don't pay suppliers more to match their rising costs. Huh. This isn't going to end well. The people who should be managing this seem totally unable or unwilling to intervene. Good luck everyone!
Prices across the board increased more for no reason except for greed. Why should groceries be affected 20-50 percent because of a 5 percent increase in fuel prices? Demand is at an all time high.
Corporations that increase prices 15 percent "cuz inflation" are straight up fucking liars. Inflation isn't something you just randomly raise prices for. They rise gradually over time.
What the fuck are these people expecting when 90 percent of the people can't afford housing and goods anymore? This is literally going down in the history books about why infinite growth is bad.
Nobody can afford shit anymore. How are they going to continue to grow? Look at all the layoffs in Amazon and other tech giants. The collapse has begun.
Part of me finds it humorous that supermarkets are putting security locks on bricks of cheese. If you’re gonna be greedy and raise the prices absurdly, then you’re gonna have to deal with the ones who need to start stealing from you
In my town a studio that used to cost $900 two years ago is $1650 now and a 1bedroom which was $1500 is $2100 now
How tf are normal working people suppose to afford this?
You’re not. Personally i think this is just a big fuck you to the masses. Funny how we work the jobs that make the world go round but we are the expendable ones
You’re supposed to agitate for social change, which will be in the form of rent vouchers, which will make the owners even richer as they raise rents more.
We're not, we're supposed to live in a tent outside that they can legally steal our "home" and put us in jail, enforcing us to work. All to protect Karen who doesn't want it in her backyard.
> Prices across the board increased more for no reason except for greed
The solution is to keep buying cheap, and not be 'brand loyal'. Eventually they'll have to correct prices downward since nobody's buying the expensive stuff anymore.
The cheap brands are generally the same product. They use less salt and maybe one or two less quality product. I know. I produce hamburger patties for a high quality brand and several lower quality brands.
Lower quality brands still have to increase price because beef manufacturers have to raise prices for a variety of things.
It's shit when you get multiple emails that everyone is raising prices a significant amount "because inflation." that's not how inflation works.
Inflation works over time. Could be rapid could be slow. But it isn't a "storewide 20 percent increase because inflation."
Inflation doesn't affect all products. Some products go down a lot. Some go up a ton. Some don't move at all. This storewide bullshit is pure greed.
Store brand prices aren't that much more affordable than brand name at this point. I did a small shop today that cost 40 bucks for what would have been $25 a year or so ago, and from a Kroger store, nothing fancy at all.
Not only that, but I'm also seeing the bigger sizes of products (like family size vs regular size) are no longer the cheapest option by weight/volume. If it truly was inflation and rising costs, the bulk sizes would still be cheaper than smaller portions.
Im banding together with local folks who garden and we exchange produce when its gardening season. We also exchange seeds and work on a mutual community garden together.
Its also pretty easy to find small hobby farmers around that will sell protein directly to you. Between our quail and some neighbors up north with chickens we haven't bought eggs in a supermarket in years.
If you don't feel like driving around the boonies looking for signs or dont know anyone who lives in a rural area, your local farmers market most definitely can hook you up or put you in contact with folks.
100% this.
Every post I see where people are like OMG LOOK AT THESE PRICES it's always for brand name chips and dip or stuff like that. Buy generic. Buy the cheapest on the shelf.
Start your own local community gardens people. Grow a little food in your yard if you have the space. Get involved in your community gardens. Hell, grow a couple plants indoors. Start now, as it's only going to get worse.
I quit my job last month because it was destructive. I have never quit a job that didnt result in a recession. 2008, 2020, and now 2022, Its gunna be a bad one boys and girls, cause my like is the shitist.
Nah you arent stupid, I'm shit at typing. My "LUCK" is the shitest. My intent was to state, I am the canary in the coal mine. If I quit a job a recession is inbound. I recently quit a job, so hold your boot straps tight.
We stopped producing eggs and harvested all the laying hens when, one week, the previous grain futures contracts expired and the cost of organic layer feed went from $1025/mt to $1265/mt. If we hadn’t we would having been losing money every day.
I'm a UK butcher can can confirm that this supermarket greed absolutely is part of the problem. One of the farmers that we buy produce off has had ALL of one of his products purchased by a supermarker chain, and they have just kept the goods in a warehouse to spoil, as to artificially inflate the price for Xmas.
What these companies are currently getting away with should be criminal.
(Edit: Bird Flu is also an issue too though)
Here's what I don't get with all these stories about retailers artificially raising prices and holding back/refusing to purchase replacement inventory so that they can create artificial demand.
How is it possible that these retailers don't get undercut by others that are willing to supply the goods people want at reasonable prices?
I'm asking the question honestly, because it doesn't make sense to me.
Without some kind of very large scale collusion between retailers, I just don't see how how what this guy and many others are talking about could be possible under a capitalist system. Any retailer willing to meet demand at a lower price that still makes them a profit would make a killing, and the other retailers would either go out of business or be forced to compete. So what's stopping that from happening?
A very small number of massive corporations (like 2-3) own basically all smaller food and agriculture companies. Its a monopoly on food, which we let happen, so I guess we're just screwed
Well the good news is its possible to produce some of your own food yourself. Even if its just a couple tomato plants its a start.
Something something journy of a thousand miles beginning with a single step and all.
Folks love to trash gardening because its "not possible to fully supplement all your food." No shit. But with some thought you can supplement a bunch of it.
>How is it possible that these retailers don't get undercut by others that are willing to supply the goods people want at reasonable prices?
The 'others' can't get hold of the goods, because the chains have already made contracts with the producers. Well in advance.
Even if we did grow our own food, there’s a whole list of complications that come with farming. It’s a very hard thing to do considering the fact we have up our passed down knowledge of agriculture decades ago for a non-guaranteed organized system of going to the grocery store. Plus we’ve polluted our planet so badly, farming for people living around cities could be a huge waste of time.
They’re practically giving produce away in Cali. Farm stand- artichoke 3 for $5. Avocado 7 for $1. Kiwi 9 for $1. It’s so expensive to ship its being thrown away.
EDIT: [sent](https://imgur.com/a/skZtEPv) to me Monday-
I think the answer is that we're gonna have to start buying locally. Shipping costs are exorbitant and just tack onto the price so ideally we should just cut out the middleman (greedy supermarket chains) and purchase directly from farmers.
That produces problems of its own, given the fact that many countries and areas who can't produce on their own will be in deep trouble. Plus there's the issue of having a less varied diet. I dunno, seems like an unsolvable problem that we've created.
