I know most of us have a knee-jerk reaction to shopping at Walmart, but it is the most common place folks I know buy groceries. That's why I specifically shopped there for this essay.
I do not generally patronize Walmart, but we have a small Walmart grocery store near me and they have some great prices on their store brand products and good prices for brand name products.
As prices have continued to shoot up, I am shopping at a wider variety of stores especially for canned and dry goods where I can stock up my pantry and save. I'm retired but I know I am very privileged in this way, since I do to not worry about running out of money at the end of the month like many seniors.
So I try and help out. I make a recurring $$ contribution to our regional foodbank which stocks most of the local food pantries. Several months ago, our local Indivisible chapter stated several mutual aid initiatives including partnering with another local mutual aid group in a majority-minority neighborhood which is located in a food desert. So I have added that to my list and stock up on bargains for them as well.
We are collecting food from our members (at several drop-off points around town which makes it easy for the donors). There is a monthly delivery to their "Freedom Fridge", which is a large commercial-style refrigerator and a big cabinet for canned and dry goods located on the nonprofit's porch. Community members can take what they need as well as donate items (if they have access to a car and make a grocery store run). We are also trying to line up some donations from local grocery stores.
True. No one I knows wants to shop at Walmart but at least the executives at Walmart speak the truth about what the tariffs are going to do to the prices and that's something Bezo won't do.
Democrats are going to need to be careful how they talk about high food prices. Ending tariffs will help, but the government has limited options for bringing prices down once they are up. Help for working Americans s going to come from raising the minimum wage, support for union organizing, overtime protection and enforcement of workplace laws. A larger child tax credit and even a UBI are probably necessary to really make a difference. There’s no magic wand to bring down prices. There’s only the fight to make our economy work for ordinary Americans. Democrats need to show that they are here to fight for workers.
You make a very good point. We saw that after the pandemic, when people blamed the Biden administration for the high food prices. Even though people's income showed an increase, and yes there was inflation, people zero in on food because they stand in the grocery line--or at the self-checkout scanner--and see higher prices.
I don’t have a good answer, though at least SS is indexed to the cost of living. That’s not perfect, but it helps. Some programs Republicans have cut that serve large groups of seniors are Meals on Wheels and Medicaid (which pays for many seniors in nursing homes). Democrats should fully fund those. Raising the income cap on SS taxes will be important to keeping SS solvent.
Having the wealthy pay their fair share of SS would do far more than raising the income cap on SS! And...if your only source of income is $500/month SS, that "COLA" came to about $2 last time.... So indexing is worthless... I worked hard my entire life, and never asked for a handout. I finally asked for heating assistance, as I live in a winter climate, and use wood as my only heat source. A grant went to the firewood seller, who brought me wood...all via LIHEAP. I split and stacked it myself, and was thrilled to do so. That program...gone. Only if you LIVE on SS do you truly understand it.
For student loans, rather than forgiving principle directly, I’d lower the interest rate to 0% retroactively. If your total payments exceed the original loan balance you’re done. That should cover everyone over 50 and many who are younger. They paid back what they borrowed. We shouldn’t charge college students market interest rates.
That's a great idea, but this administration would never do that. The greed in this country is too deep and the cruelty is now too profound. If they were going to do something like that, they would have done it long before the student loan is almost one-half century old. Many will just have to make peace with being at the end of life.
At one time I was a Walmart shopper. Today, Walmart is not an option for me. Unless it's an act of desperation. I stopped shopping there a few years ago for a reason. It was after the lawsuit they settled for forcing people to clock out and return to work. Without any pay! A close friend was working there at the time.
When you realize the Sam's heirs (all 6 of them) are all billionaires and they're THAT greedy it was time I pulled my support.
Walmart has the most grocery stores in Springfield MO counting Super Centers and Neighborhood Markets. Next is Price Cutter, with maybe a half dozen stores. HyVee with eye popping prices has two. Given parking lots at both are always packed, there are people in town with money.
For everyone else, it’s Wally World and Aldi. Three locations and building a fourth Aldi south of town on the edge of Ozark. Aldi’s are always packed as well.
Since we're retired, I do the grocery shopping and compare. (Springfield MO). We do okay, just...okay. We aren't what I call "steak and lobster" buyers. I buy meat and produce from Aldi as they're at the lowest prices there, and the quality is very good. There are a few things I can't get anywhere else except HyVee, Price Cutter, or Mama Jean's (local organic grocery). Going to Walmart is a rarity for me. I buy sale items whenever possible. Costco is for things we use in bulk like paper products, protein bars, etc.
I also buy meat and produce from the Farmer's Market at Founder's Park. These days, their prices on some things are competitive. I'd guess "grokery" prices are up about 1/3 since this time last year.
I'm also the shopping ninja for the two of us and will co-sign everything you wrote. The only exception is that I do hit Wally World once a week or so.
I wouldn't recommend fresh foods from them, but packaged and frozen stuff can net some decent savings. Example, canned soups have jumped to $3.50-4.00 regularly in the supermarket but about $2.50 every day there.
For produce I hit our local mercado. Hispanic marts, at least here around DC, seem to have different supply chains and the produce is always top notch and bottom dollar. YMMV.
