To think food in America is very expensive and worry we're going to face much higher prices soon?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

Just back from NYC. I was shocked at the price of groceries - hummus $4, large pot of yogurt $7, fresh salad stuff and other basic veg like potatoes and onions seemed really high too.

Why is it so expensive? It's not that all those basic items were imported? There didn't seem to be any cheap supermarkets, they were all the same as far as I could see. Although apparently there is one Aldi in Harlem!

I thought the price of veg really high, I mean in the UK you could eat a cheap veggie diet very cheaply, probably high in carbs but nutritionally sound.

It occurred to me that with places like Aldi were used to very cheap food here in comparison. With energy prices rising I'm wondering if food prices are going to shoot up over the next few years? Aibu to be kind of worried? How is our food so cheap?

Anyone that's been recently will be feeling the effect of the low pound.

It sounds like Oz prices to be honest. It's expensive in Oz because they only use Australian producers where they can....so oranges etc aren't imported to protect the farmers here.

However...while milk is 5 dollars, lamb is dirt cheap...so I can't complain.

Bummy that's right. I live in Oz but often earn pounds from clients in the UK and I used to be able to double my earnings...1000 would be 2000 etc. Not any longer!

I've been thinking I will need to raise my prices for UK clients :(

I have found the quality of food in supermarkets is better here and so have family who visit

Even in the organic shops the bread and cereals are full of sugar and taste very sweet (but then American food is often sweet) and good butter and cheese is very limited we go to a cheese shop in a very hipster area to get nice cheese

Why is eating out so cheap if the cost of food is so high? How do restaurants make a profit in the US?
I can't imagine getting take-aways every night here as it's pretty much all highly calorific unhealthy food. Can you get more healthy take-aways in the States?

And America is cheap compared to Australia! But again eating out food can be really good and cheap Sydney is a great place for restaurants

Yes you can get healthy take aways (or take outs)

But portions are bigger often much bigger

Sleep- that's what we try to do. Have chickens and grow all our own veg in the summer at least. Bartering is big here too so we swap services or goods with people who have pigs, cows etc.

There's a huge movement to keep things local where I am so subsequently food prices are low. I guess that's why so many people in the states are relocating here.

A gallon of supermarket own brand milk is $2.40 with the loyalty card where I live. I don't think that's expensive. Lots of fresh stuff is on offer weekly with it

The same amount would be about $2 in the UK Red, based on 6 pints being £1.48 at Tesco with today's exchange rate of 1.25 dollars to a pound and 1 US gallon being 6.6 UK pints.

This website gives some data on how prices compare between US and UK.

Toiletries look more expensive based on the ticket price, but the sizes are often bigger and it's very easy to pay a lower price: eg almost every week I get an email from CVS (Superdrug-type shop) with a 30% off everything voucher in it, plus there are usually coupons in the weekend papers for $1 off shampoo or $3 off toothpaste (which you can double up and use together), so it works out cheaper than the UK if you CBA to work the system.

The cheap food is much cheaper but terrible (very sweet bread, very processed stuff), the good stuff is much more expensive but great quality. There is a real gap in the middle for the equivalent of the Sainsburys tiger loaf (how I miss that!!) or even just Hovis sliced white, price and quality wise

NYC is expensive as others have said. A friend lives in Indiana and complains about high prices but when I asked her it turned out way less than in the UK or here in Canada where we currently are. Canada is expensive for some stuff but then other stuff is so much cheaper. You just gotta know how to work with flyers and coupons to keep the costs down.

If we worked at £1 to $1 we spend about a third more than we did back home. When exchange rate is taken into account we spend less. Eating out is more expensive though so we don't do that as much anymore. Better for us though.

NYC is horrifically expensive - nearly as expensive as Hawaii and Alaska, but at least in HI and AK there's a reason; many of the groceries need to be flown in. Groceries and just about anything else in NYC are more expensive because of the exorbitant cost per square foot the stores are paying to rent space.

I just bought a large tub of yogurt the other day (in Pennsylvania) and paid $3.99. I don't specifically recall what I paid for hummus last time I got it but I'm absolutely sure it was nowhere near $4.

Biscuits are much more expensive in the US. Packet of Oreos is $3 on sale for me. Decent bread too: I buy store brand at $2 for a 1lb loaf as a back up. Decent stuff is about $4

Of course NYC groceries are expensive because rents are expensive, but you'd expect groceries in London to be expensive too for the same reason and they're not - 41% cheaper than NYC, at least 20% cheaper than Detroit, Baltimore, etc according to that website I linked to above.