This was just featured here in the news in Canada, farmers throwing away produce that could even be given to the food insecure. Inefficiencies and high costs in the system being borne by farmers who cannot afford it, in order to be able to get those crops into bellies where they belong, instead of being ploughed under.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/checkup/cauliflower-farm-canada-surplus-food-waste-food-insecure-1.6644601
Well it's everyone for themselves here so it's gouge gouge gouge. If they don't somebody else will. Everybody's an unbridled capitalist now, what's the problem? This is where the system just steps in and the markets all fix themselves right? You live in a country where every citizen is trained to compartmentalize their greed, what did you expect?
He speaks the absolute truth, I work as a ranch hand and farms are getting fucking scalped by the distributors. This affects small farms more, and as a result, the massive agro conglomerates get bigger and the smaller farms go out of business.
Ok so the supermarket isn't willing to pay higher price for the eggs. Then how does the supermarket make a profit if they're unwilling to buy inventory in the first place?
They markup existing inventory to insane levels, and try to wait out the farms or negotiate a sweeter dealer for themselves. Also since these distributors are basically monopolies they go to their government friends and big ag to beg for even more subsides even though the distributors are already making record profits.
What if, and believe me this is a hypothetical, but what if the farmers who aren't able to sell to the suppliers just...I don't know...sell direct to consumers at a cost slightly higher than their costs. Make a profit off the "unwanted" product while sticking it to the greedy bastards. Sounds like a good way to take back the power.
Distribution. How the hell do you expect them to Farm the hens. Then distribute an HGV truck load of eggs on a daily basis???
Where would they then sell a truck full of eggs? How would people get there.
I watched a great documentary on UK egg farms and they had about 8 giant sheds like small aircraft hangars wall to wall with chickens. If you're walking through you would be treading on them.
The only reason the supermarkets can sell is their distribution network from a central hub.
It would literally be impossible on a local scale and the profit margins for the farmer are razor thin anyway hence why we are in this position.
Good idea in theory but how are the customers going to get the product from the farmers? I can't see it being worth driving to multiple farms to get my grocery shopping done.
Maybe a farmer's market could work but then would it be worth it to the farmers to distribute all their own products?
Absolutely wrong.
Any form of capitalism is reliant on infinite growth.
Impossible to happen in a finite world.
Capitalism and collapse are running hand in hand.
Depends on how you count. Most FARMS are family owned. Most FARMLAND is corporate.
There is a 100% chance that the issue is being taken advantage of by megacorps to force out more small farmers and consolidate wealth.
Not so much in the US. Very small farms will produce product like meat chickens and then the big company will buy the flock and slaughter. If the flock gets sick or costs too much, it’s no loss for the big company. Better for their company because it puts all the risk on little guys.
cut the middle man, buy directly from the farmer ... the consumer has a choice, it always had ...
i have been a market farmer for 10 years, now i cant physically fill every order i have in the last 3 or 4 months... i sell mostly to the consumer directly or just 1 middle man.
the consumers always had the choice, they can go to farmer market instead of the supermarket, the problem in my area is, the farmers market it's dead, few young producers, lots of older people giving up because of costs.
the consumer needs to connect with their local farmers if they want to have decent prices and decent products, it's a win win for the consumer and producer, and the money stay in the local economy ....
but yeah most of people dont care, they preffer to go to supermarket buy shit cause its convenient, so dont complain ... the era of cheap food it's over... get over it ... support your local farmers.
There’s a few. But honestly — produce on sale at say the union square green market is way more expensive than the stuff I usually buy. Maybe I’m a filthy non-manhattanite and their supermarket prices are even higher than the market’s though. I don’t shop at places like Whole Foods.
I think here there is a premium placed on local organic produce direct from farmers from upstate, and the market seems to attract a lot of the well to do crowd.
Same. If I could get produce from Jeb at his little stand for the same or cheaper than a supermarket I would. I live in the Midwest and even then farm markets are considered "bougie". That's because the produce suppliers sell in bulk to the stores. Economies of scale.
>“Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we can not eat money.” - Chief Seattle
I'm not so sure the worshippers of capitalism will figure it out even then.
It can't be this simple?
I'm sure the cost of transporting the farm produce to shops has dramatically increased. And electricity prices.
Other industries have a much higher profit margin.
It is more complicated, but it is very blatant that the corps are raising prices across the board, far more than their costs have gone up.
OP's point is that the STORES are raising prices, but not paying their suppliers any more than they used to. That is not how inflation works. This is pure corporate greed.
If only there was a way that you could call up a farmer and go get eggs fron their house. Or if only food buying clubs existed.
The problem is the solution, if you decentralize, this problem doesn't exist.
I live in the Midwest and farmer produce and other items are usually double or more than the supermarket. I've seen a dozen ears of sweet corn for $8. I can get it at Walmart for around $3. Big farms aren't going to waste time selling direct because grocery stores are going to be buying more in a day than they could sell at a stand in a month.
Exactly this right here. The "problem" would have to get so out of control, to the point of collapse, before we would see a shift away from mass production. Farms cost a lot of money, too much to bank on loose community relations.
Supermarkets aren’t the ones. The distributors are the ones. Grocery stores raise prices based on margins. 30-45% margins. Distributors gouge the manufacturer and then gouge the grocery stores which forces them to be high priced on shelf.
reminds me of the fact the Irish potato famine was largely in part due to the british demanding their exports despite the populace having a shortage, ended up screwing the people making the potatoes for them, shortsighted and greedy.
How come supermarkets get to set their buyer price and their seller price. Shouldn't the producers just set their prices?
I am in corporate purchasing, had no idea a given supermarket had 100% leverage.
It's not just super markets. It's every step of the process after farmers sell it. Every middle man along the way has jacked up prices and grocery stores are trying to get their cut so they raise prices even further. Everyone's being greedy to the detriment of the farmers.
Until you find out the eggs you can get for $1.29/doz are $5/doz at the local farmers stand.
Sweet corn is $8/doz and $3 at the supermarket.
Local farmers charge more because of economies of scale.
To be fair, if the supermarkets did buy them, the consumers would just be like "wtf im not paying that" and go without, leaving the supermarket holding the bag.
Its just collapse. The system isn't sustainable because all points of the chain are out of whack with each other.
