49
Why we cook at home rule
(lemmy.cafe)
Internet nerds teaching fellow nerds how to cook at home, and make higher-quality food than garbage in a wrapper or a box they're currently wasting money on. In our age of hyperinflation, shrinkflation, and general economic collapse, knowing how to cook at home is more vital than ever.
Share recipes, cooking guides, shopping and savings tips, and let's help our fellow nerds save some mother-freaking money. Feel free to vent about skyrocketing food prices here too. Share evidence of hyperinflation, shrinkflation, etc. when you come across it.
RULES:
Cumulative inflation since 2018 is only 22%.
So if the price of a McChicken had kept up with inflation we'd be at 1.22
But inflation isn't a flat percent just like IQ isn't. And almost everytime we experience inflation, it's hits the essentials the hardest. Food, housing, medical care, all that shit goes up at much higher rates than things people don't really need.
Because if they raise the price too much, people just stop buying them
If all the landlords decide to raise rent due to inflation, everyone still has to pay.
When the handful of grocery chain decide to increase costs, it's still cheaper than ordering out, and everyone has to eat
Inflation has always been an excuse for everyone to simultaneously raise their prices without it being collusion.
I think the dollar menu is "sticky". It was a dollar for years because it was a loss leader. Well, maybe more of a marketing gimmick. "Dollar twenty five menu" just doesn't have the same ring to it.
But yes. Picking any one benchmark for inflation is stupid. You might as well pick oil or lumber.
Ehh, debatable. Food is arguably the most important commodity, so its prices alone are a good indicator of where we are as a people.
This isn't "food", it's one highly advertised menu item at a fast food restaurant. Not "a sack of rice", but a Mcdonalds sandwich.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menu_cost
https://www.mashed.com/137972/the-truth-about-mcdonalds-dollar-menu/
Further reading on "sticky" menu prices, and how the value menu may have been a costly marketing gimmick for years.
Around here, the €1 hamburger 15y ago cost €1.3 a year ago which is more or less the inflation. This year it is at €1.6
The last 2 years prices for food went up a bit more than the inflation, but not that much more. But as with anything that's basic needs, it impacts the poor a lot more.
Now if you look at vegetables and other fresh food, it's even worse and I think it's a lot more important than the cheapest burger at McDonald's that was way too cheap to begin with.
Someone ought to do a price comparison of various fruits and veg between 2019 and now so we get a clearer picture.
The McChicken is just an example, but an extremely important one because guess what most poor people eat?