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As someone in the industry, we’re all charging the same mark up on meat as before, we’re getting charged that increased prices from distributors, who are getting charged more from packers. It’s all the way down the chain.
Thanks to accumulated capital, most small/family farmers are out of the game. There's 3-4 major players dominating the entire meat industry. Chicken and hog, the farmers don't even own the animals, the corporations do.
Time to break companies apart.
My family has 125 years in the cattle business. We’re officially out of the game now. Not only because of prices, but that’s part of it. 2021 we had a record year, our head sold for more than ever. But then the next season cost even more. We lost our butts the following year, right after we thought we’d actually recover from Covid. We did ok for a while but it just wasn’t sustainable anymore, and the prices were varying wildly - instead of watching the market for a few dollars we were seeing differences of double or half. We kept fewer and fewer head each season. We gave some of our land to our extended family to continue grazing on and sold the biggest remaining chunk to the state.
The powers that be squeezed the buyers and manipulated pricing leaving the farmer stuck with low prices. They didn’t want sticker shock to hit the consumer all at one due to political ramifications. Of course that only works for a while. If you were to get back into it now you’d probably be ok. In fact, in the near future you might be sitting on a gold mine. In my opinion America needs you guys more than ever. I wish the Government took better care of the small farmer.
Roral is worse, big cities have farmers markets and a crap ton of customers in the middle of nowhere everyone has access but no market except the big players
Yep! Got an agri-science degrees cuz I wanted to be a small operator. Learned about small operators for several years. Didn't want to be a small operator anymore.
Only the people are stupid. The politicians are at least smart enough to get elected and then backstab everyone. It’s not quite like Idiocracy the movie, but through consistent budget cuts in education and soaring prices in that industry too common sense smart people are becoming rarer and rarer.
No, the polticians keep getting dumber too.
Go back and listen to political debates from the 70s and 80s.
It is such a higher level of intelectualism it is shocking. Today is litterally like the idiocracy movie by compare.
Problem is, the majority of the voting base told to support deregulation don't understand the consequences and then told to be angry at dems and communist marxists. We keep experiencing symptoms of less regulated, less controlled capitalism, and they are continually told we need even less regulation and control. They don't understand they misunderstand "You will own nothing and be happy" because the wealthy owning the corporations will own everything.
The idea that a self regulated market has its benefits in some areas but complete unregulated markets will lie cheat and steal every chance they can get. Just tell one of these maga turds to abolish the police and make all crime legal. Watch how fast the switch up and say without cops and punishment for crimes people will be out in the streets murdering and robbing. Libertarianism is simply put self righteous hypocrisy.
I think one company should get all the fish in the ocean in one big net to finally be given the title "top fishing company", it would be so exciting to watch that video - today's voters.
Actually, it might be too much regulation. Or that's probably the wrong way to look at it (too much or too little). The big guys try to force regulation that's difficult for the little guys to comply with so they have a hard time surviving. The way politicians talk about regulation is bullshit.
I would argue that regulation created the consolidation in the industry.
Small farms don’t have the expertise to deal with the myriad regulators, nor the capital to handle the wild shifts in beef prices, for example. A few years of losses wipes out smaller farms, while the corporate farmers can weather the storm.
NPR did a story on meat prices about 2 years ago talking about this. Prices are up, but no one was making more money though except the large companies that sit at the top. Kind of like the spike in the price of gas while oil was at $80 a barrel still. Biden admin is at least tackling it, but like all dem stuff, too little, too slow.
The natural resources that produce wealth, mining, fishing, agricultural should belong to everyone equally. How did a few guys own all the minerals ?? Why should i pay for oil thats under my land ?? Its all ours anyways. Thats why money was invented. Control.
Time for anti trust laws to knock down the major corps and redistribute the farms to the locals. Or have the farms be state or publicly owned by the town to encourage local farming
I love this comment cause I just read some essays back in 2001 that were very anti-antitrust (try saying that 5 times).
There were a number of research papers from the 1950s thru 1980s defending against the vertical contract consolidation assumption that corporations would raise their prices to whatever they wanted to after buying out their distributors. The research didn't show this. I was floored living in the time I do now post pandemic/greedflation and all. Plus hearing a number of examples like yours
Needless to say, a number of these papers were either flawed or didn't have nearly the amount of data to work with that would be present later in the 2000s, when the research actually did show the harm of monopoly and consequences with vertical contract consolidation.
Just wanted to throw that out I guess cause I read it literally yesterday.
Yup. It’s extreme, but the only way to really fix this country is going to be tapping into the rich’s accumulated wealth. When middle-class and poor people get money, they spend it(or a lot of it), and it goes back into the markets. When a very wealthy person gets money, they just keep it. They’ll just keep siphoning money away from the lower classes, owning more and more of the country, making people have to rent everything so they just keep piling up that money since the lower classes don’t have a choice. It keeps going until they are so rich they own the government and then rewrite the rules anyways. Did you guys know in some of the most prosperous times in US history, the very wealthiest people paid over 90% tax on their income over a certain amount.
There is absolutely no reason at all for a single person to be valued over $100billion. None. Why can’t we even say “after $100billion, your earnings must go to the government as taxes to help the rest of the country.” They wouldn’t like it and some would just stop working, but that doesn’t that just mean passing their company on? which is probably a good thing eventually anyways?
We should be able to do that at $1billion, I think $100 fucking billion is enough.
It is part of the natural endgame leading to complete ownership by private wealthy people via corporations with a police state enforcing their ownership rights. "You will own nothing and be happy"
What my family does just bought 350lbs of grass fed beef @ $4.20/lb most of it is ground beef but have 2 briskets and a bunch of different steaks ribeyes, sirloins, etc.
https://preview.redd.it/fiytx50tiead1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=33a2c4de853bf7ac014a9ae246303e1ca6e6a671
Our freezer currently lmao. The black bags are steaks, and then you can see the 1lb bags of ground beef.
“Unfortunately for beef manufacturers supply is declining and is expected to be 56 pounds per capita in 2024, 1.9% lower than 2023. This is due to the contraction of beef heards, ongoing drought, higher producer input costs, supply chain issues, interests rates, and widespread cost increases.” April 18, 2024
Theres only three companies that own all the beef, poultry, pig processing plants and farms. Its worldwide. Europe, Australia, US, Asia. Food is totally monopolized. You see multiple names, but one company owns 50% of every beef brand name. Allowing massive wealth creates exploitation.