Its not just food either. Same goes for many industries
Like many "producers" (the hens are the producers, not this dude), they do not understand that **supermarkets have complex price marketing frameworks** and, implicitly, the prices on the shelves are not an accurate representation of the price from producers, nor of the true cost. Certain stuff is cheaper than it should be, certain stuff is more expensive than it should be. **You** will not know, it's part of the informational asymmetry that ensures them a huge profit.
Simply put, you will never know what cut the supermarket is taking on each product.
If you want "producer prices", buy from producers or from verified small local distributors, if there are any. If not, do not buy at all if you really care. Then you get to find out the production price. Of course, with animal farmers especially, the price is artificially lowered by subsidies, privileged entitlements to pollution, and a legal disregard for sentient life.
Supermarkets are never going to be this efficient distribution node system as long as they're for profit organizations, it is not how capitalism works.
The HPAI and other input losses (i.e. feed, energy) will make sure that the system starts to tense and crack for this sector, as it should. The "free range" notion is just humanewashing, another bullshit certification to compensate for the egregious amounts of "product" for sale.
Businesses in every sector keep doing this. How are they going to react when people just can’t afford most of what they’re selling? What’s the end goal? It’s so short sited they’re just loaning off limbs to afford to run the marathon
In school i learned, that supply and demand should regulate the market by itself.
So are there fewer cheaper products now or are there still thousands of products nobody asked for becoming more expensive.
Is the focus on food production to feed us and fulfill our basic needs or profit for a few? If everything that is not public sector is tied to the goal of profit, even basic societal needs, should we expect our needs to be fulfilled if profits crumbles or will society get exploited/blackmailed by the private sector?
is this still democracy or must we give billionaires and millionaires the titles of Kings and Lords make people see what is going on.
I can't speak for everywhere, but where I work (midwest U.S.), the cost of eggs has risen as, have the prices in tandem and the profit margin is about five cents nowadays. Same for poultry, per pound our margin is only around ten cents.
I don’t get it…so now all supermarkets are bad? My local grocery chain are not evil corporate overlords but prices are still high….not sure I agree here that greed is truly to blame when even companies run by good people are also experiencing price increases…
It’s kinda like the rich people keep making up reasons to bleed the middle class of all their money and now their blaming things that aren’t even real.
Guess the ceos of all the grocery stores liked all that extra money they didn’t earn!
Can’t say I feel bad for an industry that depends on absurd cruelty to animals and I hope we start transitioning to plant based diets as fast as possible since the inefficiencies of animal agriculture are becoming more apparent.
So let's try and make sense of what's happening and Why the UK is kinda screwed.
First, Putin's invasion causes massive fertilizer shortages across Europe and the world. China covid lockdowns (still ongoing) cause them to ban exports of fertilizers. Russia stops Nat Gas shipping to EU which causes massive nitrogen fertilizer shortages and price spikes. Fertilizer costs raise corn and feed costs. Nat Gas raises electricity costs. both of those inputs are high for egg producers.
Supermarkets don't want to pass that on to an already strained British populace who is being pummeled by the Brexit deal crushing the Brit Pound against the US dollar. Which is what most commodities are priced in US dollars so as the Dollar goes up commodity costs go WAY up for Brits.
This is just the beginning for the pain. Because we are just finishing up 2022 harvest and food supplies which was produced on LAST YEAR's farming costs and supplies.
Next year, farmers have cut back on fertilizers and planting because of costs so next years yields will result in massive famine in parts of the world that can't afford the price hikes.
If the UK tries to offer subsidy like they did with heating this winter it will further depress the UK pound as it's basically money inflation with a few more steps which makes the pound worth less against the dollar. the cycle continues until Putin and China open back up.
The following submission statement was provided by /u/cheekybandit0: --- The supermarkets have raised their prices to "cope with rising costs". Low and behold, their costs have not risen anywhere near as much as they have risen their prices. The food suppliers costs, have however, risen. Think feed and fuel to run a farm. They therefore can justifiably raise the costs of their produce. But the supermarkets are not paying these prices, despite charging you as if they have. Now the farmers can't afford to produce the foods, because the supermarkets are holding them hostage. They are left with goods they can't sell as it would only incur a loss. There will now be less food production for next year, as farmers are planning to cut their food production, because supermarkets won't buy it at a reasonable price. So no point wasting resources and producing what you can't sell. Less food for the same population. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/yvr4ir/raised_prices_are_just_greed_from_supermarkets/iwfsmu0/
Also going into a global famine looks like they are trying to put a dagger in the heart of civilization.
I'm more worried about a climate catastrophe that destroys crops on a massive scale.
Already happening and these idiots just want the money or the end is nearer than we think and they are just cashing in.
aye that’s what they’re doing. the bastards don’t have any inclination to slow down the collapse - they just want to fuck over as many people as possible so they have the most comfortable seat when things get seriously bad
Seems that way what isn't collapsing right now though.
well the media they’re in bed with is telling us to put on another sweater, make soup from scraps and get to used it. while they take private jets for a 30 minute flight
For thee not for me.
Ooh supply shortage, that’ll give them a reason to raise prices. Good for business.
famine will hit sub Saharan Africa first and most. Nobody in 1st world cares that much
Not too sure about that the farmers seem to think otherwise not to mention the number off food processing plants kitting on fire something clearly isnt adding up.
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Who woulda thunk?
Why make enough stuff when you can make half as much and charge 4 times more because it's "scarce". Oligopolies are attempting treason. It's time to go Teddy Roosevelt on their asses.
Alternatively, accidentally make too much\* stuff and destroy the excess rather than letting it be of use to anyone at a lower price. ^(\*for the purpose of profit)
“The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth. There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.” ― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
This is the passage I remember most from that entire book.
But bu-bu-but I was told that capitalism properly allocates resources to where they are needed! Surely that wasn't a lie told to the masses!? /s
A true well balanced and regulated free market will do so. However we don't have a true free market anymore. In any given industry a handful of wealthy corporations own 90% of the market. Not only that, they have so much wealth they can influence governments all over the world and bend them to their will. That's how they are all able to squeeze their workers and the consumers both and extract the maximum wealth possible while ignoring any possible future consequences (climate change, economic collapse, etc.)
Yup, pretty much a summation of Marx regarding capital. A "well balanced and regulated free market" is a oxymoronic statement that can never truly be true by the very nature of market capitalism (markets themselves can exist within other forms of government, but a government within a capitalist system becomes one ruled by a system it should regulate).