Tufts researchers have found that dollar stores are now the fastest-growing food retailers in the contiguous United States—and have doubled their share in rural areas.
I'm not surprised about this. In 2019 I was staying a few months on a friends property in Western New York, the finger lakes area, and had noticed al the dollar stores in the surrounding towns. When I said something to my friend, who has many connections to the area, he told me there were four more planned in the next year in three different small towns in the area.
He pointed out that looking at the dates on food was important when shopping at these type of stores, especially anything not canned or pickled.
I live there, south of Rochester. In the past 6 years those stores are everywhere. I motorcycle the Finger Lakes. In almost every small town the Dollar store and gas stations are the only food outlets without driving 30+ miles.
I buy some canned soups and a few other items at Walmart, but I can't buy any meat there. I don't salt anything, and I can't eat much of it.
A few years ago, I bought a chuck roast at WM to make in my crockpot. I put in some fresh carrots and a little tap water, but that was all. The meat was so salty that I had to throw it away. Also, I had a LOT of liquid inside the crockpot. That should not have happened. I thought that might be an anomaly, so I tried getting a chuck roast there again two more times. Every time, I had the same result. I realized that WM injects some sort of saline into its meat, most likely to increase the weight, so they can charge more. I quit buying meat there because of that - and because I had a lot of salty water in my crockpot and a lot of shrinkage.
P.S. For many, many years, I cooked everyday, too. I loved the creativity of it. Not any more. I'm alone, and I hate the cleanup. You aren't alone, Jess.
No telling, Janice. In the past, I've heard of and also smelled chicken that had been treated with bleach so it wouldn't smell bad. I actually smelled the bleach when I got home.
Oh my goodness! I didn't have that experience, but I did buy a cooked rotisserie chicken there several years ago, and it still had feathers on the wings. Needless to say, I threw it away. Think about that... People HAD to have seen the feathers. The person who prepared the chicken for the rotisserie or the person who semi-cleaned it or the person who removed it from the rotisserie and put it in the packaging. The feathers were roasted right along with the bird and were very dark. NEVER again.
I use WalMart for my Healthy Food Allowance from Medicare ($50 per month)because they accept it and Aldi's and Shetler's don't. They do have that one Walton who turned liberal. But I avoid shopping there because the others are not.
And Walmart is often the only place people have to get groceries in a lot of rural areas. They push out any competition. ( It's one of the reasons I refuse to go there. I grew up in Arkansas and watched all the mom and pop businesses die in the 80s and 90s. )
I shop at Walmart, too. Not all the time but frequently. I’m in Florida, in a place where Publix is the premium grocer. There is a huge difference in cost between the two. Publix donated heavily to Desantis and has benefited greatly from that in recent years. During Covid they were the first in the state to provide vaccines courtesy of the governor. The people who provide the services in the 55+ community where I live shop at Walmart and voted for Trump twice.
In SW VA Walmart is higher than our local Food Lion store. FL has coupons and bogo items and other discounts they tie to their store card, MVP. Walmarts hamburger is cheaper but their beef steaks and roasts can be several dollars a pound more.
Great writing as usual. These lines struck me: "Focus on groceries and housing and insurance and child care. These are the things hurting everyone. These are the areas where Democrats can make a difference." Our Democratic nominee for NYC Mayor focused on groceries, housing, child care, and transportation (free buses), won the Democratic primary overwhelmingly and yet some Democratic electeds (looking at Jeffries, Schumer, Hochul and others) can't bring themselves to endorse him in a field that includes a Republican, a corrupt and chaotic incumbent, and a former governor who resigned amidst credible allegations of sexual harassment. Sigh.
I am a former New Yorker born and bred, but now live in Ct.
My daughter lives in New York and could not afford an apartment, so she lives in a woman's residence run by the Catholic Church. She was lucky to get in there.
Whenever I visit her, the cost of everything astounds me. And yet, prices continue to rise, and people continue to pay, because they have no choice. So we are being held hostage by the administration and corporate greed.
I wish that I could believe that talking about groceries, insurance, health care, etc, would convince those who still support Trump and the Republicans to change their minds and vote Democrat. That won't happen until they can make the connection between not having enough money to feed their children, or not having enough money to pay for their healthcare, or not being able to make the rent. It has to hit hard. After all, they are not capable of making those connections because they are being fed lies that promise a Beaver Cleaver fantasty.
Yes. I think the affordability crisis is hitting young people particularly hard. In NYC, housing costs are insane. When I moved to Manhattan after college, I shared a 3-bedroom apartment in a doorman building on the Upper West Side and paid $330 a month. Two years ago, when my daughter moved to Manhattan after college, she shared a tiny 2 bedroom apartment in a basement on the Lower East Side for $3300 a month. She left the city and probably will not move back. During the mayoral primary, I was struck when Adrienne Adams spoke as a mom and grandma about the fact that her kids and grandkids can't afford to live here.
One of the first things that struck me after reading this was that a booming stock market and full employment have allowed well-off parents to subsidize their adult children's lifestyle through regular cash infusions or one-time gifts (e.g., help with a downpayment on a house to reduce the size of the mortgage payment).