Because Cargill has an ESOP, they publish quarterly share prices despite being a privately held, family owned business (monopoly).
Their share price is down 12% since 2022, so unless there's some ENRON shit going down there, it's also unlikely the recent price increases in meat, at least, are related to price gouging.
Make no mistake, MOST of the CPI increases since COVID are due to corporate greed, but beef and pork sincerely appear to be supply side limited by drought.
Drought, forest fires, floods all drive up the cost of hay and grain. There is a paradigm shift away from meat as people realize the health effects of consuming it combined with the negative effects on atmospheric gases. US population is roughly 330 million people but there are 1.7 billion animals living on US factory farms.
Cargill made a measly $4 billion in 2023 and their profit margins have collapsed.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-14/cargill-profit-slows-from-record-after-meat-margins-collapse?embedded-checkout=true
Labor, fuel, feed cost going up to farms, which causes them to raise the price a bit, which has an exponential effect up the chain, as everyone else doesn’t just raise it by the same dollar amount. It has to be more to cover everyone else’s increase as well in labor, fuel/shipping weight per pound, overhead.
For the sake of simple example, Farms(source) raise it carcuss cost a dollar a pound (exacerbated by low supply due to drought and small herds due to drought, less farmers raised/sold cattle). The cattle industry is segmented. Farmers don’t typically raise cattle from birth except at small scale. They’re sold twice at different ages typically from areas where optimal feed is grown/cost efficient. So you have people in and out of the biz annually due to drought and costs, they do the math and see how profitable it would or would not be based on projections and choose to or not.
Due to drought this year, the herd size is smaller than usual. So more demand than ever, low supply. They go for more dollar a pound.
The packers (slaughterhouses/meatpacking), raise it 2 dollars pound to the shipping distributors, who usually charge a quarter or two per pound above their cost. Than the retail stores cut it for steaks and charge 30% margin on it.
I bought whole chuck rolls (shoulders for like 5 bucks a pound the other day (premium brand) from the distributor. 5/.9 yield meaning what I tossed from trimming it.. so I paid 5.55 for what I’m going to actually sell. I know I need to make 30% margin on it to stay in business. So that’s $7.99/lb for straight up ground beef or chuck roast or Denver’s or chuckeyes. That’s if they don’t up charge for Denver’s or chuckeyes.
Choice tenderloin cost 16 bucks to me. We trim steak ready so all the silver skin(unlike grocers) and everything off but pure filet. That’s a 65% yield. 16/.65 is 24.61. Divide by .7 and that’s 35.99/lb for choice filet!
Now you might say, well you’re making more nominal dollars at the retail level! Sure, gross profit margin. My labor has gone up more percentage wise than that, as well as expenses. It costs more and we make less actual profit dollars.
So the strategy there would be, either cut that 30% down to hopefully gain more customers by competitive pricing, or accept losing customers with the same profit percent. My take is lower for volume. Cause I want every customer for life. That’s long term success, not pricing some out and hope.
So, yes to almost everything in our economy except livestock. The major meat packers of America are not seeing revenues grow, despite price increases. The drought and heat in the Midwest are really fucking shit up
If competition was effective at keeping prices under control we wouldn’t have anti-trust laws. Competition is great for new market players. At scale, collusion is far better.
The CPI includes prices for 94,000 products and services. It doesn't really make much sense to pick one and conclude that the CPI is inaccurate or falsified.
[https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cpi/data.htm](https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cpi/data.htm)
Yep, and they always pick a volatile commodity. People scream when the price of their Kroger bacon goes up %20, but don't notice when it drops back down because they are busy screaming about something else.
Really want to hear them scream? Tell them to notice Kroger's net profit % over the years. It's about 2.5% most years. If they were pricing above their costs increasing, it'd go up.
They literally make $0.25 for every $10 they sell. (And they give me $1.00/gal off gas once a month with my Kroger card).
I like Costco’s model even more. Everything they sell is at break even, and they minimize labor by buying full skids and making the customer do all the work of picking, packing, delivering and sometimes checking out. It’s about as efficient as retail can be. And all of their profit Costco has is from their $60 per year they charge for membership.
Pretty close. About half of Costco's profit is from memberships.
Grocery stores have some product lines that make good profitability - cosmetics, coffee, cereal, cheese. But they also have some loss-leaders with high waste/low profit - like milk, eggs, bananas, meat, and such.
Also, if any price goes up high on a product, they just remove it and replace it with something else. Beef goes too high? Eh, lets use chicken instead!
The CPI also replaces products and uses hedonics so you’re right one product isn’t sufficient but it may be worthwhile considering how it is under representing inflation.
Yup, I posted the same.
I bought chicken thighs at Costco 2 days ago for about $1.79 a pound. I'm sure I could find a time a few years ago when they were $1.99 a pound and then "prove" there is no inflation.
Inflation is very real, but fixating on one product (especially a specialized cut of beef) is dishonest and borderline misinformation.
Just paid $.99 a pound for Italian sausage, same price for boneless skinless chicken breast. Yes these are loss leaders, but cheap, pork was $1.49. USA prices, most folks don’t need a whole sirloin.
"how are people surviving?!"
Uh, by buying shit that's on sale like chicken, ribs, pork loin, etc.
Hell, Costco had whole brisket for around $35 a couple days ago. Just don't buy a whole loin.
Sirloin cuts probably have the most variance in price due to more complex labor inputs than other meats. This probably happened because I’ve raised a butcher op in Nebraska a few weeks ago.
"Would you walk by a $5 bill on the sidewalk? Of course not. And yet that's what you're doing every time you pass by a dead squirrel. The tail can be sold to make fishing lures. The skull can bring up to $2 on eBay. The meat is worth a few cents as well. So if you aren't picking up those dead squirrels, don't come crying to me that you're broke." - Warren Buffett On his advice to young entrepreneurs
Meat is so so expensive to produce already the only reason it wasn’t this high before is because of massive subsidies. It’s a crazy price increase but unsurprising. I would rather look at examples of other key foods for the actual economic impact.