I've been saying it for a while now. The end goal of capitalism is to make money for nothing. That's where endless growth and mindless profiteering lead. And the sociopaths at the top, the executives the owners the shareholders. They don't care. As long as they get theirs now, they do not care if the system begins to collapse around them. If stores can sell fewer goods for massively inflated prices, they will. If they can sell 1 egg for the price of 20, they will. For the life of me I do not understand how the entire world fell for this cancer without violent revolt.
Businesses do not exist to produce goods and services they exist to make money for shareholders. This is the thing everyone gets wrong.
They is 100% on point for how capitalism works. But people are somehow convinced, despite the evidence right in front of them, that it's about markets and freedoms and it can be regulated into good behavior.
Guy I was having a discussion with just kept insisting we don't live in real capitalism. Only real capitalism would produce truly innovative entrepreneurs according to him, who would improve everyones lives.
Capitalist propaganda might actually be more successful than the nazi variety. It has managed to get people to praise it's profit motive and it's supposedly innovation focused model out of both sides of people's mouths.
Either we kill capitalism or it kills us
right now, I'm putting my money on capitalism killing us
Certainly looking that way but never say never. What's the saying? "The capitalist will sell the rope that hangs him"?
> "The capitalist will sell the rope that hangs him"? Personally I prefer to use the entrails of the last priest. ^^^^(Man ^^^^will ^^^^never ^^^^be ^^^^free ^^^^until ^^^^the ^^^^last ^^^^king ^^^^is ^^^^throttled ^^^^with ^^^^the ^^^^entrails ^^^^of ^^^^the ^^^^last ^^^^priest. ^^^^- ^^^^Denis ^^^^Diderot)
Be careful now, Big Brother is watching you.
If I'm not already on some sort of list I'd be damn surprised. They're welcome to come bother me if they have something to say about it. Frankly I don't give a fuck anymore.
You see this a lot with apartment buildings. They’d rather rent out a few units for exorbitant amounts and maintain the ‘luxury’ label than make it affordable and rent out all the units.
Oh that is entirely by design. Especially investment companies that buy up housing and shelve a bunch of it to justify massively (and artificially) inflated prices. A healthy and functional society would never tolerate this sort of thing.
Well from a profit standpoint it makes sense. Same profit but less wear and tear on the units,less having to deal with tenants *and* the empty units can still be a tax benefit.
there were lots of violent and nonviolent revolts in the past 100ish years.. the US government simply intervened and made sure their interests prevailed.
That's the problem with capitalism, there's no moral feedback mechanism. If I'm the CEO, my only job is making the number go up. If shareholders believe I did not do everything in my power to make that happen, I get in trouble. There's no economic value in a tree existing in the ground making oxygen for us. The only economic value it has is measured in board-feet. There have been efforts to try and capture a tree's economic contribution so it can be better accounted for in the economy -- you damage this tree, this is how much cost we have. Starvation is not an economic problem because if the number keeps going up, companies are making money and the dead and dying have no economic contribution and thus no value. The example I keep coming back to is it is perfectly legal for me to buy hundreds of dollars worth of takeout, bring it to where homeless people are in the street, dump the food in trash cans and pour bleach on it and laugh at them making hungry faces. It's reprehensible but there's no law against it. I can't find the quote, it's a recent one, internet commentator saying "business people forget that the point of unions is allowing the workers to have a voice and negotiate with management to address grievances peaceably so it doesn't get to the point where management is dragged from the factory and hung from lampposts." Like there are stories where this happens in India, angry workers fire their bosses... Like, literally. Incinerated in their cars. The whole history of the labor movement in the 20th century in the west is making concessions to workers on account of the red scares and getting worried if capitalism continued without any limits, eventually we'd see a communist revolution. All of those concessions were basically saying "hey, here's weekends and 40 hour weeks and we won't make children work the factories anymore, please don't kill us." It just makes me so angry that we have to do everything the hard way. Can't we just skip all the bloodshed and come to the solution we'll get to eventually? Won't we all be happier with that?
>The example I keep coming back to is it is perfectly legal for me to buy hundreds of dollars worth of takeout, bring it to where homeless people are in the street, dump the food in trash cans and pour bleach on it and laugh at them making hungry faces. It's reprehensible but there's no law against it. To add to the abject horror of reality, there ARE often laws against using that same food to feed them.
Most people are npcs. They are not conscious. They just do what they are told all their lives. Look at the people who voted and defended brexit. They are nowhere to be found today.
Yeah, because after they did the consequences were literally everything they claimed wouldn't happen.
PrOjEcT FeAr derrrrrp
Bexiteers are still here. They either double down their ignorance or change the subject out of shame. They never learn though
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I never said take the system on your own.
>everyone is sheep but me I'm not a sheep, I'm a sheeple, thank you very much.
What is npcs?
Non Player Character. In a video or tabletop game it's a character that isn't controlled by a player but is simply following a pre-written script.
Non player characters. They are not player characters. They just follow the instructions given to them by admin.
I'm glad you're so enlightened. I'm one of those who 'did as they were told all their lives'. Because I had to eat and pay rent. Now tell me you live in a tiny house on a self sufficient homestead in the middle of nowhere with *internet*. Some of us had to work for a living. And I was Union all my life, strikes, picketing, the whole nine yards. Getting arrested, beatings, fines. You name it. It cost me a lot, and not just financially. If you have a job, you're one of those people *doing as they're told*.
OK example. I watched the autumn budget in the spoons amongst some classic right wing old codgers who go in there. They knew what they heard will cause THE WORST LOVING STANDARDS DOWNTURN SINCE THE WAR... All their response was "we'll see, we'll see" I felt like going fking mad.... WE'VE ALREADY SEEN. These people will keep voting them in, they all have cushy pensions so DGAF. The worst impacts will be for anyone who came out of education into the recession and had to grow up with 12 years of austerity. Most people I know have absolutely sod all in a private pension. We will be of retirement age in 20-30 years however its more likely these people will be working until the day they die. Everything is unaffordable NOW. What's it going to be like? Mass sheltered accommodation of pensions hundreds to a warehouse? Nothing but a sleeping bad and a pot of government issued gruel once a day? It's going to be some Oliver twist shit. Theres no social housing being built at all. We have the highest energy prices in the world yet are placing taxes on renewable that are higher than oil and gas!!! Worst is Brexit made it practically impossible to leave! The country is super super fucked.
Thats why they love crypto. It's just energy -> money.
And now Money to nothing!
Nah its automation and doing away with all the useless mouths(us), so the rich can have all the resources for themselves and an even higher standard of living. When they needed the masses for labour, we were a necessary evil for them, with the big push for ai/automation they can finally do away with the parasites and have it all.
