Using an Old Receipt to Illustrate Inflation

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Re: Using an Old Receipt to Illustrate Inflation

Post by storewanderer »

Bagels wrote: October 15th, 2022, 11:04 pm Walmart is quickly catching up to Albertsons:

Since my last visit two weeks ago:
* Big Boy salad dressings are now $6, up $2.
* A three pack of Romaine Hearts was $2.12, but now a single heart is the same price. Probably a slightly larger heart, but the three pack organic at $3.50 weighed twice as much.
* A four pack of Great Value breakfast sandwiches are now $6, up from $4. They’re $4.49 at Albertsons.
* A four pack of cupcakes is $5.99, up from $2.99 (I think I noticed this last time).
* GV single-serve frozen entrees are now $4.30ish, up from 2.30-something.
* Yoplait Yogurt is now 78c, was 56c.

Bananas are priced at 33c per lb, and large eggs 1.97 per dozen, both great deals, but I think that’s specific to this store.
Wal Mart's price points are not nearly as aggressive as they once were and I think they are using food price increases to make up for the significant inventory issues they are having on the non food side and the cost involved in handling that, sitting on it, and marking it down. I was in a location today that has so many storage trailers they now have 20 of them on the parking lot next to the store that is Kohls lot (isn't even their lot... guess they got Kohls permission to put all the trailers there), this is in addition to 30+ trailers they have on their own lot. This store is currently having some kind of an expansion out back to add fulfillment facility, and the inside has been fully redecorated (didn't really move anything around).

I was also last week at a Wal Mart in Washington, Utah that had easily 75 trailers on the side of the store/parking lot. The store appeared to have just completed a remodel and is a very busy store but still do not know why it needs so many trailers. Inventory is out of control.
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Re: Using an Old Receipt to Illustrate Inflation

Post by SamSpade »

Here's an interesting piece from Boise's hometown newspaper, The Idaho Statesman. Even with a much smaller storebase, Fred Meyer must be charging closer to Walmart than Albertsons price points.
https://www.eastidahonews.com/2022/10/w ... er-prices/
(used this link as Statesman has a paywall after a limited number of page views)
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Re: Using an Old Receipt to Illustrate Inflation

Post by Bagels »

SamSpade wrote: October 17th, 2022, 9:05 am Here's an interesting piece from Boise's hometown newspaper, The Idaho Statesman. Even with a much smaller storebase, Fred Meyer must be charging closer to Walmart than Albertsons price points.
https://www.eastidahonews.com/2022/10/w ... er-prices/
(used this link as Statesman has a paywall after a limited number of page views)
Interesting piece, thank you! I would've thought Albertsons would've been more competitive in Boise. Gotta wonder if they'll covert the Fred Meyer stores to the Albertsons nameplate...
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Re: Using an Old Receipt to Illustrate Inflation

Post by storewanderer »

Bagels wrote: October 17th, 2022, 12:23 pm
SamSpade wrote: October 17th, 2022, 9:05 am Here's an interesting piece from Boise's hometown newspaper, The Idaho Statesman. Even with a much smaller storebase, Fred Meyer must be charging closer to Walmart than Albertsons price points.
https://www.eastidahonews.com/2022/10/w ... er-prices/
(used this link as Statesman has a paywall after a limited number of page views)
Interesting piece, thank you! I would've thought Albertsons would've been more competitive in Boise. Gotta wonder if they'll covert the Fred Meyer stores to the Albertsons nameplate...
No, this is a holdover from the Supervalu era on pricing in Intermountain. The prices in Intermountain are shockingly high (lower now than they were under Supervalu though...). Much of what is left of Intermountain Albertsons doesn't have much competition. SoCal Albertsons was the lowest priced block of stores of the Albertsons banner under Supervalu.
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Re: Using an Old Receipt to Illustrate Inflation

Post by Bagels »

It feels likes it’s the Great Recession again: Kroger has introduced Smart Way, which will join its Target brother Smartly in the value priced generic business. Eventually, Smart Way is suppose to replace a few dozen value-orientated brands across the Kroger network. So, goodbye Mountain Dairy, psst…. Check this out, and all of your friends.

On the flip side, this probably explains why several Kroger brands - including dish soap, paper products, etc. - have seen some big prices increases. Also, I’ll bet that Kroger-branded milk will swell in price, with Smart Way-branded becoming the entry level price point. They already do this in some divisions, like F4L and Smith’s but with Mountain Dairy. At least that label had class - Smart Way screams cheap (although it’ll be an identical product- you’re paying more for the label).