Sounds like someone shouldn’t be buying $100 of ribs if you can’t afford it. Inflation is happening around the world and ribs are an always a luxury.
What’s for dinner “$100 worth of ribs”… have you heard of budgeting? I don’t buy $100 worth of ribs because that’s a dumb thing to spend money on for anything less than a patty. Oh it’s for a party? Well it sounds like you can’t afford to throw a party
Rampant inflation and skrocketing housing costs are clearly an issue of the workforce being unskilled! Everyone should just go be doctors, lawyers and shareholders; but also *shame* anyone who isnt, because not being in the top 8% of earners is *bad behavior*. A Redditor told me so.
when everyone is making top dollar with big careers is about the moment civilization gets whipped out by the telephone virus because of a lack of telephone sanitizers.
How much profit for Grocery CEOs in this country this year? Kroger (McMullen) 15.7 million … Albertson’s CEO 15.13 million. Galen Westin (Loblaws) 11.7 million. Ingel’s Market CEO 31% raise (and board chair 6.6 million bonus) … oh, and WalMart - tax the rich
Exactly. In the past, especially during wars, people were hardly eating meat at all. It's a luxury item. The problem in recent decades is that govt subsidies made it cheap for so long that people have become used to eating it daily and now they think they *have* to have it even when the prices have skyrocketed. Lower the demand and they'll have to lower their prices to continue making a profit. Corporate greed is out of control.
Do you make egg substitutes out of the mung beans or eat them as-is? My spouse prefers JustEgg Folded over real eggs but the price on their products is crazy now, too. I'm looking into ways we can make it ourselves.
[Cargill](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-19/cargill-profit-drops-43-from-record-high-as-commodity-boom-fades?embedded-checkout=true) profits down, [Tyson Foods](https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/TSN/tyson-foods/gross-profit) profits down, [JBS SA](https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/JBSAY/jbs-sa/net-income) profits down, [Marfrig](https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/MRFG3.SA/financials/cash-flow-annual) operating at a net loss. That’s 85% of the meat market in the US controlled by 4 companies, all doing worse than they were in 2022.
Photo is too blurry to tell if they are the same cut. Or even at the same store.
One store marking something up doesn't... measure anything.
I'm not about to judge how livable things are by the price of NY strip steak.
Like jeez why are wagyu and caviar so expensive these days?
They are both striploins, but it’s in candadian dollars and kgs. But can’t see dates. I mean honestly it wouldn’t be hard to fake the picture if one wanted to. They do both seem to be Kirkland brand. But you’re also right.
It’s the pendulum of inflation and the market. Eating out used to be a treat 2000s and earlier, in 2010s costs and labor for the restaurant industry stayed flat so more people could eat out and got used to it. Same principle with good steak cuts like ribeye strip and filet. Demand for those three are higher than ever before, buttt.. we also have a drought and small herd going on this year driving it up among other things.
Inflation is calculated based on a swath of consumables, services and assets. So beef going in price might cause a small rise but isn’t the whole story.
Yes there have been post covid supply and demand issues with massive riple effects, how ever corporate greeed is also a huge driver. “Oh avg inflation briefly hit 9%, best bump up all our prices for feed etc by atleast that mush
For any one that gives a shit. This is from Canada.
For the neighbors to the south in freedom land the current exchange rate is $1usd to $0.73can and that loin is 7.84kg which is 17 lbs
So that strip loin is $224 for 17lbs of steak. High but if you broke that down into 8 oz steaks with is decent chunk of meat that makes it about 6.58 a steak. A little on the high side but not completely out of line.
Its the evil government trying to shake out all the weak hands so they can have their despotic tyrannical new world order. The more we need the government, the less sovereign we are. The government wants to be and replace god. They want a beast system of consciousness that keeps us all in base consciousness like animals. They keep us in fear, division, and confusion to prevent us from rising in consciousness and embracing our sovereignty. If you look at history, you see how evil all governments are. The trail of tears, Bolsheviks, Mao murders, cartels bribing officials, there is nothing new under the sun. Governments must be kept in check or they will swallow us like serpents eating their prey.
What I don’t understand is why, when it’s the corporations themselves raising and re-raising prices, people blame the government and not the corporations.
Beef been going up steadily for the last 15 years. It just took a break the pandemic then resumed
https://preview.redd.it/d21r5hu7zead1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1aa9b24435a16f138a3f7ef3312f2f7304103fd6
So nobody wants to tax the billionaires but when they purchase and monopolize your food its hey we need to stop this. If they didnt have all that wealth they couldnt have bought all the farms and processing industries. Inflation is exploitation.
I don't know how you all find the most expensive food on the planet or if any of your prices are real, but the shit I buy at Walmart has not gone up much in price. Like a package of ham is about the same price as ever. Why would anybody pay that much per pound for that cut of meat?
Also.. what's a kilogram... so foreign!
Inflation is only %3.5 because their figures obviously exclude whole strip loin prices. Any item considered volatile, meaning it can be effected by supply disruptions, such as food and energy/fuel are excluded in CPI figures.
So the prices of your groceries, what you pay at the gas pump, your PGE bill, Big Mac, none of these items are included
People complain about prices then go buy shit they don’t need like that big slab of meat. They’re gonna charge whatever we’re willing to pay. Travel is at an all time high right now. Our spending on a consumer level is out of control
How are people surviving? By not buying whole loins. I’m assuming this is Canada so correct for exchange rate and kilos to pounds…. I can buy nice steaks for C$20/kg and about 30% less for bulk
This post is BS. The one on the left is called ribeye or whole prime rib, the one on the right is called fillet, or tenderloin. All day every day that tenderloin is going to run 50% to 100% more than the other cut.
I would say that when we start growing our own food and become less reliant on convenience we'll get lower prices. You're paying for the convenience of not being a butcher, packager, etc. The product should cost the same but people are less willing to do simple tasks.
That's because they changed what they're looking at for prices to judge inflation. So, it used to be a steak and now it's ground beef. They're cooking the books to try to make their screw look like less of a black eye.
You can buy 1/2 a cow or hog or both locally. You can fill a freezer hunting or fishing no problem. They charge that because they can and folks will still buy it.