If heaven forbid, we have a 2008-style stock market crash (combined with awful hits to the social safety net in the "Big Ugly Bill"), it could get a whole lot worse.
Sure, the billionaires and the people in upper 0.1%, 0.5%, and 1% of income will come out better off with the Trump tax cuts, but I know a lot of people who were solidly upper-middle class (or so they thought!) in their late 40s or 50's who saw their dreams for a comfortable retirement evaporate during the Great Recession.
IMO one of the most underreported aspects of the Medicaid cuts (at least in the corporate media) is how much of the Medicaid budget goes to seniors in nursing homes who have run out of money and use Medicaid as a backstop.
As more people wake up to the universal truth of the airline safety message:
"In case of a drop in cabin pressure, put on your own oxygen mask before helping others".
I'm sure they will be more hesitant to subsize their children's lifstyle.
To continue the airline theme, I think we are in for a very bumpy ride!
It was sad that Adrienne Adams hardly got any votes. She was on my list of five.
I think the country's freakout about Mamdani is 'trumped' up nonsense. And we people who live in the real world need to elect those who will go to bat for us. Yes, billionaires need to pay taxes: we all need to contribute to pay for streets, bridges, schools, clean water, garbage collection, recycling, scientists to study cures for cancer, etc. I worked as a social worker all my life. I did not expect to retire with a fancy mansion, boats, diamonds. But I did expect I would be able to buy food & pay the rent.
Mamdani was not my first choice in the primary (I ranked Zellnor Myrie and Brad Lander ahead of him), but I was impressed with his campaign and the tens of thousands of mostly young volunteers who were out knocking doors for months. My daughter and her friends were all in on his campaign. I went to hear him speak with Zephyr Teachout and Lina Khan and I was so impressed that these two very smart, formidable women were supporting him and I was also impressed with the way he was able to hold his own in that conversation which was focused on small businesses which are so important for the city's economy.
I don't live or vote in NY so first heard about him in the news and I was very impressed with him and with his ideas. I can't understand why everyone is not behind this guy. IMHO, he represents our future.
I think it’s mainly because of his seemingly anti-Semitic remarks (“globalize the Intifada”). Not a good look! You can be pro-Palestinian & care about civilians in Gaza without being anti-semitic, but many people think he crossed the line.
He said he will “discourage” the term - not that he hasn’t said it. That’s why some Jews are against him. But I agree with you (& I’m also Jewish). I would vote for him if I still lived in NYC, where I was born & raised.
All "intifada" means is "shaking off." It's not antisemitic but means a refusal to accept oppression.
Mamdani won a primary in a city with a huge Jewish population. Smear campaigns are more antisemitic than any other kind when they mobilize Jews to be afraid, for political purposes. Not a good look, you say. Well, neither is weaponizing hate that is unfounded, and politicized fearmongering.
That may be what “intifada” means literally, but that is not how it is understood colloquially. I don’t know which way Mamdani meant it, but in any event, I agree with his policies in general, and would vote for him if I were still a NYC resident. I was just pointing out why many (& Jews in particular - among them my NYC friends & family) fear him.
Anyone with the word socialist associated with them (Democratic Socialist) would never be able to win a national election. It will be interesting to see if the same is true for NYC.
We have a number of Democratic Socialists in the NYC Council. There is a Democratic Socialist in the US Senate, Bernie Sanders. Zohran Mamdani was not born in the United States so he can’t run for president but NYC mayors don’t have a very good track record in that regard in any case. (See, e.g., Rudy Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg, and Bill de Blasio)
My concern is people look to Mamdani as an example of what other Democrats across the nation should do and I think those conclusions are wrong.
As a side note, the most socialistic person elected in recent times is Donald Trump. When you take a cut of work from law firms and a cut of profit from chip manufacturers, you are nationalizing parts of private industry - which is very hard line socialist. Much more socialist than Sanders or Mamdani.
You are 100% correct! So what is the DNC's Chair priority right now? Figuring out a Dark Money strategy. How far down the list of your priorities is Dark Money? When the democrats fled Texas, that must have started a stampede for all democrats to go on vacation. I don't hear a word except from Republicans.
They're afraid to elect a Muslim who is a Democratic Socialist. Jeffries, Hochul and Schumer want to preserve a political party that is failing. They have become like the GOP in one respect - they rely on corporate donations to finance political campaigns. Corporations want politicians to do their bidding. This quid pro quo hurts individual Americans and diminishes the power of democracy. We are effectively under a dictatorship, and the only way there is any way out is through the 2026 midterms.
Every time I go to the grocery store, which is not often anymore. I've been on SSDI since 97, so I don't get much money . I am at the bottom. I've literally been doing my grocery shopping at the food bank. I found one that has lots of fresh fruits and veggies. That's how I get my groceries now. It has been so frustrating moving back into the US to take care of my father and I can't afford food. The United States is on such a decline it's embarrassing! I have not lived in this country for 16 years and to come back down to this madness was very sad. Thank you Jess for all you do for Missouri I wish there were more of you for all the other states.