So far, only a few products are in stock at my local store: dish soap ($1.69 for 25 oz, which is slightly cheaper than Walmart for similar quantity), 16 oz canned veggies for 69c, or 4 for $2.50 (slightly higher than Walmart, but about half the price as Albertsons) and $1.25 for bread and hot dog buns (Walmart is $1).

For comparison, Kroger-branded dish soap is about $2.22 for 28 oz (it was $1.77 until recently, and there is frequently), Kroger-brands veggies are 89c or 4/$3.89, and Kroger bread/hot dog buns are $1.89, up from $1.25.

All prices are from SoCal.
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Re: Using an Old Receipt to Illustrate Inflation

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

Bagels wrote: October 23rd, 2022, 11:50 am It feels likes it’s the Great Recession again: Kroger has introduced Smart Way, which will join its Target brother Smartly in the value priced generic business. Eventually, Smart Way is suppose to replace a few dozen value-orientated brands across the Kroger network. So, goodbye Mountain Dairy, psst…. Check this out, and all of your friends.
What does the packaging look like? Plain Wrap? :lol:
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Re: Using an Old Receipt to Illustrate Inflation

Post by storewanderer »

Bagels wrote: October 23rd, 2022, 11:50 am It feels likes it’s the Great Recession again: Kroger has introduced Smart Way, which will join its Target brother Smartly in the value priced generic business. Eventually, Smart Way is suppose to replace a few dozen value-orientated brands across the Kroger network. So, goodbye Mountain Dairy, psst…. Check this out, and all of your friends.

On the flip side, this probably explains why several Kroger brands - including dish soap, paper products, etc. - have seen some big prices increases. Also, I’ll bet that Kroger-branded milk will swell in price, with Smart Way-branded becoming the entry level price point. They already do this in some divisions, like F4L and Smith’s but with Mountain Dairy. At least that label had class - Smart Way screams cheap (although it’ll be an identical product- you’re paying more for the label).

So far, only a few products are in stock at my local store: dish soap ($1.69 for 25 oz, which is slightly cheaper than Walmart for similar quantity), 16 oz canned veggies for 69c, or 4 for $2.50 (slightly higher than Walmart, but about half the price as Albertsons) and $1.25 for bread and hot dog buns (Walmart is $1).

For comparison, Kroger-branded dish soap is about $2.22 for 28 oz (it was $1.77 until recently, and there is frequently), Kroger-brands veggies are 89c or 4/$3.89, and Kroger bread/hot dog buns are $1.89, up from $1.25.

All prices are from SoCal.
Packaging looks like a copy of Amazon's private label food to me. Packaging doesn't look bad and it will stand out on the shelves.

Smartway sounds like a way to poke fun at Safeway...

I always felt like Kroger should eliminate the low quality value label entirely and focus on keeping the most competitive price point on the Kroger brand. Seemed like they were part of the way there... then this Smartway thing happened...

Private label paper product pricing has increased at all retailers since the paper product shortage.

Mountain Dairy is the name for the Smiths Dairy in Layton, UT. There is still Smiths milk.
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Re: Using an Old Receipt to Illustrate Inflation

Post by Bagels »

storewanderer wrote: October 23rd, 2022, 6:47 pm
Bagels wrote: October 23rd, 2022, 11:50 am It feels likes it’s the Great Recession again: Kroger has introduced Smart Way, which will join its Target brother Smartly in the value priced generic business. Eventually, Smart Way is suppose to replace a few dozen value-orientated brands across the Kroger network. So, goodbye Mountain Dairy, psst…. Check this out, and all of your friends.

On the flip side, this probably explains why several Kroger brands - including dish soap, paper products, etc. - have seen some big prices increases. Also, I’ll bet that Kroger-branded milk will swell in price, with Smart Way-branded becoming the entry level price point. They already do this in some divisions, like F4L and Smith’s but with Mountain Dairy. At least that label had class - Smart Way screams cheap (although it’ll be an identical product- you’re paying more for the label).

So far, only a few products are in stock at my local store: dish soap ($1.69 for 25 oz, which is slightly cheaper than Walmart for similar quantity), 16 oz canned veggies for 69c, or 4 for $2.50 (slightly higher than Walmart, but about half the price as Albertsons) and $1.25 for bread and hot dog buns (Walmart is $1).