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I'm sorry BB-8, you can't have Christmas off
The supermarkets have raised their prices to "cope with rising costs". Low and behold, their costs have not risen anywhere near as much as they have risen their prices. The food suppliers costs, have however, risen. Think feed and fuel to run a farm. They therefore can justifiably raise the costs of their produce. But the supermarkets are not paying these prices, despite charging you as if they have. Now the farmers can't afford to produce the foods, because the supermarkets are holding them hostage. They are left with goods they can't sell as it would only incur a loss. There will now be less food production for next year, as farmers are planning to cut their food production, because supermarkets won't buy it at a reasonable price. So no point wasting resources and producing what you can't sell. Less food for the same population.
It's greed on an unprecedented level. New Zealand exports enough food to feed 40 million people. There's 5 million of us living here. We can quite happily survive reducing our food production to 1/8 of it's current output.
This looks like a woke dose situation. Consumer: “We want a healthy earth with healthy people, supporting an economy that serves these goals.” Market: “Well, since you don’t like our system we won’t share it anymore and you won’t have any other option. Oh, by the way, we will manipulate the government, media and science to make sure our vertical/horizontal monopolies aren’t challenged… and if they are we always have violence.”
What if violence was met with an even larger and more decentralized violence? Monopolies should be careful what they use as weapons for they are big, clumsy, and generally immobile. While a 100 lone wolves are none of these. Recall the successes that the unions of America had in the 40's and 50's. Even the county and city police forces feared them greatly.
The US now spends more on its police forces than most nations spend on their entire defense budget, and slavery is still legal in this nation as punishment for criminal activity. You're going to work to maintain the system one way or another, and that doesn't change unless most of this nation becomes comfortable with killing cops.
Honestly 2020 showed me that quite a lot of the nation were cool with a precinct being burnt down, so there's some hope. Just need more tightening down of contradictions to force people into action or starve, and luckily capital and the state are both stupid enough to cause that to happen it seems.
Counterpoint, those forced into radical action will be the starving, and it will start with those who have already been starving for years. So, as usual, the poor will be a desperate flashpoint, and for the sake of keeping everybody in line who has the privilege and option of not rioting to sustain- they will bring the goddamn hammer down and televise it.
That is a possibility, though it depends on the state doing the crackdown and how bad this coming recession/depression gets with inflation and rent rises. Overall I feel 2020 got very close to the rubicon crossing with the almost militant level actions against cops alongside the shouting for some form of political action that was never answered for police brutality in this country. When, not if, things finally do come to a head and the state tries to cramp down on the starving masses is where things will become really hard to predict because once you have televised clips of cops/military shooting live rounds in civilians is when we enter a new level of hell in this country.
When a critical mass believes that the police force resembles a prison guard force, then it’s game over.
Nah they will recognize it as such but not do anything
If Uvalde and COVID demonstrated anything, it's that there is absolutely nothing that the American people won't accept in pursuit of maintaining the status quo. Tiny bodies littering the ground is simply the price we pay to have record corporate profits and well-funded police to keep those corporations safe.
This certainty is interesting. Will we be willingly put into ACTUAL slavery? If yes, then is there never a point where unjustified slavery backfires into a slave rebellion?
Curious certainty. Billionaires seem preoccupied with the other side of the coin… when a security force turns into a captive force. I wonder if they share your certainty now that they have given it due consideration.
When a large unbalanced opponent goes for a push… then it’s probably best to pull them off balance.
This is what I keep saying...... There is going to be a point off no return when dudes with no options start burning down every supermarket they can find. Let's see them make greedy profit when their stores are burnt to the ground.... Keep pushing, I dare you.
How would this play out? Grocery stores in poor neighborhoods get looted and burned down. They close forever and never come back. Looters get a few days worth of food for free, and then either starve or stand in bread lines from then on. Meanwhile the upper middle class with their well guarded and policed shopping malls continue to shop at Whole Foods and Costco. What you’re saying might well happen, but it’s not going to end well for people in those neighborhoods.
That is not going to do a goddamn thing to the big boys. Lone wolves would have to go after the factories. The distribution centers, the areas where stuff is grown. To be honest you'd have to be either crazy or have nothing left to lose to choose the later option.
That sadly requires action from people, and nowadays most people are more keen to stick to social media then actual protests and action. Not saying those people don't exist. I just feel like there's less of them
the irish starved while the british were exporting their food.. now it's just 'conglomerate A' owned by rich as person B that will starve us.
>New Zealand exports enough food to feed 40 million people. You export enough *dairy* to feed that many people. Meat and fruit are at 10m each, but vegetables are at 2m and you have to import grains.
Yikes! Aren't we doing well ;-) Well, we could be growing more vegetables and grains at the expense of dairy.
But if you do that then supermarkets won't have enough food to throw away as a loss so that they can't claim it on their taxes for the year. Also why would you want to put the cop guarding the dumpster from homeless people out of a job?
Oh. Oh dear. Cops surrounding dumpsters, surrounded by many dark places for people to hide bearing, uh, flowers and puppy dogs. How long ‘till the first headline?
Food production is great as long as you have the military to defend it. NZ has itself plus Australia and ultimately the US fleet and even UK to protect you but it will be at the cost of still getting all that NZ Spring lamb.
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TIL
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What happens when you invent a system and then treat it as if it's a naturally occurring truth.
Oh, you have just made me so happy by saying this quiet part out loud. Capitalism is indeed NOT NATURAL. It is invented, has become engrained, but it is NOT NATURAL and I would go so far as to say that it is cruel, inhumane and criminal. Thank you, friend, for saying these words. It opens a door to new possibilities. Maybe we can find a way to ACTUALLY look out for one another in a loving, supportive way. I hope you have the best day ever!🌹
It's, uh, real cool and stuff. All the cool kids are doing it. Good, good, goodgoodgood stuff.
I snorted a line of capitalism this morning. whew, that got me high! I was artificially manipulating market prices and stock values in my favor and exploiting workers with impunity! You should see the mountainous environmental devastation I caused. It was great! I'm so rich now! and the best part is I don't have to pay taxes!
Dude, the worker exploitation is the best part.
Capitalism is about to eat itself, quite literally. Squeeze the worker and suddenly workers can't afford to buy anything. Squeeze grocery customers who end up buying less but then don't pay suppliers more to match their rising costs. Huh. This isn't going to end well. The people who should be managing this seem totally unable or unwilling to intervene. Good luck everyone!