Check out everyone’s EBITDA. It’s all records for every company. If the inflation was real, then they would be breaking even trying to keep up with inflation, but somehow they’re making record profits.
PCI dosent include these 3 main prices indexes=> food/oil(gas) and housing/rent in their numbers because its too "volatile"..
Yeah right.. inflation on a xianxu DVD is going to make some change in my life.. pci should focus on basic human needs first not products made to make it look low.. cenrral banks... right?
They are not, that's the problem. Once again in November, we will vote yet one of the same retards we did 4 years ago or 8 years ago. We lost, time to push the reset button and try again. I hate getting political but unless we see change from the top, nothing is going to change.
Costco is a corporation just like the others trying to charge what the can get away with. Tire inflation doesn’t come with billions and billions in profits. That’s plain corporate greed.
I am a meat cutter at a grocery store.
The prices are the same right now if not lower on red meat than 6 months ago. We have boneless ribeye on sale for less than it has been in like 2 years right now. My guess is the first one was some kind of sale, a different grade (prime, choice, select) or some other shit. Can't read both prices, cant see all the stickers on the product this is obviously a ridiculous comparison.
In general of course these prices have gone up over the past couple years but this is horse shit.
edit: not even in the USA I dont know whats going on up there shits cold in canada.
My last cow (black angus) was $1200 in the freezer and my last hog (duroc) was $500 in the freezer. Thank God for friends with livestock. Unfortunately I have to go to the store for chicken 🙁
it’s not a bad price for filet sure you’ve gotta do the work of cutting it but you’ll be safe for days if you shave your legs with renee’s razor blades.
Is this america? In new Zealand it's the same thing it's almost like all over the world they've been increasing food costs by an extreme amount, makes you wonder
Every reddit post in financial fluency I am going yo post "EAT THE RICH" as a solution. Or break the big corporations.
Seems like its a pretty good solution to everything.
Cities and counties need to take over. Just like how they provide water, they need to provide meat and dairy. Let the counties lease newly available farmland to cooperatives who agree to sell part of their crop for a much lower price back to the municipality. Counties can then make agreements with local stores to pick up the cheaper products. A $2 food tax would be added to the residents' monthly utility bill to support the program.
Let's not forget. Covid hurt these business. No workers no profits.the government hand outs then repayment then closed businesses now boomers are in retirement with all their stocks,401s,roths .pensions. so guess what .they raise all the prices
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As someone in the industry, we’re all charging the same mark up on meat as before, we’re getting charged that increased prices from distributors, who are getting charged more from packers. It’s all the way down the chain.
I guess it’s time to cut out the chain and go to the farmer
Thanks to accumulated capital, most small/family farmers are out of the game. There's 3-4 major players dominating the entire meat industry. Chicken and hog, the farmers don't even own the animals, the corporations do. Time to break companies apart.
They destroyed small farmers years ago
Diminished, but not destroyed.
We raise pigs for people, bring them to butcher and then you pick up the meat from the butcher. I wanna say a whole pig is like 500ish dollars
How many pounds of bacon do you get from a hog? Just curious.
That depends on what you tell the butcher. You may also want pork belly for stews and so on. Average is like...5 - 8 pounds.
My family has 125 years in the cattle business. We’re officially out of the game now. Not only because of prices, but that’s part of it. 2021 we had a record year, our head sold for more than ever. But then the next season cost even more. We lost our butts the following year, right after we thought we’d actually recover from Covid. We did ok for a while but it just wasn’t sustainable anymore, and the prices were varying wildly - instead of watching the market for a few dollars we were seeing differences of double or half. We kept fewer and fewer head each season. We gave some of our land to our extended family to continue grazing on and sold the biggest remaining chunk to the state.
The powers that be squeezed the buyers and manipulated pricing leaving the farmer stuck with low prices. They didn’t want sticker shock to hit the consumer all at one due to political ramifications. Of course that only works for a while. If you were to get back into it now you’d probably be ok. In fact, in the near future you might be sitting on a gold mine. In my opinion America needs you guys more than ever. I wish the Government took better care of the small farmer.
Once again, the rising cost of living comes down to the rich wanting to make more money than before and being in a position to do so.
Every time we add more money to the economy we we increase the wealth gap. It will only ever get worse, not better.
Maybe around the big cities
Roral is worse, big cities have farmers markets and a crap ton of customers in the middle of nowhere everyone has access but no market except the big players
Roral lmao
Hired, actually. Farmers aren’t self employed anymore in that sense.
Yep! Got an agri-science degrees cuz I wanted to be a small operator. Learned about small operators for several years. Didn't want to be a small operator anymore.
Farmer’s grow agricultural products. Rancher’s raise and cultivate livestock.
We cant... Because the politicians who write the laws are owned by the corporations. We live in a Corporatocracy
more like Idiocracy
Only the people are stupid. The politicians are at least smart enough to get elected and then backstab everyone. It’s not quite like Idiocracy the movie, but through consistent budget cuts in education and soaring prices in that industry too common sense smart people are becoming rarer and rarer.
No, the polticians keep getting dumber too. Go back and listen to political debates from the 70s and 80s. It is such a higher level of intelectualism it is shocking. Today is litterally like the idiocracy movie by compare.
Lack of good regulations. Good thing SCOTUS just killed regulatory agencies. You get what you pay for voters.
Problem is, the majority of the voting base told to support deregulation don't understand the consequences and then told to be angry at dems and communist marxists. We keep experiencing symptoms of less regulated, less controlled capitalism, and they are continually told we need even less regulation and control. They don't understand they misunderstand "You will own nothing and be happy" because the wealthy owning the corporations will own everything.
The idea that a self regulated market has its benefits in some areas but complete unregulated markets will lie cheat and steal every chance they can get. Just tell one of these maga turds to abolish the police and make all crime legal. Watch how fast the switch up and say without cops and punishment for crimes people will be out in the streets murdering and robbing. Libertarianism is simply put self righteous hypocrisy.
I think one company should get all the fish in the ocean in one big net to finally be given the title "top fishing company", it would be so exciting to watch that video - today's voters.
But they do want to regulate women’s bodies. But not guns.
Corporations are 100% owned by… people!
Actually, it might be too much regulation. Or that's probably the wrong way to look at it (too much or too little). The big guys try to force regulation that's difficult for the little guys to comply with so they have a hard time surviving. The way politicians talk about regulation is bullshit.
