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Price of food 19 years ago

C

CenTex Farmall

Well-known Member
Was cleaning out electronics junk box and found a flyer for the local food mart from May of '95 lining the bottom.

Hormel Black Label Bacon- 1.39/lb
Fryer leg quarters- .39/lb
Trimmed Brisket- 1.49/lb
Regular Brisket- .99/lb
Flour, 5lbs- .79
store brand biscuits- 5/1.00
potatoes 5lb bag- .79
Cokes (in this case, Dr. Pepper) 12 pack- 2.99

Last week at the store I noticed there was no bacon for less than $4.00/lb. Quadrupled in 20 years. Cokes have stayed relatively flat.

In 20 more years will Bacon be $16.00/lb? Maybe with a carbon tax.
 
If you do the math the bacon merely tripled in 20yrs. Bacon had only gone up recently and for what the hog farmers have gone through the last number of years it was their turn. Most of the cost increases in food is due to the cost increases in energy prices which have been propped up by FED money printing.
 
Yeah, I reminisce a little on occasion. When I finished high school in 1957 I could go to the store and purchase a pack of NABS, a 16oz Pepsi, an oatmeal cookie, and a pack of chewing gum. Pay for it with a quarter and get a nickle back in change! (Or did I dream that???)
 
The value of the US Dollar is in steady decline and has been since it was created in 1913.Prices aren't higher in terms of real money just that paper money steady looses value as the Fed prints
more and more of it.
 
Yes, a lot of stuff has gone up a lot.

But with gas prices tripling in 15 years lets look at other food prices.

Ice cream, 1.5 qt, $4
Campbells chunky soup, $3 or less if you get it on sale, I used to eat this 5 times a week when I was a bachelor.
Bread prices have gone up, Beefsteak is $3 or more a loaf, used to be $2.
Pizza delivered is about the same due to competition, 2 people can eat for under 10 bux.
A can of pears, pineapple, peaches is a dollar, I do not remember what it was 20 years ago.

I do not remember what TP and paper towels cost 20 years ago. A roll of good paper towels is a dollar now.

I agree that many foods have gone up, but luckily most have gone up less than inflation.
 
In the early 60's, I remember hearing the older folks saying sort of in dispair "the day is coming when a loaf of bread or a gallon of gas will cost fifty cents and you will have to buy a drink of water". By now its gone up several times that.
 
(quoted from post at 05:00:20 08/30/14) If you do the math the bacon merely tripled in 20yrs. Bacon had only gone up recently and for what the hog farmers have gone through the last number of years it was their turn. Most of the cost increases in food is due to the cost increases in energy prices which have been propped up by FED money printing.
Click to expand...
I wonder how much of this increase, in Pork and Beef, goes to farmer???
 
(quoted from post at 12:13:37 08/30/14) Wasnt it 1996-8 80% of hog farmers went broke due to the sustained low pork prices? All 5 near us went belly up.
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IIRC it was the winter of '98-'99 that was the worst. Dad sold several loads of 250# fat hogs for the whopping figure of $.08/lb. live weight, or $20 per head and many more under $.15/lb.. Feeder pigs could be had for the cost of the government tags at local markets. Mom went to town and bought a ham for Christmas that cost over $25. I don't remember ever seeing $.30/lb. pork chops or bacon at the butcher counter then either.

AG
 
A local butcher told me that the Chinese are buying american beef because their packing plants have no regulations and they might put anything in,such as intestines in the hamburger. Their economy is such they can afford our beef and are willing to pay for it. Also drought in certain areas of the US. Those kind of things are driving our meat prices up.
 
It seems like we are always complaining of high prices , myself its usually parts or seed corn, I try to look at it as a opportunity , II knew should have purchased a herd of cows 3 years ago when I had good corn prices and some cattle herds were struggling but as usual I missed he boat , I had a neighbor that commented to me just 2 days ago about how he had to pay 6$ for a bale of hay to feed his horses, I thought maybe you should buy the land and machinery and make the hay yourself, I quit haying 15 yrs ago , I actually loved doing it but at that time it just couldn't compete with a job in town and raising corn,I don't begrudge the livestock farmers one bit for getting some profit into there operatons the last year or so , seems to me its finally come due to them, I may joke with a couple dairy farmers about high milk pries but they know im kidding and couldn't be happier for them to finally get a decent price
 
In '98, I closed the hog side down. I broke even at .15 cents a pound. Couldn't get that out of them.
 