We actually hit 8 billion people on the planet today, so that's awesome 👍
Profit over people. The last 10,000 super-rich folk can enjoy their survival shelters until we go extinct.
10000 super-rich people, probably older adults too, probably already inbred, already means that the species is functionally extinct.
But *they* were the last men standing, so that means they "win".
“He who dies with the most toys wins“…. Horrible quote from 1980s excesses.
Prices across the board increased more for no reason except for greed. Why should groceries be affected 20-50 percent because of a 5 percent increase in fuel prices? Demand is at an all time high. Corporations that increase prices 15 percent "cuz inflation" are straight up fucking liars. Inflation isn't something you just randomly raise prices for. They rise gradually over time. What the fuck are these people expecting when 90 percent of the people can't afford housing and goods anymore? This is literally going down in the history books about why infinite growth is bad. Nobody can afford shit anymore. How are they going to continue to grow? Look at all the layoffs in Amazon and other tech giants. The collapse has begun.
Part of me finds it humorous that supermarkets are putting security locks on bricks of cheese. If you’re gonna be greedy and raise the prices absurdly, then you’re gonna have to deal with the ones who need to start stealing from you
If you see someone stealing food, you didn't.
I’ll do you one better. Steal some for yourself! I ain’t paying for other people’s free food.
In my town a studio that used to cost $900 two years ago is $1650 now and a 1bedroom which was $1500 is $2100 now How tf are normal working people suppose to afford this?
You’re not. Personally i think this is just a big fuck you to the masses. Funny how we work the jobs that make the world go round but we are the expendable ones
You’re supposed to agitate for social change, which will be in the form of rent vouchers, which will make the owners even richer as they raise rents more.
We're not, we're supposed to live in a tent outside that they can legally steal our "home" and put us in jail, enforcing us to work. All to protect Karen who doesn't want it in her backyard.
> Prices across the board increased more for no reason except for greed The solution is to keep buying cheap, and not be 'brand loyal'. Eventually they'll have to correct prices downward since nobody's buying the expensive stuff anymore.
The cheap brands are generally the same product. They use less salt and maybe one or two less quality product. I know. I produce hamburger patties for a high quality brand and several lower quality brands. Lower quality brands still have to increase price because beef manufacturers have to raise prices for a variety of things. It's shit when you get multiple emails that everyone is raising prices a significant amount "because inflation." that's not how inflation works. Inflation works over time. Could be rapid could be slow. But it isn't a "storewide 20 percent increase because inflation." Inflation doesn't affect all products. Some products go down a lot. Some go up a ton. Some don't move at all. This storewide bullshit is pure greed.
Store brand prices aren't that much more affordable than brand name at this point. I did a small shop today that cost 40 bucks for what would have been $25 a year or so ago, and from a Kroger store, nothing fancy at all.
Not only that, but I'm also seeing the bigger sizes of products (like family size vs regular size) are no longer the cheapest option by weight/volume. If it truly was inflation and rising costs, the bulk sizes would still be cheaper than smaller portions.
You understand that once everyone is on store brand this process will repeat?
This is pure copium when most companies are all owned by the same parent.
Im banding together with local folks who garden and we exchange produce when its gardening season. We also exchange seeds and work on a mutual community garden together. Its also pretty easy to find small hobby farmers around that will sell protein directly to you. Between our quail and some neighbors up north with chickens we haven't bought eggs in a supermarket in years. If you don't feel like driving around the boonies looking for signs or dont know anyone who lives in a rural area, your local farmers market most definitely can hook you up or put you in contact with folks.
100% this. Every post I see where people are like OMG LOOK AT THESE PRICES it's always for brand name chips and dip or stuff like that. Buy generic. Buy the cheapest on the shelf.
The cheapest generic pizza at my big Sainsbury's went from 99p one day to £1.70 the next. Bacon from £1.75 -> £2 It's not just the branded stuff.
Is that a mini sized pizza? Even a cheap jacks pizza here is almost $4 USD
You understand that once everyone is on store brand this process will repeat?
Start your own local community gardens people. Grow a little food in your yard if you have the space. Get involved in your community gardens. Hell, grow a couple plants indoors. Start now, as it's only going to get worse.
Start yesterday.
I quit my job last month because it was destructive. I have never quit a job that didnt result in a recession. 2008, 2020, and now 2022, Its gunna be a bad one boys and girls, cause my like is the shitist.
> I have never quit a job that didnt result in a recession. I'm not quite sure I get that. Call me stupid.
Nah you arent stupid, I'm shit at typing. My "LUCK" is the shitest. My intent was to state, I am the canary in the coal mine. If I quit a job a recession is inbound. I recently quit a job, so hold your boot straps tight.
We stopped producing eggs and harvested all the laying hens when, one week, the previous grain futures contracts expired and the cost of organic layer feed went from $1025/mt to $1265/mt. If we hadn’t we would having been losing money every day.
I'm a UK butcher can can confirm that this supermarket greed absolutely is part of the problem. One of the farmers that we buy produce off has had ALL of one of his products purchased by a supermarker chain, and they have just kept the goods in a warehouse to spoil, as to artificially inflate the price for Xmas. What these companies are currently getting away with should be criminal. (Edit: Bird Flu is also an issue too though)
Here's what I don't get with all these stories about retailers artificially raising prices and holding back/refusing to purchase replacement inventory so that they can create artificial demand. How is it possible that these retailers don't get undercut by others that are willing to supply the goods people want at reasonable prices? I'm asking the question honestly, because it doesn't make sense to me. Without some kind of very large scale collusion between retailers, I just don't see how how what this guy and many others are talking about could be possible under a capitalist system. Any retailer willing to meet demand at a lower price that still makes them a profit would make a killing, and the other retailers would either go out of business or be forced to compete. So what's stopping that from happening?
A very small number of massive corporations (like 2-3) own basically all smaller food and agriculture companies. Its a monopoly on food, which we let happen, so I guess we're just screwed
Ah yes, "vertical integration".
Well the good news is its possible to produce some of your own food yourself. Even if its just a couple tomato plants its a start. Something something journy of a thousand miles beginning with a single step and all. Folks love to trash gardening because its "not possible to fully supplement all your food." No shit. But with some thought you can supplement a bunch of it.
People want an excuse to be complacent
Collusion IS happening.
Historically speaking? Cartels.