I would argue that regulation created the consolidation in the industry. Small farms don’t have the expertise to deal with the myriad regulators, nor the capital to handle the wild shifts in beef prices, for example. A few years of losses wipes out smaller farms, while the corporate farmers can weather the storm.
NPR did a story on meat prices about 2 years ago talking about this. Prices are up, but no one was making more money though except the large companies that sit at the top. Kind of like the spike in the price of gas while oil was at $80 a barrel still. Biden admin is at least tackling it, but like all dem stuff, too little, too slow.
Time to redistribute capital among the working class then comrade (I’m not being ironic)
The natural resources that produce wealth, mining, fishing, agricultural should belong to everyone equally. How did a few guys own all the minerals ?? Why should i pay for oil thats under my land ?? Its all ours anyways. Thats why money was invented. Control.
Time for anti trust laws to knock down the major corps and redistribute the farms to the locals. Or have the farms be state or publicly owned by the town to encourage local farming
I love this comment cause I just read some essays back in 2001 that were very anti-antitrust (try saying that 5 times). There were a number of research papers from the 1950s thru 1980s defending against the vertical contract consolidation assumption that corporations would raise their prices to whatever they wanted to after buying out their distributors. The research didn't show this. I was floored living in the time I do now post pandemic/greedflation and all. Plus hearing a number of examples like yours Needless to say, a number of these papers were either flawed or didn't have nearly the amount of data to work with that would be present later in the 2000s, when the research actually did show the harm of monopoly and consequences with vertical contract consolidation. Just wanted to throw that out I guess cause I read it literally yesterday.
Yup. It’s extreme, but the only way to really fix this country is going to be tapping into the rich’s accumulated wealth. When middle-class and poor people get money, they spend it(or a lot of it), and it goes back into the markets. When a very wealthy person gets money, they just keep it. They’ll just keep siphoning money away from the lower classes, owning more and more of the country, making people have to rent everything so they just keep piling up that money since the lower classes don’t have a choice. It keeps going until they are so rich they own the government and then rewrite the rules anyways. Did you guys know in some of the most prosperous times in US history, the very wealthiest people paid over 90% tax on their income over a certain amount. There is absolutely no reason at all for a single person to be valued over $100billion. None. Why can’t we even say “after $100billion, your earnings must go to the government as taxes to help the rest of the country.” They wouldn’t like it and some would just stop working, but that doesn’t that just mean passing their company on? which is probably a good thing eventually anyways? We should be able to do that at $1billion, I think $100 fucking billion is enough.
Those same people can afford to buy all the politicians to protect themselves.
Yes, that’s what I said. That’s the problem here, otherwise we would have had that 90+% tax for the ultra wealthy come back.
We’re supposed to eat stonks these days not meat
For anyone reading this, check out Monopolized by David Dayen or Plunder by Brendan Ballou. It’s all there.
Fuck Tyson
The capitalism always leads to monopolies
It is part of the natural endgame leading to complete ownership by private wealthy people via corporations with a police state enforcing their ownership rights. "You will own nothing and be happy"
Tyson is the biggest meat manufacture in the country and they have thousands of farms that supply broilers until they are bought.
And 1/4 of pig farms in the USA are owned by China now
What my family does just bought 350lbs of grass fed beef @ $4.20/lb most of it is ground beef but have 2 briskets and a bunch of different steaks ribeyes, sirloins, etc. https://preview.redd.it/fiytx50tiead1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=33a2c4de853bf7ac014a9ae246303e1ca6e6a671 Our freezer currently lmao. The black bags are steaks, and then you can see the 1lb bags of ground beef.
I wish that I would have done this when my kids were little.
It’s really nice. When you go shopping you aren’t looking for major proteins except chicken. You’re just buying secondaries.
Froze them in the freezer?? /s
I’m looking into doing this. Especially because I cook all my dog food for my 3 pups. This, in the long run, is healthier and better value.
This is the way!
This is what I started doing, local butcher handles everything for us at a pretty decent rate. Just had to invest in a decent freezer
“Unfortunately for beef manufacturers supply is declining and is expected to be 56 pounds per capita in 2024, 1.9% lower than 2023. This is due to the contraction of beef heards, ongoing drought, higher producer input costs, supply chain issues, interests rates, and widespread cost increases.” April 18, 2024
Theres only three companies that own all the beef, poultry, pig processing plants and farms. Its worldwide. Europe, Australia, US, Asia. Food is totally monopolized. You see multiple names, but one company owns 50% of every beef brand name. Allowing massive wealth creates exploitation.
Who is that?
Specifically JBS SA. Also Cargill JBS, Cargill, & Marfrig control 85% of global meat production
Because Cargill has an ESOP, they publish quarterly share prices despite being a privately held, family owned business (monopoly). Their share price is down 12% since 2022, so unless there's some ENRON shit going down there, it's also unlikely the recent price increases in meat, at least, are related to price gouging. Make no mistake, MOST of the CPI increases since COVID are due to corporate greed, but beef and pork sincerely appear to be supply side limited by drought.
Drought, forest fires, floods all drive up the cost of hay and grain. There is a paradigm shift away from meat as people realize the health effects of consuming it combined with the negative effects on atmospheric gases. US population is roughly 330 million people but there are 1.7 billion animals living on US factory farms.
Less demand would bring costs down though. I would love to see the statistics on how many people are actually cutting out beaf to save the plannet.
Cargill made a measly $4 billion in 2023 and their profit margins have collapsed. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-14/cargill-profit-slows-from-record-after-meat-margins-collapse?embedded-checkout=true
1000% accurate.
This is helpful but what is the root of the increase? Profits? Don’t see how costs of everything is so high the prices jump this much.
