During my weekend BusinessWeek reading (the only periodical worth receiving in print still IMO), I came across this chart of household grocery spending over the past few decades which I found intriguing. It shows that as a percent of annual post-tax income, Americans continue to spend increasingly less each year. Less than ANY OTHER COUNTRY in fact. Half as much as those in France and 1/4 of those in India. Yet we’re broke. First, take a look at the chart to see where we’re getting more “value” or basically just spending less, then some thoughts:
See an infographic that doesn’t suck for once and consider why we’re broke when we spend less on groceries each year.
Interesting but not surprising. My observations during my personal shopping in a Kroger owned store near my Denver suburb home shows that many people are cutting back on the “non food” foodstuffs. Less of the unhealthy crap lining the shelves and more produce and vegetables. This is totally anecdotal of course, but I can remember seeing carts stacked with chips, and cases of soft drinks and pretzels ad nauseum, but i really have not seen much of this lately. I would also think that many people are limited to the snap card only, so there is also a limit on expenditures for “food”.
And walking out of the Costco store they have a brand spanking new Chevrolet Silverado half ton pickup truck in four door family cab splendor. Sticker price, $49,785.00. That is a strong symbol of why people are eating less. The fools that feel the need to spend that much money on an urban grocery getter certainly have less to spend on food. When the SHTF, its going to be a very interesting view.
The first thing I noticed was that we seem to be holding our own on alcohol. Whew, that’s a relief.
The French spend twice as much? Not surprised actually. The French like good food. They wouldn’t eat most of the crap that passes for food here.
What I notice in my family is that my kids, who are not as financially well off as I am, are much more likely to insist on buying organic produce and eggs and meat than I am…even though I consider myself fairly picky about what I put in my grocery cart. Is that because they are the spoiled children of a bourgeois father? I’m not sure.
If that behavior represents any kind of trend, I would expect to see people spending more for food, and not less.
Being broke, imho, has more to do with saving habits than it does the amount of disposable income a family has to play with. Few people ever get to the point of having investments that flow cash. If they did, they’d get hooked on the thrill of watching their money work for them, instead of them working for their money.
Mortgage, taxes, car payment(s), and credit card payments ….. not much income left for most Americans after that.
So they spend less on food. This is like cutting your nose to spite your face. We haven’t cut a dime out of our grocery spending, in fact, it has gone up quite a bit. Food is the body’s fuel. Eat shit food, expect shit results. Save a penny now buying shit, spend a dollar in the future on medical bills. Bad tradeoff. We won’t do it.
Addison Wiggins (daily reckoning) wrote that in 1919 it took 2 hours and 38 minutes of medium wage work to pay for a 3 lb. chicken, today about 10 minutes.
Food banks could account for some of the decrease in ‘spending’, after all if it is ‘given’ to you you don’t have to spend money. Then there is the SNAP program. Any reasonable person knows that much of this program is fraud. An unemployed person lives with an employed person. The unemployed person qualifies for food stamps but sells them for 50 cents on the dollar to another family or a relative. Drug addicts do the same and eat at charity facilities. Parents know their children get fed at school so they too can sell some of their benefits. Schools even hand out ‘weekend’ food packets to their ‘poor’ students probably knowing that this is exactly what Is going on.
I noticed that the junk food section was the only one that increased. Therefore, good food is being replaced with fats, sugars and salt. No a good indication of future health needs. Also, there may be a bit more growing of food at home and buying locally. At least, we can hope so.
This woman eats toilet paper, you think she might have tried a nice high protein meal worm first. There is no GMO in mealworms is there?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kdTZK3-fcY
I’m pretty sure,no one cut back on alcohol consumption.Many just started brewing their own.
The obvious answer is they are cutting back on meat.(per chart) And replacing calories with processed food.
Cold cuts are $9.99 a pound. I expect Boars Head to use water fill to compete with the generic brand which already does.
The switch from fruits/veg/meat to processed foods probably helps explain the increase in obesity over the years. It’s all about the carbs/sugar.
I know for us, the grocery bill is ridiculous each month. But we do buy some organic, fair amount of eggs, meats, etc. adds up!
My wife and I were filling our larder in the new house. Spent about $150, and we loaded up on things that would be considered essentials, potatoes and other veggies that stay good a long time.
Bread, meat, eggs,fruit, folgers coffee, some canned foods, one frozen pizza, and one 8 pack of 6 oz Dr. Pepper cans.
Aside from the soda and pizza, we only bought things you would consider staples. Our mother in-law took one look at it and laughed, telling us we bought food like poor people.
I took it as a compliment, since going by our debt to income ratio we are poorer than the homeless man with zero debt and a $10 in his pocket.
Darwin wrote:
“The switch from fruits/veg/meat to processed foods probably helps explain the increase in obesity over the years”
Just for giggles I looked at the grocery ad we got yesterday.
There were 90 items advertised.
12 of them were unprocessed foods.
And I’m being generous. The 12 items included “milk” ha! and frozen plain vegetables.
Maybe we should ban grocery stores. They’re killing people!!!
Maddie’s Mom, Since taxing cigarettes, liquor and banning large soft drinks has worked such wonders for US health…