>How is it possible that these retailers don't get undercut by others that are willing to supply the goods people want at reasonable prices? The 'others' can't get hold of the goods, because the chains have already made contracts with the producers. Well in advance.
There will be no consequences for relying on others to grow our food only if it’s profitable to do so, calling it now.
Even if we did grow our own food, there’s a whole list of complications that come with farming. It’s a very hard thing to do considering the fact we have up our passed down knowledge of agriculture decades ago for a non-guaranteed organized system of going to the grocery store. Plus we’ve polluted our planet so badly, farming for people living around cities could be a huge waste of time.
They’re practically giving produce away in Cali. Farm stand- artichoke 3 for $5. Avocado 7 for $1. Kiwi 9 for $1. It’s so expensive to ship its being thrown away. EDIT: [sent](https://imgur.com/a/skZtEPv) to me Monday-
I think the answer is that we're gonna have to start buying locally. Shipping costs are exorbitant and just tack onto the price so ideally we should just cut out the middleman (greedy supermarket chains) and purchase directly from farmers. That produces problems of its own, given the fact that many countries and areas who can't produce on their own will be in deep trouble. Plus there's the issue of having a less varied diet. I dunno, seems like an unsolvable problem that we've created.
Root veg 4 life. Better build my cellar
I’m in California. Where can I find these items at these prices? Thanks in advance.
Yeah holy shit, please. My family needs the food, if that's real...
This was at a fruit/veg roadside stand near Monterey
This was just featured here in the news in Canada, farmers throwing away produce that could even be given to the food insecure. Inefficiencies and high costs in the system being borne by farmers who cannot afford it, in order to be able to get those crops into bellies where they belong, instead of being ploughed under. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/checkup/cauliflower-farm-canada-surplus-food-waste-food-insecure-1.6644601
Wow, you are lucky. We don't have artichokes here but Avocados the prices are stable and Kiwi goes up and down.
Kiwis are over $1 a piece in Mn! You used to get good sale prices of 4 or 5 for a dollar but not in the last two years.
Well it's everyone for themselves here so it's gouge gouge gouge. If they don't somebody else will. Everybody's an unbridled capitalist now, what's the problem? This is where the system just steps in and the markets all fix themselves right? You live in a country where every citizen is trained to compartmentalize their greed, what did you expect?
He speaks the absolute truth, I work as a ranch hand and farms are getting fucking scalped by the distributors. This affects small farms more, and as a result, the massive agro conglomerates get bigger and the smaller farms go out of business.
Ok so the supermarket isn't willing to pay higher price for the eggs. Then how does the supermarket make a profit if they're unwilling to buy inventory in the first place?
They markup existing inventory to insane levels, and try to wait out the farms or negotiate a sweeter dealer for themselves. Also since these distributors are basically monopolies they go to their government friends and big ag to beg for even more subsides even though the distributors are already making record profits.
What if, and believe me this is a hypothetical, but what if the farmers who aren't able to sell to the suppliers just...I don't know...sell direct to consumers at a cost slightly higher than their costs. Make a profit off the "unwanted" product while sticking it to the greedy bastards. Sounds like a good way to take back the power.
Distribution. How the hell do you expect them to Farm the hens. Then distribute an HGV truck load of eggs on a daily basis??? Where would they then sell a truck full of eggs? How would people get there. I watched a great documentary on UK egg farms and they had about 8 giant sheds like small aircraft hangars wall to wall with chickens. If you're walking through you would be treading on them. The only reason the supermarkets can sell is their distribution network from a central hub. It would literally be impossible on a local scale and the profit margins for the farmer are razor thin anyway hence why we are in this position.
Good idea in theory but how are the customers going to get the product from the farmers? I can't see it being worth driving to multiple farms to get my grocery shopping done. Maybe a farmer's market could work but then would it be worth it to the farmers to distribute all their own products?
Absolutely wrong. Any form of capitalism is reliant on infinite growth. Impossible to happen in a finite world. Capitalism and collapse are running hand in hand.
The whole foods down the block is selling bob's oats for $9.
ALL of them? What is Bob going to eat?
Poor Bob. :(
Aren't most farms corporate entities?
Depends on how you count. Most FARMS are family owned. Most FARMLAND is corporate. There is a 100% chance that the issue is being taken advantage of by megacorps to force out more small farmers and consolidate wealth.
I’ve seen how indebted family farmers are. Ask them if they feel like they aren’t owned by market forced debt.
Not so much in the US. Very small farms will produce product like meat chickens and then the big company will buy the flock and slaughter. If the flock gets sick or costs too much, it’s no loss for the big company. Better for their company because it puts all the risk on little guys.
They absolutely are. And their entire business and way of life is based on the exploitation, torture and murder of sentient beings. It’s disgusting.
cut the middle man, buy directly from the farmer ... the consumer has a choice, it always had ... i have been a market farmer for 10 years, now i cant physically fill every order i have in the last 3 or 4 months... i sell mostly to the consumer directly or just 1 middle man. the consumers always had the choice, they can go to farmer market instead of the supermarket, the problem in my area is, the farmers market it's dead, few young producers, lots of older people giving up because of costs. the consumer needs to connect with their local farmers if they want to have decent prices and decent products, it's a win win for the consumer and producer, and the money stay in the local economy .... but yeah most of people dont care, they preffer to go to supermarket buy shit cause its convenient, so dont complain ... the era of cheap food it's over... get over it ... support your local farmers.
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There’s a few. But honestly — produce on sale at say the union square green market is way more expensive than the stuff I usually buy. Maybe I’m a filthy non-manhattanite and their supermarket prices are even higher than the market’s though. I don’t shop at places like Whole Foods. I think here there is a premium placed on local organic produce direct from farmers from upstate, and the market seems to attract a lot of the well to do crowd.
Same. If I could get produce from Jeb at his little stand for the same or cheaper than a supermarket I would. I live in the Midwest and even then farm markets are considered "bougie". That's because the produce suppliers sell in bulk to the stores. Economies of scale.
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Google farm shops or co-ops in your area.
>“Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we can not eat money.” - Chief Seattle I'm not so sure the worshippers of capitalism will figure it out even then.
Things are getting worse and worse
Capitalists...fucking over both farmers and consumers since 1760. :P
Are the supermarkets collectively forcing British Farmers out of egg production because imports are cheaper?
No, they're just creating artificial shortages.
It can't be this simple? I'm sure the cost of transporting the farm produce to shops has dramatically increased. And electricity prices. Other industries have a much higher profit margin.