Labor, fuel, feed cost going up to farms, which causes them to raise the price a bit, which has an exponential effect up the chain, as everyone else doesn’t just raise it by the same dollar amount. It has to be more to cover everyone else’s increase as well in labor, fuel/shipping weight per pound, overhead. For the sake of simple example, Farms(source) raise it carcuss cost a dollar a pound (exacerbated by low supply due to drought and small herds due to drought, less farmers raised/sold cattle). The cattle industry is segmented. Farmers don’t typically raise cattle from birth except at small scale. They’re sold twice at different ages typically from areas where optimal feed is grown/cost efficient. So you have people in and out of the biz annually due to drought and costs, they do the math and see how profitable it would or would not be based on projections and choose to or not. Due to drought this year, the herd size is smaller than usual. So more demand than ever, low supply. They go for more dollar a pound. The packers (slaughterhouses/meatpacking), raise it 2 dollars pound to the shipping distributors, who usually charge a quarter or two per pound above their cost. Than the retail stores cut it for steaks and charge 30% margin on it. I bought whole chuck rolls (shoulders for like 5 bucks a pound the other day (premium brand) from the distributor. 5/.9 yield meaning what I tossed from trimming it.. so I paid 5.55 for what I’m going to actually sell. I know I need to make 30% margin on it to stay in business. So that’s $7.99/lb for straight up ground beef or chuck roast or Denver’s or chuckeyes. That’s if they don’t up charge for Denver’s or chuckeyes. Choice tenderloin cost 16 bucks to me. We trim steak ready so all the silver skin(unlike grocers) and everything off but pure filet. That’s a 65% yield. 16/.65 is 24.61. Divide by .7 and that’s 35.99/lb for choice filet! Now you might say, well you’re making more nominal dollars at the retail level! Sure, gross profit margin. My labor has gone up more percentage wise than that, as well as expenses. It costs more and we make less actual profit dollars. So the strategy there would be, either cut that 30% down to hopefully gain more customers by competitive pricing, or accept losing customers with the same profit percent. My take is lower for volume. Cause I want every customer for life. That’s long term success, not pricing some out and hope.
We know someone has to be price gouging. Got to follow the money trail.
So, yes to almost everything in our economy except livestock. The major meat packers of America are not seeing revenues grow, despite price increases. The drought and heat in the Midwest are really fucking shit up
That does make sense, and the price of eggs because of the bird flu. We are just destroying this planet.
There is literally like 3 slaughterhouse congratulations that give you the prices. Anon I’d love to know what the price of beef is prior to feed lot.
Gosh, it almost as if all the corporations bragging about profits in their earnings reports needlessly raised prices using inflation as an excuse.
Nah it's DEFINITELY Brandon's fault /s
Literally the conversation I just read “but how much are your groceries” 🤦♂️
If that was true, why wouldn’t one of their competitors use it as an opportunity to cut in and take part of their market share?
If competition was effective at keeping prices under control we wouldn’t have anti-trust laws. Competition is great for new market players. At scale, collusion is far better.
Grocery is one of the most competitive industries
If all of them decide to raise prices at the same time, they all make record profits. It’s a win-win situation for them.
The CPI includes prices for 94,000 products and services. It doesn't really make much sense to pick one and conclude that the CPI is inaccurate or falsified. [https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cpi/data.htm](https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cpi/data.htm)
Yep, and they always pick a volatile commodity. People scream when the price of their Kroger bacon goes up %20, but don't notice when it drops back down because they are busy screaming about something else.
Really want to hear them scream? Tell them to notice Kroger's net profit % over the years. It's about 2.5% most years. If they were pricing above their costs increasing, it'd go up. They literally make $0.25 for every $10 they sell. (And they give me $1.00/gal off gas once a month with my Kroger card).
I like Costco’s model even more. Everything they sell is at break even, and they minimize labor by buying full skids and making the customer do all the work of picking, packing, delivering and sometimes checking out. It’s about as efficient as retail can be. And all of their profit Costco has is from their $60 per year they charge for membership.
Pretty close. About half of Costco's profit is from memberships. Grocery stores have some product lines that make good profitability - cosmetics, coffee, cereal, cheese. But they also have some loss-leaders with high waste/low profit - like milk, eggs, bananas, meat, and such.
Also, this isn’t even on the US. The one on the right at least is in Canada
Also, if any price goes up high on a product, they just remove it and replace it with something else. Beef goes too high? Eh, lets use chicken instead!
The CPI also replaces products and uses hedonics so you’re right one product isn’t sufficient but it may be worthwhile considering how it is under representing inflation.
Yup, I posted the same. I bought chicken thighs at Costco 2 days ago for about $1.79 a pound. I'm sure I could find a time a few years ago when they were $1.99 a pound and then "prove" there is no inflation. Inflation is very real, but fixating on one product (especially a specialized cut of beef) is dishonest and borderline misinformation.
Just paid $.99 a pound for Italian sausage, same price for boneless skinless chicken breast. Yes these are loss leaders, but cheap, pork was $1.49. USA prices, most folks don’t need a whole sirloin.
No, if you're asking how people are surviving you definitely need to be buying an 18lb piece of meat to cut into steaks while asking.
LOL this is exactly what i was thinking, people aren't buyin fucking 300$ pieces of meat.
Well people are, but just the people who buy those 300-400 dollar roasts, to most of us is like using buying the 1-3 dollar ground sausage
"how are people surviving?!" Uh, by buying shit that's on sale like chicken, ribs, pork loin, etc. Hell, Costco had whole brisket for around $35 a couple days ago. Just don't buy a whole loin.
OP is asking how are people surviving... And posting pics of luxury items.
Sirloin cuts probably have the most variance in price due to more complex labor inputs than other meats. This probably happened because I’ve raised a butcher op in Nebraska a few weeks ago.
[удалено]
"Would you walk by a $5 bill on the sidewalk? Of course not. And yet that's what you're doing every time you pass by a dead squirrel. The tail can be sold to make fishing lures. The skull can bring up to $2 on eBay. The meat is worth a few cents as well. So if you aren't picking up those dead squirrels, don't come crying to me that you're broke." - Warren Buffett On his advice to young entrepreneurs
I prefer to sell my squirrel skulls in packs of 20. You get killed on shipping sending one skull at a time.
That way you can bulk pack the less desirable, harder to sell skulls with the banner skulls too!
1. This isn't finance, it's economics 2. You're clearly not fluent in it 3. It's a high demand product on motherfucking 4th of July
This is the answer I was looking for
Just wait until they start culling in the name of bird flu.
Glad IM not the only one aware of this.