For comparison, Kroger-branded dish soap is about $2.22 for 28 oz (it was $1.77 until recently, and there is frequently), Kroger-brands veggies are 89c or 4/$3.89, and Kroger bread/hot dog buns are $1.89, up from $1.25.

All prices are from SoCal.
Packaging looks like a copy of Amazon's private label food to me. Packaging doesn't look bad and it will stand out on the shelves.

Smartway sounds like a way to poke fun at Safeway...

I always felt like Kroger should eliminate the low quality value label entirely and focus on keeping the most competitive price point on the Kroger brand. Seemed like they were part of the way there... then this Smartway thing happened...

Private label paper product pricing has increased at all retailers since the paper product shortage.

Mountain Dairy is the name for the Smiths Dairy in Layton, UT. There is still Smiths milk.
Among paper products, Ralphs stocks only the “Check This Out” napkins but Foof4Less has the entire line-up. When I shopped there last month, I noticed that they were out of stock. Now we know why. And yes, pricing of paper products swelled during the hoarding, but Kroger appears to be hiking prices again.

During the recession, Kroger introduced a lot of junk “value” products - like the not ice cream but similar to it dessert, and the imitation of imitation cheese that doesn’t melt. I suspect most of these products will be identical to the Kroger brand, but used as an upsell.

That’s what they do with Mountain Dairy Milk (soon to be Smart away IMO) at F4L and Smith’s. Albertsons does it with Value Corner and Meijer Penneywise.

Glad you like the packaging I think it’s cheap. Spot the Smart Way veggies:

Image
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Re: Using an Old Receipt to Illustrate Inflation

Post by storewanderer »

With shelf placement like that, not many people will be buying these items...

Smiths recently did its case lot sale (happens every so often) and certain SKUs of the Kroger vegetables were included at a .59 each price (or buy a case at .59 times 24). The shelves emptied of single cans quickly, and people started breaking open those 4 packs of Kroger vegetables. Those do not scan, but do have a barcode that can be typed into the register (and came up at the .59). This is where Kroger seems to be screwed up. They are creating too many SKUs for commodity products. They should just sell the single cans of Kroger vegetables and be done. No Smart Way, No 4 packs, none of this. Those 4 packs wrapped in plastic wrapper which come to the store in cases that look just like the 24 count can case wrapped in more plastic, are a joke. Add the cost of the 4 count plastic wrapper and the cost of the 4 packs is going to be higher than 4 loose cans (maybe the manufacturer gives some kind of a deal to do this, but someone is paying more). If they want to do a 4 pack, they should just do a "buy 4 pay xx each" type of discount on the single cans.
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Re: Using an Old Receipt to Illustrate Inflation

Post by Bagels »

storewanderer wrote: October 23rd, 2022, 8:33 pm With shelf placement like that, not many people will be buying these items...

Smiths recently did its case lot sale (happens every so often) and certain SKUs of the Kroger vegetables were included at a .59 each price (or buy a case at .59 times 24). The shelves emptied of single cans quickly, and people started breaking open those 4 packs of Kroger vegetables. Those do not scan, but do have a barcode that can be typed into the register (and came up at the .59). This is where Kroger seems to be screwed up. They are creating too many SKUs for commodity products. They should just sell the single cans of Kroger vegetables and be done. No Smart Way, No 4 packs, none of this. Those 4 packs wrapped in plastic wrapper which come to the store in cases that look just like the 24 count can case wrapped in more plastic, are a joke. Add the cost of the 4 count plastic wrapper and the cost of the 4 packs is going to be higher than 4 loose cans (maybe the manufacturer gives some kind of a deal to do this, but someone is paying more). If they want to do a 4 pack, they should just do a "buy 4 pay xx each" type of discount on the single cans.
Kroger did the case sale with Ralphs in the 2000s, but IIRC, you had the buy the case to get the savings. For canned veggies, it was limited to corn, peas and green beans. The sale was enormously popularly, and they brought in Kroger branded products to satisfy demand, in an era when it was otherwise absent from Ralphs. The price was super cheap - like a dime a can or something like that. I’m surprised there was a run at 59c - roughly the same price as Walmart everyday. Albertsons sold them for 25c each during the spring, and there wasn’t much interest. We canned regularly but I guess everyone else has moved on to frozen.

Ralphs also use to regularly run a beef roast deal, where if you bought the roast you’d get a two liter soda (Pepsi or private label brand, depending on the era), bagged salad, small Ralphs salad dressing, bag of potatoes, carrots, and probably some other stuff I’m forgetting. Those days are gone…
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