Prices going up....and up....

[TinysMom]

Today I did a "price change" job in a Dollar General. I have two more to do this week (stores that is). As Robin & I put up the pricing stripes for the laundry products (shelves) and then the individual price changes for various items...I got to thinking about how prices are going up. 99% of the changes we were making were increases (that take effect tomorrow).

Most of the laundry products were going up .25 - .75. So was dish soap....fabric softener. The same thing with deoderant....body wash...shampoo....conditioner....makeup.

I had noticed this as my oatmeal for the rabbits used to be under $2 for a big container - now it is $2.28 or something like that.

But I was thinking - if you were buying a bunch of those products listed above now to replenish your stock...let's say you were buying 10 items....it would be at least $2.50 more - possibly as much as $5 more than it would've been today.

Oh - and if they're not raising the price - they're lowering the size of the product. One laundry detergent thing we did was being marked down to $11 for the 100 ounce bottle. Its going to be replaced with 75 ounce bottles that ring up for $11. Ouch.

Anyway...I don't know - just had to ramble a bit about what I observed and thought about while I was out working today.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

I've noticed about a 20% price increase in petfood and supplies recently.

 

[Bassetluv]

Oh - and if they're not raising the price - they're lowering the size of the product. One laundry detergent thing we did was being marked down to $11 for the 100 ounce bottle. Its going to be replaced with 75 ounce bottles that ring up for $11. Ouch.

aaahhhh...so it's not just me then! I was at Petsmart last weekend and picked up some kitty litter...it was the same price as the last time I'd bought some (a few months ago) but I thought, 'This seems smaller'. Sure enough, when I got it home and put it next to the empty box, the size had gone from 18kg to 11kg, but the price had stayed the same.

And yep, I noticed it at the grocery store too when I picked up some laundry soap. The container is considerably smaller now. :?

 

[slavetoabunny]

I have noticed price increase and/or smaller product sizes, but so far they have not impacted my purchases. Even though we are only a household of two, I still do a lot of shopping in bulk at Sam's Club.

 

[seniorcats]

We have been trying out the 'no name' products at Aldi's and at the Family Dollar Market. Got news - can't tell the differencebetween most of the no names and the brand names. I bought jalapeno pepper cheese at the Market for $1.99 and it was as good as the $4.99 Boar's Head. Got brownie mix and cream cheese at Aldi's to make cream cheese brownies and it was 1/2 the price. We are definitely doing more discount shopping.

Several of us on the road are taking turns doing the farmer's market and you pickorchards. One week it's my turn to pick up for all, next week Karen, the next week it's Vicki and so on. It's working well. We are also trading surplus from our gardens.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

You know, I was always a "name brand girl" and hubby is really bad! but just fyi:

• I knew back when I was 16 that most "store brand" items are made from the same companies as the namebrands.... Tylenol makers take the *side scrapings* and make it into the generic stuff. I think they get a tax break or something for doing it.
• In Indiana, Dean's Milk (and other dairy) bottles the storebrand milk which ends up being about 50 cents (fiddycent lol - sorry it's 3 a.m. and I'm goofy)... cheaper.
• Sometimes the store brands are way better than the name brands! Kroger (grocery store in the midwest) brand fudge brownie mix trumps any name brand mix IMO! and you can get it for like 99 cents a box vs. $3 per box!!
• Sometimes this isn't true - kitty litter isn't as good, paper goods are sometimes made thinner/cheaper.....

 

[mouse_chalk]

Totally different brands over here obviously, but we've really noticed the difference in price- even the own brand stuff has gone up. We usually buy pasta in 3kg bags, and a little over a year ago it was £1 a bag. Now, that same size bag is £4! We use more spaghetti instead now...

Even staple cheap stuff like tins of tomatoes are like 15pence more than they used to be.... And I'm finding more and more that things are on 'offer' at the price they used to be a few months ago! :X

I've noticed the size decrease as well- for example a 200g bar of dairy milk used to be 99pence, but now it's a 140g bar that's 99pence, and the 200g bar is £1.50!