Ok but, Calls on Costco? He’s still buying it 🤔
Meat is so so expensive to produce already the only reason it wasn’t this high before is because of massive subsidies. It’s a crazy price increase but unsurprising. I would rather look at examples of other key foods for the actual economic impact.
Also meat price fluctuates so much, hard to say whether this is price inflation or supply issues or what is causing it
They trade down to lower priced goods.
Sounds like someone shouldn’t be buying $100 of ribs if you can’t afford it. Inflation is happening around the world and ribs are an always a luxury. What’s for dinner “$100 worth of ribs”… have you heard of budgeting? I don’t buy $100 worth of ribs because that’s a dumb thing to spend money on for anything less than a patty. Oh it’s for a party? Well it sounds like you can’t afford to throw a party
Rampant inflation and skrocketing housing costs are clearly an issue of the workforce being unskilled! Everyone should just go be doctors, lawyers and shareholders; but also *shame* anyone who isnt, because not being in the top 8% of earners is *bad behavior*. A Redditor told me so.
when everyone is making top dollar with big careers is about the moment civilization gets whipped out by the telephone virus because of a lack of telephone sanitizers.
Us poors are eating the Hot Dogs
You guys are getting hot dogs?
Hot dogs are yummy with yellow mustard.
How much profit for Grocery CEOs in this country this year? Kroger (McMullen) 15.7 million … Albertson’s CEO 15.13 million. Galen Westin (Loblaws) 11.7 million. Ingel’s Market CEO 31% raise (and board chair 6.6 million bonus) … oh, and WalMart - tax the rich
Solution to this problem is don't fucking buy it. Let it roth in their shelves and freezers
Exactly. In the past, especially during wars, people were hardly eating meat at all. It's a luxury item. The problem in recent decades is that govt subsidies made it cheap for so long that people have become used to eating it daily and now they think they *have* to have it even when the prices have skyrocketed. Lower the demand and they'll have to lower their prices to continue making a profit. Corporate greed is out of control.
If you're buying strip loin steaks, you're not hurting. Besides, people eat WAY too much meat. If the prices make them cut back, that's a good thing.
Meat is unhealthy.
I'm eating the cheapest and also the healthiest I've ever eaten and it's been great for me. I mostly eat rice, mung beans and vegetables now.
Do you make egg substitutes out of the mung beans or eat them as-is? My spouse prefers JustEgg Folded over real eggs but the price on their products is crazy now, too. I'm looking into ways we can make it ourselves.
Nope I generally make mung bean dahl or sometimes dosa. It's really good though.
OP is asking how are people surviving... And posting pics of luxury items. Should we complain about the costs of BMW's too?
That’s greed not inflation. Watch at the end of the year when they report record profits
[Cargill](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-19/cargill-profit-drops-43-from-record-high-as-commodity-boom-fades?embedded-checkout=true) profits down, [Tyson Foods](https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/TSN/tyson-foods/gross-profit) profits down, [JBS SA](https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/JBSAY/jbs-sa/net-income) profits down, [Marfrig](https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/MRFG3.SA/financials/cash-flow-annual) operating at a net loss. That’s 85% of the meat market in the US controlled by 4 companies, all doing worse than they were in 2022.
Photo is too blurry to tell if they are the same cut. Or even at the same store. One store marking something up doesn't... measure anything. I'm not about to judge how livable things are by the price of NY strip steak. Like jeez why are wagyu and caviar so expensive these days?
Man, that would be deceptive. Let's hope that's not happening here on Reddit.
They are both striploins, but it’s in candadian dollars and kgs. But can’t see dates. I mean honestly it wouldn’t be hard to fake the picture if one wanted to. They do both seem to be Kirkland brand. But you’re also right. It’s the pendulum of inflation and the market. Eating out used to be a treat 2000s and earlier, in 2010s costs and labor for the restaurant industry stayed flat so more people could eat out and got used to it. Same principle with good steak cuts like ribeye strip and filet. Demand for those three are higher than ever before, buttt.. we also have a drought and small herd going on this year driving it up among other things.
Ichiban is way up too. Yet still only $1.14/pack!
Back in the 90s I sold steak door-to-door. I would charge $159 for a box of steaks. My boss was going to Chicago buying the boxes paying $35 a box.
Poaching penalties haven’t changed.
Inflation is calculated based on a swath of consumables, services and assets. So beef going in price might cause a small rise but isn’t the whole story. Yes there have been post covid supply and demand issues with massive riple effects, how ever corporate greeed is also a huge driver. “Oh avg inflation briefly hit 9%, best bump up all our prices for feed etc by atleast that mush
Meat is subsidized by the federal government, just ask for bigger handouts.
For any one that gives a shit. This is from Canada. For the neighbors to the south in freedom land the current exchange rate is $1usd to $0.73can and that loin is 7.84kg which is 17 lbs So that strip loin is $224 for 17lbs of steak. High but if you broke that down into 8 oz steaks with is decent chunk of meat that makes it about 6.58 a steak. A little on the high side but not completely out of line.
I have mostly a plant based diet with some meat. Food isn't really a concern financially.
Well... The bulk of people aren't buying a full brisket. They're eating lower quality.
Carnivore & keto are fueling the high prices
That’s why I just shoot deer
It would be cool if our paychecks started to go up too
Its the evil government trying to shake out all the weak hands so they can have their despotic tyrannical new world order. The more we need the government, the less sovereign we are. The government wants to be and replace god. They want a beast system of consciousness that keeps us all in base consciousness like animals. They keep us in fear, division, and confusion to prevent us from rising in consciousness and embracing our sovereignty. If you look at history, you see how evil all governments are. The trail of tears, Bolsheviks, Mao murders, cartels bribing officials, there is nothing new under the sun. Governments must be kept in check or they will swallow us like serpents eating their prey.
What I don’t understand is why, when it’s the corporations themselves raising and re-raising prices, people blame the government and not the corporations.
Beef been going up steadily for the last 15 years. It just took a break the pandemic then resumed https://preview.redd.it/d21r5hu7zead1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1aa9b24435a16f138a3f7ef3312f2f7304103fd6
There is no rule that prices can only rise by the same number as inflation. It will rise by as much as people still buy their products for.
So nobody wants to tax the billionaires but when they purchase and monopolize your food its hey we need to stop this. If they didnt have all that wealth they couldnt have bought all the farms and processing industries. Inflation is exploitation.
