Albertsons’ Soaring Prices

[CalItalian]

Even Dollar Tree, the last holdout of true dollar stores, is throwing in the towel because of Bidenflation and activist shareholder demands.

This inflation has been caused by the reopening of the economy, not to mention supply constraints caused by the pandemic. Why do we have to get political?
Looking at SamSpade's price comparison, Safeway's prices look to be 17% higher than Walmart. Usually they are like this on pricing anyway, 15 to 20% higher than Walmart.
I still do most of my shopping between Albertsons and Sprouts (sometimes Target and Costco).

You clearly do not know what is causing inflation. It is not a reopening of the economy. It's government spending and restrictions on domestic production. If you can't acknowledge that there is no possible way of having a truthful conversation about what is occuring.

[retailfanmitchell019]

You clearly do not know what is causing inflation. It is not a reopening of the economy. It's government spending and restrictions on domestic production. If you can't acknowledge that there is no possible way of having a truthful conversation about what is occuring.

You don't need to call it "Bidenflation" though. I thought this was a forum to discuss retail news, not politics.
If we want to get political, I'll mention that the lunatic president that lost re-election in November did not do much to contain COVID. The pandemic has limited labor to make products, therefore causing inflation.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikepatton ... e72ea8690a

[CalItalian]

No doubt that strong inflation will be noticeable, but Albertsons seems to be taking advantage. Walmart, Ralphs and Albertsons each charged $1.79 for a four count private label apple sauce. Walmart went to $1.84, Albertsons to $2.09. A 24ct bulk package from from $8.49 to $8.99 at Walmart, and from $11.99 to $13.99 at Albertsons (Ralphs remains $9.99).

A generic loaf of Value Corner bread climbed dr 88c to $1.39. The Signature Select (SS) branding likely the same bread) went from $1.39 to $1.99. A Great Value (GV) loaf went from 88c to 94c. SS pasta sauce went from $1.99 to $2.49 (and shrunk a couple ounces). GV remains 88c (and higher once’s). Lucerne Yogurt cups went from 50c to 60c, GV from 28c to 32c. Lucerne Shredded Cheese remains at $3.99 (usually goes on sale for 1.99), but lost two ounces. GV went from 1.99 to 2.22. SS peanut butter is now 60 cents higher, while GV rose only 5 cents, making SS 1.25 more.

Ultimately, unless people are idiots, I ponder how Albertsons expects to stay in business.

I was shopping a lot at Safeway the past five months. A big part of this was due to Raleys ONE fiasco but also with the new store and some strong ads I had been pretty happy. The past few weeks, I am buying less and less. And I seem to be buying more at Smiths (if I can get things in stock... I can tolerate the dirty store and poor service there for pre-packaged items). The dirty atmosphere and service attitude at Smiths reminds me of a below average Wal Mart. Back to Safeway, the weekly ad has only been 4 pages lately and not very good. Every time I go into the store, I encounter more products with price increases, big price increases that I am simply unwilling to pay.

We do still have a quasi-EDLP program at Safeway in Nevada but it seems to be losing items. Have watched various produce items, deli hot food, store brand soda move off the program in recent weeks. I guess when the NorCal price feed pushes a price increase, the Nevada stores get that price increase too, then on the EDLP items they are supposed to reverse the price change but it isn't always happening and causes even more increases. For instance deli chicken strips now 9.99/lb (was 7.99/lb), deli wings now 10.99/lb (was 8.99/lb). They have managed to hold some good everyday retails- the gallon milk is 2.79, dozen eggs is 1.27, 4lb C&H Sugar is 2.29, bananas .55/lb.

It is like whatever awful computer system made up Safeway's pricing back around 2005-2009 and whatever awful computer system was doing the pricing for Albertsons under Supervalu has been re-ignited and it is running at full speed. They need to ditch all those systems and go to whatever pricing system the old Albertsons LLC was using when it had under 200 stores- that was when they finally got the pricing straightened out.

My mom was commenting at how high meat prices are at Safeway compared to Smith's or other chains in the area... I came out $100 lighter on Saturday though because Safeway had a lot of center aisle stuff (especially water) that other chains in the region are out of stock of. Whoever does the stocking and ordering at Safeway gets automatic kudos.

I have next week's ads. I can go item by item comparison and show Vons & Albertsons are on most times lower priced than Ralphs and Stater Bros.

Let's start. 10/6-10/13

Tri-Tip Roast $3.97 Vons, Albertsons. $4.99 Stater Bros.

Fresh Ground Sirloin $2.97 (80/20) Vons, Albertsons. $3.99 lb. (90/10) Ralphs.

Modelo 12 pack $10.97 Vons, Albertsons. $11.99 (must buy 2) Ralphs. $25.99 24 pack Stater Bros.

Pepsi 12 pack, 12 oz. cans 3/$10.89 Vons, Albertsons. 3/$11.99 Ralphs.