I’m so sorry, friend. My neighbor works at a local food bank and she said they distribute a ton of fresh fruit and vegetables. I am so happy to hear that.
Kym, we have David Pepper here in Ohio, who is an activist, speaker and writer here on Substack. He also happens to be a friend of Jess (I asked him recently if he knew her). People like Jess and David are my heroes these days.
You are very fortunate. Back in 2010 I hit a bad patch and needed to get food from a food bank. Everything i got was canned. Beans and fruit cocktail, nothing nutritious.
I thought about this yesterday after I went grocery shopping. I am just shopping for one and didn't have much(nothing organic, nothing high end, bought mostly generic brands) and somehow it totaled to around $52.26.
I'm a data person and know how to make a dashboard or two. I am so tempted to visualize my past purchases for curiosity's sake. I can get my previous receipts through my grocery store app.
I started saving my grocery receipts at the beginning of the year. At some point, I'll start comparing. It is true that gas is finally a little cheaper here, but in CA it is still way above the national average.
Thank you, Jess. That is good advice for the national level. When I knocked doors on the state level, people told me they were disgusted that their vote didn’t matter in Jeff City, bc the politicians just do what they want, no matter how we vote. That’s the perfect opportunity to let them know it’s bc we have had an R supermajority 20+ years. Vote them out!
Also, here in US House District 5 (KC metro area), Redistricting is the winning topic!
I went to Stand Up KC’s meeting yesterday to organize against redistricting. Daniel Tucker told a packed hall, whoever you are, whatever you’re working on, you must be working on this, too.
If Dems think they’ll be in power 2026 & beyond, they MUST follow your sage advice: food prices, housing, insurance, & child care are the important practical issues needing fixed!
I volunteer at a community food market. Until recently we always stocked milk and occasionally eggs. Now due to federal cuts no milk!! I check people in by birthdate and I’m sickened by the number of people my own children’s ages 24-29! And a number of people have set ups in their cars. Most have jobs but just can’t afford to eat and especially to eat anything healthy. In a country with so much wealth this makes me ill.
Also, Molly, in a country with so much good land, we are basically growing industrial feedstocks and gasohol and not much actual food - and we ALL are subsidizing that. Imagine if we subsidized local food producers as much as we currently do industrial monocultures and ethanol production!
We can talk about prices all day long, Jess, but as long as Trump supporters are listening to the disinformation peddled by the right-wing propaganda machine, we are whistling in the wind. We need to tackle the disinformation problem. It is THE scourge of our time - and the reason Trump was elected, when Dems led the country through a pandemic without a recession, and an economy that was the envy of the world. That didn’t matter, as long as so many people didn’t believe it.
I agree, but it’s really hard to get them to stop drinking the Kool-Aid. They do see their own bills, even if they pretend they don’t online. They know.
You’re right, it is hard to get them to stop drinking the Kool-Aid - but as your post shows, reality isn’t making them change their minds - yet. Maybe at some point, it will be bad enough that it will. But we MUST address disinformation. I don’t know how we do it, but I know others are working on it - I hope they succeed!
One thing Im working on is creating a little free library in my area with a special focus on social justice and education. I do agree we need to fight against the growing disinformation and the blocking of information/knowledge
Debby, their probably isn't a magic bullet solution to the messaging game,
"if Democrats would just say XYZ if would wake people from their MAGA trance..."
But we all have people in our lives who trust us and we need to be brave and start some difficult conversations. I think it would help to be vulerable and open up about our own struggles.
I just reached my full retirement age (FRA) for Social Security. Because of the booming stock market, I've been able to draw down investments in a taxable account (so I only pay taxes on Capital gains) and postpone taking Social Security in order to increase my monthly benefit going forward. Now I am questioning the viability of that strategy. Will Social Security need to cut back on benefits in the future?
I have a fully-paid off house, so I know am more fortunate than most. But I have several chronic health conditions that necessitate taking daily medications. Fortunately all are generic and currently affordable, but I definitely don't trust the Trump regime and the GOP members of Congress to keep it that way.
I’d like to think that talking to Trump supporters we know about our reality would make a difference - but sadly, it just doesn’t work. Jess’s own experience with her relatives attests to that, as does my personal experience. When people are truly brainwashed - as Trumpsters are - it takes a lot more to deprogram them. Academics are working on this problem & I just hope they figure it out, or we are truly lost.
I wouldn't put effort into people who are diehard Trump voters.
But there are people who voted for Biden in 2020 and then voted for Trump because they were mad at Biden for not fixing everything (or because he wasn't condemning Israel) or people who just didn't vote at all. That's who I would concentrate on trying to reach if you already have a connection.
Don't expect them to admit that they were idiots, but you never know when you might give them some food for thought if you keep the lines of communcation open and don't act hostile or condescending.
Debby, it's not so much the disinformation as it is the scapegoating of "the other" (immigrants, brown and black people, etc.). Stoking hatred seems to win every time. How do you stop people from hating? The regime will invent some way to blame the undocumenteds for high grocery prices.
I’m not sure we can win over any MAGA people, but there are plenty of moderates and those who are simply “disinterested” politically. They are the ones we need to be having conversations with about food, rent/housing, insurance, healthcare - the daily cost of living.
