Food prices: August 2008 Archives

After I read Brent Burkey's local story on how York's smaller coffee shops were still buzzing in this economy, I remembered my trips to the local java places in downtown York.
Whether it was a caffeine fix or an excuse to get out the office and take a walk on George Street in York, there's something about local shops -- and not only coffee shops -- that make you feel more connected to the community.

This is the kind of story that rules the "most viewed" portion of the Daily Record site for weeks when it happens around here, so I figured I'd share it.

Apparently drug dealers are charging more for their weed.

So one Texas man allegedly decided to start growing his own, just like a lot of York County is apparently growing its own tomatoes and string beans and whatnot because they've gone up in price.

And since the entire country now knows about it, you can guess how the alleged farming operation ended.

Yesterday we said that Hershey was increasing prices for its candy because supplies and energy costs for them went up.

Today, the Labor Department said a whole lot more than chocolate is going up in price. Inflation is double what was expected, and inflation basically is a measure of how much EVERYTHING is going up in price.

So if you are in the habit of looking at the gas signs along the road to figure out when this economy is going to turn around, I wouldn't recommend it. Gas is probably the only thing going down in price with an inflation rate of 1.2 percent.

And no, that's not small. That means that for all intends and purposes, for every $100 you have in the bank, you have lost $1.20 in buying power. Have $10,000 to your name? Well, sorry about your luck, you just lost $120 worth of buying power.

The company's costs have gone up, so its prices it charges consumers and others are going up, too. Price increases were effective Friday.

To be honest, I don't know how much more expensive that will make the candy bars I like to eat.

I don't mean to sound like the proverbial detached presidential candidate who doesn't know the price of milk, but my candy purchases are haphazard at best, and usually happen at the last second in the checkout line.

So really, I don't know if this will affect Hershey's sales, if enough people buy its products like I do. What do you think?

And while I'm asking questions, what are some other things you buy in quick snap decisions, which probably wouldn't be affected by price increases?

It is the No. 1 reason I do not cook as often as I would like.

Spoiled produce. It only takes one unplanned late night at work or other schedule speed bump to throw off my well-laid plans of cooking for a week. And when the plans go awry, the ingredients spoil, so I just give up all hope of cooking the next week because I don't want the food to just go to waste again.

Thankfully, the article offers some tips, especially important as more of us (myself included) try to cook more to save money.

Does anyone else have this problem? Or was this story written just for me?

Fast-food and sit-down chains were ranked together, and interestingly enough, the fast food ranked a whole lot better, according to a story posted on Yahoo Health by way of Men's Health.

I found this really interesting because of another story I heard on NPR last night about how people go to fast-food restaurants over sit-down restaurants when times get tough. And that worried me because I assumed it meant people were also eating less healthy because the economy is rough. But, looks like I was wrong.

And what's the healthiest chain tested? Chick-fil-A. The last letter in its name is the chain's score. Subway, which was probably everyone's first guess (including mine in the fast-food category) came in second.

The worst scorers, mostly the sit-down chains, got poor marks because they won't list nutritional info.

See the whole list here. Any surprises?