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Inflation Watch: Thanksgiving Dinner Edition
While shoppers will perceive the discounts on Black Friday as 'saving' them fortunes, the cost of the 2013 Thanksgiving Day dinner may be the most expensive ever. As the gorging commences, despite an entirely benign inflation in the eyes of the Federal Reserve, the prices of everything from chocolate chip cookies to ice cream are on the rise. But it is the centerpiece of the meal that is weighing on pocket-books. As Bloomberg's Michael McDonough notes, Americans are paying the most for whole frozen turkeys since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began publishing data on the series in 1980.
The U.S. city average price per pound for frozen turkeys climbed to $1.819 in September, up from $1.433 at the end of last year and $1.621 a year prior. September’s price implies an average 15 pound Thanksgiving turkey will cost Americans $27.29 this year, compared to less than $25 dollars last year.
Frozen turkey prices have risen substantially during the past decade, probably due to rising input costs. Turkey prices averaged just $1.071 per pound between 2000 and 2004, compared to $1.579 per pound since 2010. This price increase is nearly double the rise in overall inflation during the same period. Corn prices, a major source of turkey feed, rose by nearly 200 percent during the same period helping boost the cost of the final product.
There is a silver linig though - potentially...
It may come as some relief for turkey farmers that as prices continue rising, corn prices have plummeted about 50 percent since September 2012.
Source: Bloomberg's Michael McDonough (@MMcDonough)
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HERE'S A BULLET AND A GUN KIDS!!!
NOW GO CATCH US SOME THANKSGIVING DINNER!!
and don't shoot at the neighbours... they don't like it when you do that...
The price of corn in Bitcoin is really plunging...
GMO corn. Do you know what your turkey is eating?
if u bought a turkey last week...55 cents a pound...every store offers these deals...so if you pay 1.81..than shame on you...
>> The price of corn in Bitcoin
Where do you buy corn with bitcoin?
At the BitCORN exchange!
I think you are a BitConfused
It's ok, it's just a BitCON.
Do Mexican Americans eat Turkey?
Nah, they know better than the Gringo's
Turkey Tacos with cranberry sauce and cornbread dressing. Ummmmm.
Mine does, but she was indoctrinated in the ways of the gringo in her citizenship classes. She passes on the cranberries and liberally applies the salsa & jalapenos.
She knows the whole Pilgrim & Indians story better than I do!
I saw several possums run over. Some tobasco and potatoes for the side should do the trick. Fuck the supermarkets . Have my Bourboun ready for this shit.
There is nothing funnier that watching a green Chinamen on thankgiving day woundering where did all my customers go on this normal november thursday day. They threaten to close shop for the day the next year, but then wonder what they do with all that extra time.
Catch rats and dehydrate them
Meh....at a local store they're giving away turkeys for free with $50 spent on other things. Personally, I think everything is just made-up bullshit bottom line.
http://www.daily-chronicle.com/2013/11/06/waterman-farm-fattening-up-tur...
Hope you have a nice Thanksgiving Sheep Dog-One.
Peace and Aloha bro...
Well at least the markets shot straight up to new highs on the open. The corn farmers should just sell all their tractors and use the capital to buy the dips, its basically free money!
There haven't been many dips lately.
Bah!
We closed the ES and YM more or less unch yesterday, thats basically a crash in the new normal markets!
Sheeit look at HPQ, they beat by a whole 0.005! I am amazed its only up 8% right now, people are practically GIVING that stock away at 27; with a negative -17 P/E it should be trading around $150!
If you weight that against TSLA that is...
Thanksgiving has traditionally been one of my favorite holidays. I love friends and family over for meals and celebrations centered around consumables. I hate presents and cards and corporate sponsored bs.
This holiday it will be just me, my two dogs and my very old cat, if she makes it another night. The larder is EMPTY as my significant other of 23 years moved out and in typical womanly fashion took everything that didn't have a title to it in my name. And although I have boocoo cash, I force myself to live on an austere budget. I don't hold the dogs or cats to that regimen, if they want something, they get it.