What I see a lot of are people who don't have time to follow politics, let alone delve into the "bread and butter" stuff that affects all our lives. Young parents, people who work 2 and 3 jobs - people who are harshly impacted by Trump's presidency but may not even be aware of it. This is actually what hurt Biden's campaign - inflation, but unlike Trump and his tariffs, it was pandemic price gouging that Biden couldn't really control. And Biden actually did things to help working people, unlike Trump, who seems unaware that they even exist. Trump is even fascinated by the word "groceries," as if it's some kind of novelty.
I often think of the folks who work full-time jobs and live in their cars and what will happen to them under this regime, now that they're disappearing homeless people. My heart aches for them and for us all. If more people understood that most of us are just one illness, divorce, death, accident, or a couple of missed paychecks from homelessness, maybe they'd give a damn.
It happened to me. After I lost my job, my life fell apart overnight. Really, people don't know what it's like. Homeless, jobless. I ended up in a shelter for a month until the local Muslim community (I had converted a year before, and I reached out to them) came to my rescue. They found me an apartment and a job, saving my life. Really, people have no idea of the kindness and generosity of Muslims. Homelessness is psychologically devastating. I felt like I had been expelled from society, in a strong sense I had disappeared because everything in my life that gave me a sense of place and identity had disappeared.
I did have a flashback re raising teenage boys. Mine wore size 14 shoes&to this day don’t do sidewalks. A gallon of milk, at least, a day. We went away for a weekend, on our return the fridge looked like a swarm of locusts had been there. Even condiments were gone.
It’s not just about my reminiscing, feeding teenage boys, feeding kids of any age is expensive. Giving kids good nutritious food is a struggle&more expensive.
Our daughter (SE GA; lives in a military community but works as a public school paraprofessional) is a single wage earner. She must forever work two jobs to make ends meet. She cannot afford to rent; we bought a small house because mortgages are cheaper than rents, and she pays us to live there—but we subsidize around $400 monthly of her living expenses because she couldn’t gas up her car or eat if we didn’t. It’s only getting worse. Wages are shamefully low (she earns $10/hr) and prices are exorbitantly high. I do not know how our younger Americans will survive this without our support. When we’re gone … what then?
I had a similar, yet unintentional an undocumented experience a day or so ago. I make a "ones recipe" of "Spanish" rice fairly frequently: One pound of ground beef, one can each of stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, and one cup of rice. I used to be able to get this for about $10, depending on the grade of beef I got (usually 85% lean) and not factoring in the cost of the rice (I usually get 3 servings out of the wild rice blend that I get). Same ingredients rang up at $16.
This was at Albertsons, not WalMart (where I will not shop). But still.
WalMart addendum: A dear friend whose 93 year old mother lives with her had her right knee go out on her; we took her to the ER (due to blood clot concerns; she's had them before). She hobbled out with a diagnosis of a Baker cyst and a hematoma. She lives in a SDU (garage converted to a studio, minus a kitchen) and has to navigate 3 steps to the door to the house.
My friend (who is politically of the same mind as me) asked if I would be willing to take her to the "evil empire" and look for a bedside commode for Mom. We went, had a difficult time finding it, and decided that $99 was too much to pay. Left the EE, went to BiMart which is a local, employee owned store that carries groceries, camping gear, hardware, health and beauty aids, USED to have an amazing pharmacy (which we lost thanks to a freaking bizarre governor's decision), housewares and an electronics department, and were able to buy a bedside commode, extra set of side support rails AND a seat extension for under $100.
I hate WalMart. They put in a store in Eagle Point, OR (small rural farming community less than 10 miles from Medford) with the intent of closing the local grocery store, Ray's Food Place (a chain which specialized in bringing full service grocery stores to small communities; after Ray died, they became employee owned). Rays did not close, and more people shop there for groceries than they do at WalMart.
Just a comment to say I’m in Portland and love BiMart! I like supporting a store that is employee owned. I’m not sure if I’m just seeing what I want to be seeing but it seems as though there are younger folks shopping there more and more. I really hope so. We’re also lucky to have a Winco, an employee-owned grocery store, within a couple miles of us.
My sister now works for Sherm’s down in Medford at Food For Less. The 3rd generation of Sherm’s family is involved in managing the 5 stores they run (one each in Roseburg and Klamath Falls, Food for Less and 2 Thunderbird stores in Medford
Our folks shopped at the first Sherm’s in the 60’s.
I posted outrage when I went food shopping on Monday. There isn't a topic in America that isn't heart breaking. Our taxes are lining the golden pockets of Trump and his Oligarchs.
Trump, his administration, and the GOP treat the country in the same way that Trump and Epstein are accused of treating young, poor girls: Use abuse, and throw away.
I know most of us have a knee-jerk reaction to shopping at Walmart, but it is the most common place folks I know buy groceries. That's why I specifically shopped there for this essay.
I do not generally patronize Walmart, but we have a small Walmart grocery store near me and they have some great prices on their store brand products and good prices for brand name products.