Kellogg's Frosted Flakes $1.69 ea wyb from a group of 3 products Vons, Albertsons. $1.79 Ralphs wyb from a group of 6 or more products.

I two items Ralphs is lower on.
32 oz. Store Brand Cheese. $4.97 Ralphs. $5.99 Vons, Albertsons.

St. Louis Style Pork Spareribs $2.99 Ralphs. $3.77 Vons, Albertsons (same price for Baby Back Ribs there only).

I can post plenty more. In NO WAY is Ralphs overall cheaper on meat or most other items than Vons & Albertsons.

The only two areas that Ralphs has lower prices than Vons & Albertsons is spirits (multi-item purchase specials at Ralphs) and the cleaning aisle (except detergent). Ralphs no longer has the best deals on wine or beer where they use to always be lower than Vons & Albertsons.

[kr.abs.swy]

Calitalian, do tell what advanced education do you have, and what research have you done, that allows you to boil down something as complex as the US economy into one single factor, stated so definitively? Please post your sources.

Even Dollar Tree, the last holdout of true dollar stores, is throwing in the towel because of Bidenflation and activist shareholder demands.

This inflation has been caused by the reopening of the economy, not to mention supply constraints caused by the pandemic. Why do we have to get political?
Looking at SamSpade's price comparison, Safeway's prices look to be 17% higher than Walmart. Usually they are like this on pricing anyway, 15 to 20% higher than Walmart.
I still do most of my shopping between Albertsons and Sprouts (sometimes Target and Costco).

You clearly do not know what is causing inflation. It is not a reopening of the economy. It's government spending and restrictions on domestic production. If you can't acknowledge that there is no possible way of having a truthful conversation about what is occuring.

[CalItalian]

You clearly do not know what is causing inflation. It is not a reopening of the economy. It's government spending and restrictions on domestic production. If you can't acknowledge that there is no possible way of having a truthful conversation about what is occuring.

You don't need to call it "Bidenflation" though. I thought this was a forum to discuss retail news, not politics.
If we want to get political, I'll mention that the lunatic president that lost re-election in November did not do much to contain COVID. The pandemic has limited labor to make products, therefore causing inflation.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikepatton ... e72ea8690a

There is no labor shortage. I can attest to that as my partner was making more off unemployment with no taxes than working. Government regulations & spending are causing inflation. You seriously need to learn some business reality. We've known for months this was going to happen & Christmas is going to be a real stinker with lack of product on the shelves & sky high prices. This is history, as always happens, repeating itself just like the late 1970's.

[CalItalian]

Clearly I have better business sense than you. Stay ahead of the game instead of posting about it after it already happened as you are.

Calitalian, do tell what advanced education do you have, and what research have you done, that allows you to boil down something as complex as the US economy into one single factor, stated so definitively? Please post your sources.

This inflation has been caused by the reopening of the economy, not to mention supply constraints caused by the pandemic. Why do we have to get political?
Looking at SamSpade's price comparison, Safeway's prices look to be 17% higher than Walmart. Usually they are like this on pricing anyway, 15 to 20% higher than Walmart.
I still do most of my shopping between Albertsons and Sprouts (sometimes Target and Costco).

You clearly do not know what is causing inflation. It is not a reopening of the economy. It's government spending and restrictions on domestic production. If you can't acknowledge that there is no possible way of having a truthful conversation about what is occuring.

[retailfanmitchell019]

There is no labor shortage. I can attest to that as my partner was making more off unemployment with no taxes than working. Government regulations & spending are causing inflation. You seriously need to learn some business reality. We've known for months this was going to happen & Christmas is going to be a real stinker with lack of product on the shelves & sky high prices. This is history, as always happens, repeating itself just like the late 1970's.

It's all about the supply chain. As I've said, COVID is the main cause of inflation, but you fail to see my point because you just want to play politics.
Also, inflation is probably at its peak by now, according to this chart: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-sta ... lation-cpi

[CalItalian]

There is no labor shortage. I can attest to that as my partner was making more off unemployment with no taxes than working. Government regulations & spending are causing inflation. You seriously need to learn some business reality. We've known for months this was going to happen & Christmas is going to be a real stinker with lack of product on the shelves & sky high prices. This is history, as always happens, repeating itself just like the late 1970's.

It's all about the supply chain. As I've said, COVID is the main cause of inflation, but you fail to see my point because you just want to play politics.
Also, inflation is probably at its peak by now, according to this chart: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-sta ... lation-cpi

If you think inflation is not political, then you are just lying. Anyone who thinks inflation is peaking now is totally uninformed. TOTALLY uninformed.

[Bagels]

You clearly do not know what is causing inflation. It is not a reopening of the economy. It's government spending and restrictions on domestic production. If you can't acknowledge that there is no possible way of having a truthful conversation about what is occuring.