I think I'll have some wild caught Alaskan salmon, some home grown beans, squash and potatoes and ponder just how lucky I am.
You all have a wonderful Thanksgiving day.
May you find peace in the quite solitude of a womanless home.
I too have lost a woman. Mine had a lot to do with the boocoo and my contentment with my possessions and home. She also was hurting for money, but I didn't need big fancy things to show the world my awesomeness, she does
I call BS on this, too. Here's my local shaw's supermarket ad - 59 cents frozen, 99 fresh, includes free steroids and chemicals!
http://shaws.mywebgrocer.com/Circular/Middletown-RI-99-East-Main-Road/D9...
Stop and Shop has the frozen for 49 cents a lb and fresh 99 cents a pound. I read the ingredients and cannot imagine why there
would need to be an ingredients list on a turkey. WTF! They shoot flavoring in to them. We have plenty of fresh farm raised turkeys
around here, no way I would take one of these for free.
LOL, no inflation.
No inflation for the banksters when you look at their increases in salaries and bonuses.
Loads of $5,000 suits in their closets.
No turkey this year. Hospital needs wife to work Thanksgiving and Christmas. More fiat for PMs I guess.
Oh, and fuck the hormone-infested-petri-dish-created-antibiotic-riddled-gobblers from who knows where. My wife has to work overtime every year because the gluttonous don't know when to stop the gorge. Job security I guess.
I agree with call BS on this. Topps and Wegman's up here in the great white North (Rochester, NY - got six inches of snow last night) have deals on turkeys if you buy $25 worth of stuff. I believe at Wegman's the price is 39 cents per pound and the turkey counts as part of the $25 spend.
As for the headline screaming inflation... just stop it. Anybody with half a brain can see that deflation is the bigger issue now. Go to a dollar store and see how many items are now emblazoned with 20% more, 50% more, etc. stickers. I just bought two bottles of worchestire sauce with 70% more for a buck apiece. Sure, it's probably a bit watered down, but I'll humor myself.
Margins are being squeezed by slack demand. It's pretty obvious. Watch the holiday sales this year; they will be epic.
The Fed is dying for inflation. Don't give it to them. Buy used goods, buy on ebay, craigslist, take advantage of grocery discounts, sales and by all means, don't eat out! The savings on home-cooked meals over restaurants is enormous, probably on the level of 60-70% cheaper. Yeah, you have to cook yourself and clean afterwards, but the extra loot in your pocket sure feels good, plus you can spend what you saved on some good wine, or, if you prefer to "go all hobo" some Ripple.
Happy deflationary Thanksgiving. Stay away from the malls all weekend. Plenty of good college football on the tube. Sit back, relax and enjoy.
And that's why I resort to Peking duck at ¥0.50/pound.
I just gave away 9 Pekin ducks after having raised them to laying. Turns out I'm allergic to duck, on the verge of going to the ER allergic. Shame too, ducks are a great bird to raise.
Giving thanks with the cheapest cut of meat out there....where is the elk and venison?
Speaking of expensive turkeys this Thanksgiving, here’s more on Obamacare…
“According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), 156 million Americans—more than half the population—currently receive employer-sponsored health insurance. By 2016, the CBO projects that 6 million fewer people will receive employer-based health insurance compared to 2013.
“Other business surveys place the number losing coverage much higher. A recent survey of 400 mid-size firms by the US Chamber of Commerce and the International Franchise Association found that 28 percent planned to drop their coverage due to the ACA.