As prices have continued to shoot up, I am shopping at a wider variety of stores especially for canned and dry goods where I can stock up my pantry and save. I'm retired but I know I am very privileged in this way, since I do to not worry about running out of money at the end of the month like many seniors.
So I try and help out. I make a recurring $$ contribution to our regional foodbank which stocks most of the local food pantries. Several months ago, our local Indivisible chapter stated several mutual aid initiatives including partnering with another local mutual aid group in a majority-minority neighborhood which is located in a food desert. So I have added that to my list and stock up on bargains for them as well.
We are collecting food from our members (at several drop-off points around town which makes it easy for the donors). There is a monthly delivery to their "Freedom Fridge", which is a large commercial-style refrigerator and a big cabinet for canned and dry goods located on the nonprofit's porch. Community members can take what they need as well as donate items (if they have access to a car and make a grocery store run). We are also trying to line up some donations from local grocery stores.
Great idea.
Amazing!!
True. No one I knows wants to shop at Walmart but at least the executives at Walmart speak the truth about what the tariffs are going to do to the prices and that's something Bezo won't do.
Democrats are going to need to be careful how they talk about high food prices. Ending tariffs will help, but the government has limited options for bringing prices down once they are up. Help for working Americans s going to come from raising the minimum wage, support for union organizing, overtime protection and enforcement of workplace laws. A larger child tax credit and even a UBI are probably necessary to really make a difference. There’s no magic wand to bring down prices. There’s only the fight to make our economy work for ordinary Americans. Democrats need to show that they are here to fight for workers.
You make a very good point. We saw that after the pandemic, when people blamed the Biden administration for the high food prices. Even though people's income showed an increase, and yes there was inflation, people zero in on food because they stand in the grocery line--or at the self-checkout scanner--and see higher prices.
What about those of us who are alone and on SS? There's no help for us.
I don’t have a good answer, though at least SS is indexed to the cost of living. That’s not perfect, but it helps. Some programs Republicans have cut that serve large groups of seniors are Meals on Wheels and Medicaid (which pays for many seniors in nursing homes). Democrats should fully fund those. Raising the income cap on SS taxes will be important to keeping SS solvent.
Having the wealthy pay their fair share of SS would do far more than raising the income cap on SS! And...if your only source of income is $500/month SS, that "COLA" came to about $2 last time.... So indexing is worthless... I worked hard my entire life, and never asked for a handout. I finally asked for heating assistance, as I live in a winter climate, and use wood as my only heat source. A grant went to the firewood seller, who brought me wood...all via LIHEAP. I split and stacked it myself, and was thrilled to do so. That program...gone. Only if you LIVE on SS do you truly understand it.
What about the Seniors on SS only, whose checks are being garnished for student loans?
For student loans, rather than forgiving principle directly, I’d lower the interest rate to 0% retroactively. If your total payments exceed the original loan balance you’re done. That should cover everyone over 50 and many who are younger. They paid back what they borrowed. We shouldn’t charge college students market interest rates.
That's a great idea, but this administration would never do that. The greed in this country is too deep and the cruelty is now too profound. If they were going to do something like that, they would have done it long before the student loan is almost one-half century old. Many will just have to make peace with being at the end of life.
Jess, my MIL used to live and teach at NWMSU. I have shopped at that very WalMart when visiting her. I know there are few other options in Maryville.
At one time I was a Walmart shopper. Today, Walmart is not an option for me. Unless it's an act of desperation. I stopped shopping there a few years ago for a reason. It was after the lawsuit they settled for forcing people to clock out and return to work. Without any pay! A close friend was working there at the time.
When you realize the Sam's heirs (all 6 of them) are all billionaires and they're THAT greedy it was time I pulled my support.
Walmart has the most grocery stores in Springfield MO counting Super Centers and Neighborhood Markets. Next is Price Cutter, with maybe a half dozen stores. HyVee with eye popping prices has two. Given parking lots at both are always packed, there are people in town with money.
For everyone else, it’s Wally World and Aldi. Three locations and building a fourth Aldi south of town on the edge of Ozark. Aldi’s are always packed as well.
Since we're retired, I do the grocery shopping and compare. (Springfield MO). We do okay, just...okay. We aren't what I call "steak and lobster" buyers. I buy meat and produce from Aldi as they're at the lowest prices there, and the quality is very good. There are a few things I can't get anywhere else except HyVee, Price Cutter, or Mama Jean's (local organic grocery). Going to Walmart is a rarity for me. I buy sale items whenever possible. Costco is for things we use in bulk like paper products, protein bars, etc.
I also buy meat and produce from the Farmer's Market at Founder's Park. These days, their prices on some things are competitive. I'd guess "grokery" prices are up about 1/3 since this time last year.
I'm also the shopping ninja for the two of us and will co-sign everything you wrote. The only exception is that I do hit Wally World once a week or so.
I wouldn't recommend fresh foods from them, but packaged and frozen stuff can net some decent savings. Example, canned soups have jumped to $3.50-4.00 regularly in the supermarket but about $2.50 every day there.
For produce I hit our local mercado. Hispanic marts, at least here around DC, seem to have different supply chains and the produce is always top notch and bottom dollar. YMMV.