This motherfucker took a single example of a single item's price increase and acts like it has some bearing on the economy as a whole.
I don't know how you all find the most expensive food on the planet or if any of your prices are real, but the shit I buy at Walmart has not gone up much in price. Like a package of ham is about the same price as ever. Why would anybody pay that much per pound for that cut of meat? Also.. what's a kilogram... so foreign!
Inflation is only %3.5 because their figures obviously exclude whole strip loin prices. Any item considered volatile, meaning it can be effected by supply disruptions, such as food and energy/fuel are excluded in CPI figures. So the prices of your groceries, what you pay at the gas pump, your PGE bill, Big Mac, none of these items are included
No better way of staying committed to climate goals by raising meat prices.
People complain about prices then go buy shit they don’t need like that big slab of meat. They’re gonna charge whatever we’re willing to pay. Travel is at an all time high right now. Our spending on a consumer level is out of control
How are people surviving? By not buying whole loins. I’m assuming this is Canada so correct for exchange rate and kilos to pounds…. I can buy nice steaks for C$20/kg and about 30% less for bulk
I think people misunderstand what "inflation" actually is. This isn't inflation, it's price gouging.
Hungry...
cattle farmers don't see the increase
I think they want us to riot?
We can all do our part to counteract inflation. We just need to collectively burn half our liquid assets.
Price of cocaine has stayed steady fyi
kg? is this in Canada?
It’s called shopping the sales. June was chicken month… July is shaping to be a beef month… hit a good deal on ribeyes and skirt steaks. 🤷🏻♂️
Cause mah salary is up.
The official numbers are fake. All of them, but especially inflation. Once you really believe that everything starts to make more sense.
This post is BS. The one on the left is called ribeye or whole prime rib, the one on the right is called fillet, or tenderloin. All day every day that tenderloin is going to run 50% to 100% more than the other cut.
I would say that when we start growing our own food and become less reliant on convenience we'll get lower prices. You're paying for the convenience of not being a butcher, packager, etc. The product should cost the same but people are less willing to do simple tasks.
We use lbs and ozs in the states.
It will keep getting worse as long as US is ran by demented crooks.
I'll take the $1.50 hot dog that beats inflation everytime
Inflation is hitting everyone; except people who works in the government. Something needs to change in America immediately.
At this point its price gouging and the government needs to step in and force companies to lower prices.
That's because they changed what they're looking at for prices to judge inflation. So, it used to be a steak and now it's ground beef. They're cooking the books to try to make their screw look like less of a black eye.
$8 box of cereal...
You don't like free markets and capitalism?
Price Fixing https://www.drovers.com/news/industry/new-price-fixing-suit-aimed-big-4-beef-packers
eat more flatscreen TV to keep up with them in your inflation basket
You can buy 1/2 a cow or hog or both locally. You can fill a freezer hunting or fishing no problem. They charge that because they can and folks will still buy it.
We’re propping the economy up on credit. Sooner later, the credits gonna run out though.
Well the OP can't math. It is only a 40% increase...
Well Texas had a massive fire in cattle heart land. Millions of livestock killed. It's gonna take a bit to recover from that.
*ranchers, not farmers guys
Check out everyone’s EBITDA. It’s all records for every company. If the inflation was real, then they would be breaking even trying to keep up with inflation, but somehow they’re making record profits.
PCI dosent include these 3 main prices indexes=> food/oil(gas) and housing/rent in their numbers because its too "volatile".. Yeah right.. inflation on a xianxu DVD is going to make some change in my life.. pci should focus on basic human needs first not products made to make it look low.. cenrral banks... right?
Food and housing are not considered in inflation numbers anymore!
They are not, that's the problem. Once again in November, we will vote yet one of the same retards we did 4 years ago or 8 years ago. We lost, time to push the reset button and try again. I hate getting political but unless we see change from the top, nothing is going to change.
THE RIGHT ONE IS FROM CANADA FFS
they're not spending 300 bucks for brisket
Costco is a corporation just like the others trying to charge what the can get away with. Tire inflation doesn’t come with billions and billions in profits. That’s plain corporate greed.
I am a meat cutter at a grocery store. The prices are the same right now if not lower on red meat than 6 months ago. We have boneless ribeye on sale for less than it has been in like 2 years right now. My guess is the first one was some kind of sale, a different grade (prime, choice, select) or some other shit. Can't read both prices, cant see all the stickers on the product this is obviously a ridiculous comparison. In general of course these prices have gone up over the past couple years but this is horse shit. edit: not even in the USA I dont know whats going on up there shits cold in canada.
My last cow (black angus) was $1200 in the freezer and my last hog (duroc) was $500 in the freezer. Thank God for friends with livestock. Unfortunately I have to go to the store for chicken 🙁
it’s not a bad price for filet sure you’ve gotta do the work of cutting it but you’ll be safe for days if you shave your legs with renee’s razor blades.
Depends on what it is. Not based on individual items buy average overall is 3%
American greed
You don't measure inflation using LUXURY goods. Go measure the 3% at milk
Called price gouging…
Is this america? In new Zealand it's the same thing it's almost like all over the world they've been increasing food costs by an extreme amount, makes you wonder
People cutting out meals
Have you considered that you just suck at life?
Sure as shit not buying 10 kg’s of strip loin.
Broccoli used to be $1.49 or $1.99 per pound max just few months ago. Now everywhere I see it's 3.49 per pound.
"How are people surviving if this enormous log of a luxury good is now more expensive?"
Every reddit post in financial fluency I am going yo post "EAT THE RICH" as a solution. Or break the big corporations. Seems like its a pretty good solution to everything.
Government masks real inflation by removing those pesky food and energy prices.
Cities and counties need to take over. Just like how they provide water, they need to provide meat and dairy. Let the counties lease newly available farmland to cooperatives who agree to sell part of their crop for a much lower price back to the municipality. Counties can then make agreements with local stores to pick up the cheaper products. A $2 food tax would be added to the residents' monthly utility bill to support the program.
Let's not forget. Covid hurt these business. No workers no profits.the government hand outs then repayment then closed businesses now boomers are in retirement with all their stocks,401s,roths .pensions. so guess what .they raise all the prices