I must confess, I'm a brand-name girl as well- either that, or the more expensive own brands- I've no idea why.... Although I do think that quite a few things are better the more you pay for them.

I still insist on only buying free-range chicken and eggs and stuff, and if it's too expensive that week, or doesn't fit into the budget, I just go without and eat something else!

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Yep. We've actually made a few changes here. I buy store brand shredded cheese instead of Kraft or Sargentos or whatever that is.... for things like mac and cheese. I can make a ton of homemade mac and cheese vs. the boxed stuff. Plus we like it better and it's better for us.

I've also been more frugal about buying just what we need.... my family wastes a lot of stuff! :X

 

[Leaf]

I remember buying Feline Pine cat litter for $2.28 a bag... then $2.64.. then $3.17. I stopped buying it at $3.62 and it seems that shortly after it hit the $4.19 mark Wal Mart stopped carrying it. I am *still* trying to find a cat litter I like at a price I like. I miss Feline Pine!

A friend says her dog food (forgot which brand at the moment) now comes in 18lb bags insted of 20lb bags and costs more than the original 20lbs.

Rabbit pellets used to be right at $10 for 50# - I now pay a little over $13 for the same.

The hay I buy (timothy) is a wellover $1 a pound now. I used to buy 50# at a time but now its usually only offered at 37# packaging.


I came into two 55 gallon barrels of shredded paper, so for now I'm using that in the rabbits litter pans. So far... ehhh.. :?


I live alone, so I grocery shop weekly. Prices have gone up though I am very thrifty when it comes to shopping for food. I price compare quite a bit.

 

[swanlake]

mouse_chalk, i feel bad for you and that price stuff. the UK is EXPENSIVE. when my mom and sister went there they said it was like 2 USD for 1 Pound. CRAZY



prices have gone up. i work at a bike shop and the 2009 model bikes are 20% more than the 2008 models, and there really isn't a difference in the bikes. some changes but not alot. thats like 50-100+ change in prices. its insane.

 

[mouse_chalk]

swanlake wrote:

mouse_chalk, i feel bad for you and that price stuff. the UK is EXPENSIVE. when my mom and sister went there they said it was like 2 USD for 1 Pound. CRAZY

Yeah... we've always been so much more expensive than you guys for stuff. We're going to San Francisco in November and I'm hoping the exchange rate doesn't drop anymore before then, because we'll get a great deal, and I plan on doing a LOT of shopping!

I guess though, that it is expensive over here, but not to us- it's all we know! Apart from these recent price increases... It's annoying!

What also really annoys me is all the 'buy one get one free', or '2 for £4' etc offers that are totally ridiculous, just to get people to spend more money on stuff that ends up wasted. I mean, who needs to buy 10 yoghurts for £2?!! Steve did, (I was not a happy bunny lol) and our fridge was bursting for days!

 

[SnowyShiloh]

mouse_chalk wrote:

What also really annoys me is all the 'buy one get one free', or '2 for £4' etc offers that are totally ridiculous, just to get people to spend more money on stuff that ends up wasted. I mean, who needs to buy 10 yoghurts for £2?!! Steve did, (I was not a happy bunny lol) and our fridge was bursting for days!

I'm a cashier at a grocery store, and my store does the same thing- 5 for $10 or whatever. I don't know how it is in the UK, but here, you don't actually have to buy 5, you can get however many you want for $2 a piece. I see why the store advertises like that though because you'd be amazed at how many people buy 5 of them! Many times I've told customers that they don't have to buy 5, but they want to anyway.

Rising prices make me sad A few months ago, a loaf of the store brand bread was 99 cents, then overnight they boosted the price to $2. The store brand tuna was 50 cents a can a few months ago, now it's more like a dollar.

As for the detergents, are any of the ones you're looking at more concentrated? I know I've seen a lot of laundry soaps in smaller bottles lately that say on the label that the soap is concentrated and only to use half as much.