Walmart is the only place to shop in a lot of rural communities.
Tufts researchers have found that dollar stores are now the fastest-growing food retailers in the contiguous United States—and have doubled their share in rural areas.
I'm not surprised about this. In 2019 I was staying a few months on a friends property in Western New York, the finger lakes area, and had noticed al the dollar stores in the surrounding towns. When I said something to my friend, who has many connections to the area, he told me there were four more planned in the next year in three different small towns in the area.
He pointed out that looking at the dates on food was important when shopping at these type of stores, especially anything not canned or pickled.
I live there, south of Rochester. In the past 6 years those stores are everywhere. I motorcycle the Finger Lakes. In almost every small town the Dollar store and gas stations are the only food outlets without driving 30+ miles.
I buy some canned soups and a few other items at Walmart, but I can't buy any meat there. I don't salt anything, and I can't eat much of it.
A few years ago, I bought a chuck roast at WM to make in my crockpot. I put in some fresh carrots and a little tap water, but that was all. The meat was so salty that I had to throw it away. Also, I had a LOT of liquid inside the crockpot. That should not have happened. I thought that might be an anomaly, so I tried getting a chuck roast there again two more times. Every time, I had the same result. I realized that WM injects some sort of saline into its meat, most likely to increase the weight, so they can charge more. I quit buying meat there because of that - and because I had a lot of salty water in my crockpot and a lot of shrinkage.
P.S. For many, many years, I cooked everyday, too. I loved the creativity of it. Not any more. I'm alone, and I hate the cleanup. You aren't alone, Jess.
Janice, I believe salt is also a preservative so maybe they were injecting salt to make the meat last longer. 😳. Ewww!!
Ewwww! is right. How old is their meat really, then?
No telling, Janice. In the past, I've heard of and also smelled chicken that had been treated with bleach so it wouldn't smell bad. I actually smelled the bleach when I got home.
Oh my goodness! I didn't have that experience, but I did buy a cooked rotisserie chicken there several years ago, and it still had feathers on the wings. Needless to say, I threw it away. Think about that... People HAD to have seen the feathers. The person who prepared the chicken for the rotisserie or the person who semi-cleaned it or the person who removed it from the rotisserie and put it in the packaging. The feathers were roasted right along with the bird and were very dark. NEVER again.
Oh, my, Janice, isn't that crazy!?
I use WalMart for my Healthy Food Allowance from Medicare ($50 per month)because they accept it and Aldi's and Shetler's don't. They do have that one Walton who turned liberal. But I avoid shopping there because the others are not.
My Rx at Walmart costs a fraction of what it costs at Walgreen. That’s why I go to Walmart.
And Walmart is often the only place people have to get groceries in a lot of rural areas. They push out any competition. ( It's one of the reasons I refuse to go there. I grew up in Arkansas and watched all the mom and pop businesses die in the 80s and 90s. )
I shop at Walmart, too. Not all the time but frequently. I’m in Florida, in a place where Publix is the premium grocer. There is a huge difference in cost between the two. Publix donated heavily to Desantis and has benefited greatly from that in recent years. During Covid they were the first in the state to provide vaccines courtesy of the governor. The people who provide the services in the 55+ community where I live shop at Walmart and voted for Trump twice.
IMHO, Walmart has about the best grocery store bakery going.
In SW VA Walmart is higher than our local Food Lion store. FL has coupons and bogo items and other discounts they tie to their store card, MVP. Walmarts hamburger is cheaper but their beef steaks and roasts can be several dollars a pound more.
Great writing as usual. These lines struck me: "Focus on groceries and housing and insurance and child care. These are the things hurting everyone. These are the areas where Democrats can make a difference." Our Democratic nominee for NYC Mayor focused on groceries, housing, child care, and transportation (free buses), won the Democratic primary overwhelmingly and yet some Democratic electeds (looking at Jeffries, Schumer, Hochul and others) can't bring themselves to endorse him in a field that includes a Republican, a corrupt and chaotic incumbent, and a former governor who resigned amidst credible allegations of sexual harassment. Sigh.
Hi Ellen,
I am a former New Yorker born and bred, but now live in Ct.
My daughter lives in New York and could not afford an apartment, so she lives in a woman's residence run by the Catholic Church. She was lucky to get in there.
Whenever I visit her, the cost of everything astounds me. And yet, prices continue to rise, and people continue to pay, because they have no choice. So we are being held hostage by the administration and corporate greed.
I wish that I could believe that talking about groceries, insurance, health care, etc, would convince those who still support Trump and the Republicans to change their minds and vote Democrat. That won't happen until they can make the connection between not having enough money to feed their children, or not having enough money to pay for their healthcare, or not being able to make the rent. It has to hit hard. After all, they are not capable of making those connections because they are being fed lies that promise a Beaver Cleaver fantasty.
Yes. I think the affordability crisis is hitting young people particularly hard. In NYC, housing costs are insane. When I moved to Manhattan after college, I shared a 3-bedroom apartment in a doorman building on the Upper West Side and paid $330 a month. Two years ago, when my daughter moved to Manhattan after college, she shared a tiny 2 bedroom apartment in a basement on the Lower East Side for $3300 a month. She left the city and probably will not move back. During the mayoral primary, I was struck when Adrienne Adams spoke as a mom and grandma about the fact that her kids and grandkids can't afford to live here.