In the Midwest here, and we have found grocery shopping to be more expensive and of poorer quality. And don't get me started on online shopping, which is like taking a trip back to 2003 misses point of thread

Currently in LA. Everything is ridiculously expensive and this is nothing to do with exchange rates as I have a U.S. dollar account. It has to be huge markups as labour here is extremely cheap. People seriously work for tips in some places and Mexicans form the base of the workforce here, working for pennies. Tipping is expected at 20%, every time you order a drink the barman expects a dollar, you withdraw money from the ATM and you are charged, your hotel quotes a rate then slaps on tax and sometimes a parking charge! Looking forward to getting back this weekend.

I do think we have it particularly cheap in the uk - when I go to Australia food is so much more expensive there.

Yes.

I think food in the UK is very cheap. I marvel at the shopping threads on here. There was a thread recently on each item costing roughly a pound.

I have just been to my local supermarket this morning in Aus. Bought: one avocado: $3.50, one sml punnet strawberries $3.50, one lge tub yoghurt $7.25.

I have lived in both countries and I think food (fresh, packaged and junk) is v cheap in the UK.

Food is much more expensive in the US and lower quality.

Depends where in NY you shop Arthur Avenue market in the Bronx has amazing quality produce at good prices. Also a great Italian cafe which serves the best food outside of Italy according to an Italian friend when we visited earlier this year.

fairsharefoods.com/do/viewAd
Local mom and pop grocery store weekly ad. You can buy pigs' ears and tripe and all sorts of other goodies here. Also nice jars of pesto, assorted Greek olives, etc. They make their own Mexican chorizo.
Meats, fruit and veg are mostly priced per lb.
Their fresh fruit and veg are always nice and reasonably priced compared to other places.

www.ultra-foods.com/weekly-ad/forest-park/
Another weekly ad here. This place is a local chain.

www.allweeklyads.com/tonys-finer-foods-weekly-ad/
More here.
They carry a large European, Middle Eastern and Asian selection in this particular store. I get greek style yogurt with a middle eastern brand for $2.99 for a really big tub. They have Polish ribena-style drink, jams, chocolatebig sacks of basmati, jasmine and all sorts of other rice from Pakistan and India and occasionally Japan, huge Mexican selection (dried chilis, etc)

weeklyads.aldi.us/Aldi/BrowseByPage/Index/?StoreID=2624213&PromotionCode=Aldi-161102INSc&PromotionViewMode=1
Aldi. Meat here is poor quality imo, but other items are good value and decent quality - flour, sugar, cocoa, canned pumpkin (half the price it is elsewhere but they only stock it for Thanksgiving), tortillas, canned tomatoes and beans, frozen veg...

I find Target a good deal more expensive than other places and I only buy catfood in Whole Foods.. Some individual local stores that are part of chains tend to be more expensive than others.

You will always find some place with milk or eggs on sale, and bread too. Items like breakfast cereals are cheapest in Walmart unless there is a sale elsewhere. I can get my favourite Tetley teabags in Walmart and nowhere else.

Getting the cheapest deal on what you need or will use involves a good deal of driving around, maybe a few trips to different shops every week. If you're prepared to do that and suck up the price of petrol and the hassle of traffic you can do ok, price wise. However, I still think UK and even Irish prices are better and the quality of some items in the British Isles is infinitely superior - meats have a taste, mushrooms ditto, and other veg too, especially if locally grown.

(OP, to find a Target with fresh food, you have to look for a SuperTarget.)

I don't think NYC is representative however we moved to the US this year and I'm spending considerably more on food here than I did at home.

It may depend on how you cook of course. But for example a jar of ordinary spices in my local supermarket costs over $7, I could buy the same in the U.K. for £1.50

A pack of three peppers is $4 and it's £1 at home.

I also have to buy organic milk and meat here to avoid nastier hormones and additives which I don't do in the UK.

I have to go to more expensive shops like Trader Joes or Whole Foods for things like cold meat which is actually edible rather than slimy.

I'm going to give in and buy a bread maker as I can't find bread which isn't terribly sweet.

My weekly shop here costs about $200 At home it's about £120 ($149).

We also don't find eating out particularly cheap here.

However the incredibly low fuel costs here probably offset the higher costs of food.

we live in LA - groceries are v v v v expensive here which is ridiculous considering all our fruit and veg only travels 50-100 miles. Whenever i go home I'm astounded how much cheaper it is

I have been all over the US and certainly Manhatten and Boston smaller grocery stores were massively more expensive than the Walmarts in Orlando. I would expect that, a small Waitrose in London is far more expensive than Asda in Bradford.

I don't think you can assume NYC prices are the same throughout the US.

Also, we don't really have the exchange rate in our favour at the moment do we?

Is petrol in America still dirt cheap? I know when the recession hit here the Anericsns couldn't believe how much we pay for petrol. I wonder if it's swings and roundabouts cost wise.