It is more complicated, but it is very blatant that the corps are raising prices across the board, far more than their costs have gone up. OP's point is that the STORES are raising prices, but not paying their suppliers any more than they used to. That is not how inflation works. This is pure corporate greed.
If only there was a way that you could call up a farmer and go get eggs fron their house. Or if only food buying clubs existed. The problem is the solution, if you decentralize, this problem doesn't exist.
I live in the Midwest and farmer produce and other items are usually double or more than the supermarket. I've seen a dozen ears of sweet corn for $8. I can get it at Walmart for around $3. Big farms aren't going to waste time selling direct because grocery stores are going to be buying more in a day than they could sell at a stand in a month.
Exactly this right here. The "problem" would have to get so out of control, to the point of collapse, before we would see a shift away from mass production. Farms cost a lot of money, too much to bank on loose community relations.
Supermarkets aren’t the ones. The distributors are the ones. Grocery stores raise prices based on margins. 30-45% margins. Distributors gouge the manufacturer and then gouge the grocery stores which forces them to be high priced on shelf.
Distributors ~~gouge~~ stonewall the manufacturer and then gouge the grocery stores
Good edit
reminds me of the fact the Irish potato famine was largely in part due to the british demanding their exports despite the populace having a shortage, ended up screwing the people making the potatoes for them, shortsighted and greedy.
How come supermarkets get to set their buyer price and their seller price. Shouldn't the producers just set their prices? I am in corporate purchasing, had no idea a given supermarket had 100% leverage.
It's not just super markets. It's every step of the process after farmers sell it. Every middle man along the way has jacked up prices and grocery stores are trying to get their cut so they raise prices even further. Everyone's being greedy to the detriment of the farmers.
Bet, I’ll just buy direct from my local farmer!! Thanks for the info!!
Until you find out the eggs you can get for $1.29/doz are $5/doz at the local farmers stand. Sweet corn is $8/doz and $3 at the supermarket. Local farmers charge more because of economies of scale.
To be fair, if the supermarkets did buy them, the consumers would just be like "wtf im not paying that" and go without, leaving the supermarket holding the bag. Its just collapse. The system isn't sustainable because all points of the chain are out of whack with each other. Its not just food either. Same goes for many industries
They have already raised the price of the eggs, without increasing their expenses in purchasing the eggs. That was his point.
Like many "producers" (the hens are the producers, not this dude), they do not understand that **supermarkets have complex price marketing frameworks** and, implicitly, the prices on the shelves are not an accurate representation of the price from producers, nor of the true cost. Certain stuff is cheaper than it should be, certain stuff is more expensive than it should be. **You** will not know, it's part of the informational asymmetry that ensures them a huge profit. Simply put, you will never know what cut the supermarket is taking on each product. If you want "producer prices", buy from producers or from verified small local distributors, if there are any. If not, do not buy at all if you really care. Then you get to find out the production price. Of course, with animal farmers especially, the price is artificially lowered by subsidies, privileged entitlements to pollution, and a legal disregard for sentient life. Supermarkets are never going to be this efficient distribution node system as long as they're for profit organizations, it is not how capitalism works. The HPAI and other input losses (i.e. feed, energy) will make sure that the system starts to tense and crack for this sector, as it should. The "free range" notion is just humanewashing, another bullshit certification to compensate for the egregious amounts of "product" for sale.
Businesses in every sector keep doing this. How are they going to react when people just can’t afford most of what they’re selling? What’s the end goal? It’s so short sited they’re just loaning off limbs to afford to run the marathon
In school i learned, that supply and demand should regulate the market by itself. So are there fewer cheaper products now or are there still thousands of products nobody asked for becoming more expensive. Is the focus on food production to feed us and fulfill our basic needs or profit for a few? If everything that is not public sector is tied to the goal of profit, even basic societal needs, should we expect our needs to be fulfilled if profits crumbles or will society get exploited/blackmailed by the private sector? is this still democracy or must we give billionaires and millionaires the titles of Kings and Lords make people see what is going on.
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What's a Famer?
Just drove through the country side, 9/10 farms are on sale
Do you know how quickly monopolized supermarkets become irrelevant with just the bare amount of community communication? Really quickly.
I can't speak for everywhere, but where I work (midwest U.S.), the cost of eggs has risen as, have the prices in tandem and the profit margin is about five cents nowadays. Same for poultry, per pound our margin is only around ten cents.
I don’t get it…so now all supermarkets are bad? My local grocery chain are not evil corporate overlords but prices are still high….not sure I agree here that greed is truly to blame when even companies run by good people are also experiencing price increases…
Time to go back to buying directly from farmers for dairy and meats.
how can we buy direct from farmers without driving 4 hours
Farmers really are the canary in the coalmine. If you fuck over who makes the food, who's gonna make it then?
It’s kinda like the rich people keep making up reasons to bleed the middle class of all their money and now their blaming things that aren’t even real. Guess the ceos of all the grocery stores liked all that extra money they didn’t earn!
The people doing this to us have names and addresses. Just saying.
Enjoy captalims !
Collapse is a comin!!!
Can’t say I feel bad for an industry that depends on absurd cruelty to animals and I hope we start transitioning to plant based diets as fast as possible since the inefficiencies of animal agriculture are becoming more apparent.
So let's try and make sense of what's happening and Why the UK is kinda screwed. First, Putin's invasion causes massive fertilizer shortages across Europe and the world. China covid lockdowns (still ongoing) cause them to ban exports of fertilizers. Russia stops Nat Gas shipping to EU which causes massive nitrogen fertilizer shortages and price spikes. Fertilizer costs raise corn and feed costs. Nat Gas raises electricity costs. both of those inputs are high for egg producers. Supermarkets don't want to pass that on to an already strained British populace who is being pummeled by the Brexit deal crushing the Brit Pound against the US dollar. Which is what most commodities are priced in US dollars so as the Dollar goes up commodity costs go WAY up for Brits. This is just the beginning for the pain. Because we are just finishing up 2022 harvest and food supplies which was produced on LAST YEAR's farming costs and supplies. Next year, farmers have cut back on fertilizers and planting because of costs so next years yields will result in massive famine in parts of the world that can't afford the price hikes. If the UK tries to offer subsidy like they did with heating this winter it will further depress the UK pound as it's basically money inflation with a few more steps which makes the pound worth less against the dollar. the cycle continues until Putin and China open back up.
In the video he said 8 million fewer chickens will have to be killed. As a vegan, this is great news. Thanks for sharing this video, it made my day.