My mom always mentioned what my aunt said about rice crispies....if they get over .50 a box she wasn't going to buy them anymore. My mom asked her later if she still bought them and she kind of laughed and said yes I do.
 
On this site in the last 2 years we have heard of cattle operations selling off large portions of herds due to drought in the southwest and huge losses due to the extreme cold up north. It is not hard to see why less beef is available now.
 
In this area regular wage type jobs at that time were around 8 bucks an hour. Those same jobs today pay around 10.

Looking beyond food, for those renting a place to live the cost of rent has nearly doubled.

Part inflation, part energy cost and part value loss of the dollar.
 
Look at eggs. Wasn"t but a couple years ago they could be had for $1/dozen.

I quit buying bacon when I couldn"t get it for under $2.50 a pound. And then it was 3 lbs of ends and pieces, and had to be repacked and frozen.
 
Our government plays a huge role in all of this. They don't want us to know who sends what over here. We all know about supply and demand. We pay $3.40 on average for gas and the United States right now is the largest producer of gas in the world. We export half of what we produce. They lobbied to more tax credits, easier places to drill and expand refineries. Has the price dropped?
 
I would agree with that. I had heard years ago about all the new products made from corn, yet the price at that time never changed.
 
I remember when my mom and I were in the grocery store looking at pork chops at that time. They were $3.99 / lb. I said out loud to my mom "Almost $4 a pound when the farmer isn't getting anything for them?" The guy at the meat counter just grumbled and said "Well...that's what they are."
 
One of the biggest problems can be summed up in two words----[b:bd5dfd89a3]retailer markup[/b:bd5dfd89a3]!
Unbelievable how much is added to the cost of virtually every item for shipping and retail markup.
As long as people pay the price, it will continue.
 
jiles, I agree with your statement concerning most products. We buy most of our groceries from a store that seldom runs "specials", because their everyday prices are generally below what the other stores charge for "sale" items.
 
I view things less in what things cost and more in how hard/easy it is to maintain a lifestyle. Since there is a lot that enters in on that equation, it's a little hard to compare. But as a whole I have it fairly good. All of my needs are met. As far as being able to buy the extras the best times for me was from 1998-2006. The last 5 years have been a lot different. I am able to live comfortably but I believe it's because of preparing for harder times during good times. For me the best times were during the mid 80's to early 90's. I didn't have as many extras but there was more security in being able to keep what we had.
 
In the 50's my mother would send me to the local store with a note to buy cigarettes for her $.25 /pack, now what are they $4-$5 per pack.
 
(quoted from post at 15:55:26 08/30/14) I remember when my mom and I were in the grocery store looking at pork chops at that time. They were $3.99 / lb. I said out loud to my mom "Almost $4 a pound when the farmer isn't getting anything for them?" The guy at the meat counter just grumbled and said "Well...that's what they are."
Click to expand...

It was a fleecing of hog producers by the packers with no oversight of the packers. Goal was packer ownership or control of all hogs in the US, and, for the most part, it worked. By the end of '99 some (mostly smaller) packers had refunded the balance of market price paid at the time of sale up to $25 or $30 cwt. to producers. They knew that the fix was in and realized that without their supply of hogs, they would be as extinct as the independent hog producer. BTO packers stole all they could grab for next to nothing and then some. Retail markets didn't reflect the reality of prices being paid to the hog producer at all.

Nobody with any power or clout was paying attention to any of this, and Congress piddled around just long enough to threaten hearings on Capitol Hill to break many hog farmers, and once they finally threatened those hearings, suddenly prices were back north of $20-25 cwt. seemingly overnight.

AG
 
Back several years ago, you could go to the store with a dollar and come home with 2 loaves of bread, a gallon of milk, 5 pounds of taters, a pound of butter and a sack of flour. Can't do that today. Too D@m many security cameras.
 
(quoted from post at 05:09:15 08/31/14) Back several years ago, you could go to the store with a dollar and come home with 2 loaves of bread, a gallon of milk, 5 pounds of taters, a pound of butter and a sack of flour. Can't do that today. Too D@m many security cameras.
Click to expand...

Thanks Dan--you gave me an early laugh.
 
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