“In tandem with the legislation commonly known as Obamacare, a seismic shift is taking place in the employer-sponsored health care market, the means by which the majority of Americans who are not insured under a government-sponsored program like Medicare or Medicaid receive coverage. For those workers who have not seen their coverage canceled outright, companies are already shifting greater costs for coverage to their employees…
“Touted as a plan that would promote ‘affordable,’ ‘near universal’ heath care, in reality, the legislation is tailored to the profit interests of employers and the health care industry,* while reducing and rationing care for the vast majority of workers and their families.” – Kate Randall, World Socialist Web Site at Global Research , Nov 27, 2013
http://www.globalresearch.ca/obamacare-employers-to-cancel-plans-for-millions-shift-costs-to-workers/5359571
Note: Obamacare will not benefit all employers; it is putting many small businesses out of business.
3D printable turkeys will be confiscated on first sight.
This is why I'll be serving oven roasted iPad this year.
As the starvation commences
I raised 40 turkeys last year just so I know how to do it. I bought feed by the ton ( organic) plus free ranged them. I figured my input costs, not including equipment & time, came to about $2.75/lb. I don't think I could raise them as cheaply this year. Folks don't want to pay for good food, they want this hormone, fast growing stuff they can get for .79/lb that is fed with GMO feed. It costs $8/bird to have them butchered. These prices aren't realistic for humanely and naturally/organically raised turkey.
We bought a free range turkey for $2.29/lb today.
The "deal" you get at most grocery stores on turkey has strings attached.
If you are required to buy a few specific items to qualify - or spend at least $XX amount before you get the deal - then are you really paying $.39 (what ever) a pound?
I would say NO. Its called a loss leader.
My company use to give each employee a "free" turkey at Thanksgiving (about 2K birds) - does that mean it would be included in the inflation calculation at ZERO cost?
My wife would "earn" enough turkey bucks to qualify for 2 "free" turkeys - while I was paying $1.59 a pound for them at a WHOLESALE distributer.
We decided to skip the turkey this year - we are having a nice smoked ham instead.
"The U.S. city average price per pound for frozen turkeys climbed to $1.819 in September, up from $1.433 at the end of last year and $1.621 a year prior."
Ad: .57 cents a pound with 25$ purchase.
Ad: 10-16 lb. turkey for 10$.
Just buy on sale.
Yesterday, I bought an Entenmann's apple pie at the supermarket. $6.69 for a apple pie?!? It used to be less than $5 not too long ago. I kind of expect bakeries to jack their prices before Thanksgiving but that's ridiculous.
Yeah, turkey prices didn't seem too bad, whereas alcohol, sides and appetizers for twelve lightened the wallet considerably.
The cost of maintaining traditions like Thanksgiving abroad will make your head spin. Here, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a 26 pound frozen (forget about finding a fresh one) turkey costs R$217.00. (The notion of "competition" hasn't really arrived here so it doesn't matter which store you go to.) That is equivalent to about USD $3.65 per pound. Cranberry sauce? They don't have it but my wife bought dried cranberrys, reconstituted them and has made enough to fill a small cereal bowel - all for the price of about USD $14.00. Need I go on.....
Where are they $1.81?, NYC???
Here in Florida they are 59 cests a pound.
>> Here in Florida they are 59 cests a pound.
You can get free live turkeys here. People just don't want to feed them 'cause you can buy them oven ready for less than you can raise one. I remember a thread not so long ago where someone was bragging they were getting $10 a dozen for their free range chicken eggs. I can buy a dozen free range chicken eggs, large eggs at that, for $2 a dozen all day long. I just paid $3 for 18 eggs and the lady was thrilled, yet admitted it was about her cost. Hobby farming is tough scrapple, you do it because you love it.
Dark meat please...
Dark meat please...
Kroger has frozen turkeys for .69 cents a pound, but you have to use your "we're tracking you" card and it's a loss leader for sure.
What? A 15lbs turkey for 1.50$ up until 2004 ? WTF no inflation ? Now 7.50$ and that is counting the inflation being exported to China and other countries!
I got a free one at work. I was shocked when they dropped it on my desk. First time I've ever been given anything like that. I really didn't know what to say, it was such a foreign thing to me for my employer to give me a turkey. Thawed it out and smoked it yesterday. It sure is good.