You don't need to call it "Bidenflation" though. I thought this was a forum to discuss retail news, not politics.
If we want to get political, I'll mention that the lunatic president that lost re-election in November did not do much to contain COVID. The pandemic has limited labor to make products, therefore causing inflation.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikepatton ... e72ea8690a

There is no labor shortage. I can attest to that as my partner was making more off unemployment with no taxes than working. Government regulations & spending are causing inflation. You seriously need to learn some business reality. We've known for months this was going to happen & Christmas is going to be a real stinker with lack of product on the shelves & sky high prices. This is history, as always happens, repeating itself just like the late 1970's.

That’s incorrect. We know a labor shortage has been looming for years; the birth rate went from record highs in the late 1990s to record lows by the early 2000s, and has never recovered. We’ve long known it may be insufficient to replace Boomers as they retired en masses. Walmart began raising its local minimum wages several years ago because of this - not because they are a generous company. Wages were so low for years because there were more people entering the workforce than jobs available, creating a cheap pool of labor.

A lot of Millennials are existing the work force as they start families, reversing decades of two person incomes. Wages haven’t kept up with inflation; my sister-in-law realized that it made no sense to work for $55K pre-tax when she was spending $30K year on child care.

[Bagels]

I was shopping a lot at Safeway the past five months. A big part of this was due to Raleys ONE fiasco but also with the new store and some strong ads I had been pretty happy. The past few weeks, I am buying less and less. And I seem to be buying more at Smiths (if I can get things in stock... I can tolerate the dirty store and poor service there for pre-packaged items). The dirty atmosphere and service attitude at Smiths reminds me of a below average Wal Mart. Back to Safeway, the weekly ad has only been 4 pages lately and not very good. Every time I go into the store, I encounter more products with price increases, big price increases that I am simply unwilling to pay.

We do still have a quasi-EDLP program at Safeway in Nevada but it seems to be losing items. Have watched various produce items, deli hot food, store brand soda move off the program in recent weeks. I guess when the NorCal price feed pushes a price increase, the Nevada stores get that price increase too, then on the EDLP items they are supposed to reverse the price change but it isn't always happening and causes even more increases. For instance deli chicken strips now 9.99/lb (was 7.99/lb), deli wings now 10.99/lb (was 8.99/lb). They have managed to hold some good everyday retails- the gallon milk is 2.79, dozen eggs is 1.27, 4lb C&H Sugar is 2.29, bananas .55/lb.

It is like whatever awful computer system made up Safeway's pricing back around 2005-2009 and whatever awful computer system was doing the pricing for Albertsons under Supervalu has been re-ignited and it is running at full speed. They need to ditch all those systems and go to whatever pricing system the old Albertsons LLC was using when it had under 200 stores- that was when they finally got the pricing straightened out.

My mom was commenting at how high meat prices are at Safeway compared to Smith's or other chains in the area... I came out $100 lighter on Saturday though because Safeway had a lot of center aisle stuff (especially water) that other chains in the region are out of stock of. Whoever does the stocking and ordering at Safeway gets automatic kudos.

I have next week's ads. I can go item by item comparison and show Vons & Albertsons are on most times lower priced than Ralphs and Stater Bros.

Let's start. 10/6-10/13

Tri-Tip Roast $3.97 Vons, Albertsons. $4.99 Stater Bros.

Fresh Ground Sirloin $2.97 (80/20) Vons, Albertsons. $3.99 lb. (90/10) Ralphs.

Modelo 12 pack $10.97 Vons, Albertsons. $11.99 (must buy 2) Ralphs. $25.99 24 pack Stater Bros.

Pepsi 12 pack, 12 oz. cans 3/$10.89 Vons, Albertsons. 3/$11.99 Ralphs.

Kellogg's Frosted Flakes $1.69 ea wyb from a group of 3 products Vons, Albertsons. $1.79 Ralphs wyb from a group of 6 or more products.

I two items Ralphs is lower on.
32 oz. Store Brand Cheese. $4.97 Ralphs. $5.99 Vons, Albertsons.

St. Louis Style Pork Spareribs $2.99 Ralphs. $3.77 Vons, Albertsons (same price for Baby Back Ribs there only).

I can post plenty more. In NO WAY is Ralphs overall cheaper on meat or most other items than Vons & Albertsons.

The only two areas that Ralphs has lower prices than Vons & Albertsons is spirits (multi-item purchase specials at Ralphs) and the cleaning aisle (except detergent). Ralphs no longer has the best deals on wine or beer where they use to always be lower than Vons & Albertsons.

All chains in SoCal retort to weekly loss leaders to get people into stores. Albertsons follows the same formula. This week they’re taking a hit on cantaloupe at 69c each, but it’s about the only produce item they beat Ralphs on. Their everyday price is actually higher.