Did you see this article from Lincoln Square?
www.lincolnsquare.media/p/subsidized-survival-the-millennial
One of the first things that struck me after reading this was that a booming stock market and full employment have allowed well-off parents to subsidize their adult children's lifestyle through regular cash infusions or one-time gifts (e.g., help with a downpayment on a house to reduce the size of the mortgage payment).
If heaven forbid, we have a 2008-style stock market crash (combined with awful hits to the social safety net in the "Big Ugly Bill"), it could get a whole lot worse.
Sure, the billionaires and the people in upper 0.1%, 0.5%, and 1% of income will come out better off with the Trump tax cuts, but I know a lot of people who were solidly upper-middle class (or so they thought!) in their late 40s or 50's who saw their dreams for a comfortable retirement evaporate during the Great Recession.
IMO one of the most underreported aspects of the Medicaid cuts (at least in the corporate media) is how much of the Medicaid budget goes to seniors in nursing homes who have run out of money and use Medicaid as a backstop.
As more people wake up to the universal truth of the airline safety message:
"In case of a drop in cabin pressure, put on your own oxygen mask before helping others".
I'm sure they will be more hesitant to subsize their children's lifstyle.
To continue the airline theme, I think we are in for a very bumpy ride!
It was sad that Adrienne Adams hardly got any votes. She was on my list of five.
I think the country's freakout about Mamdani is 'trumped' up nonsense. And we people who live in the real world need to elect those who will go to bat for us. Yes, billionaires need to pay taxes: we all need to contribute to pay for streets, bridges, schools, clean water, garbage collection, recycling, scientists to study cures for cancer, etc. I worked as a social worker all my life. I did not expect to retire with a fancy mansion, boats, diamonds. But I did expect I would be able to buy food & pay the rent.
I've learned to take a second look at anyone that's labeled a "communist."
Mamdani was not my first choice in the primary (I ranked Zellnor Myrie and Brad Lander ahead of him), but I was impressed with his campaign and the tens of thousands of mostly young volunteers who were out knocking doors for months. My daughter and her friends were all in on his campaign. I went to hear him speak with Zephyr Teachout and Lina Khan and I was so impressed that these two very smart, formidable women were supporting him and I was also impressed with the way he was able to hold his own in that conversation which was focused on small businesses which are so important for the city's economy.
I don't live or vote in NY so first heard about him in the news and I was very impressed with him and with his ideas. I can't understand why everyone is not behind this guy. IMHO, he represents our future.
I think it’s mainly because of his seemingly anti-Semitic remarks (“globalize the Intifada”). Not a good look! You can be pro-Palestinian & care about civilians in Gaza without being anti-semitic, but many people think he crossed the line.
He has said that he does not use the phrase "globalize the Intifada," and will discourage others from using it. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/business/mamdani-globalize-intafada-business-leaders.html?unlocked_article_code=1.eE8.MIIO.eNlBdGhPhHc9&smid=url-share Also, yes, some people are not supporting him, but he has a lot of support among Jewish voters as well as voters from many backgrounds in NYC. My family has 5 Jewish voters, ages 23 to 93 and we are all voting for Mamdani in the general election. (Not everyone ranked him in the primary.) https://www.newsweek.com/zohran-mamdani-has-17-point-jewish-voter-mayoral-race-lead-2106305
He said he will “discourage” the term - not that he hasn’t said it. That’s why some Jews are against him. But I agree with you (& I’m also Jewish). I would vote for him if I still lived in NYC, where I was born & raised.
All "intifada" means is "shaking off." It's not antisemitic but means a refusal to accept oppression.
Mamdani won a primary in a city with a huge Jewish population. Smear campaigns are more antisemitic than any other kind when they mobilize Jews to be afraid, for political purposes. Not a good look, you say. Well, neither is weaponizing hate that is unfounded, and politicized fearmongering.
That may be what “intifada” means literally, but that is not how it is understood colloquially. I don’t know which way Mamdani meant it, but in any event, I agree with his policies in general, and would vote for him if I were still a NYC resident. I was just pointing out why many (& Jews in particular - among them my NYC friends & family) fear him.
Anyone with the word socialist associated with them (Democratic Socialist) would never be able to win a national election. It will be interesting to see if the same is true for NYC.
We have a number of Democratic Socialists in the NYC Council. There is a Democratic Socialist in the US Senate, Bernie Sanders. Zohran Mamdani was not born in the United States so he can’t run for president but NYC mayors don’t have a very good track record in that regard in any case. (See, e.g., Rudy Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg, and Bill de Blasio)
I forgot about Bernie Sanders. Thank you.
My concern is people look to Mamdani as an example of what other Democrats across the nation should do and I think those conclusions are wrong.
As a side note, the most socialistic person elected in recent times is Donald Trump. When you take a cut of work from law firms and a cut of profit from chip manufacturers, you are nationalizing parts of private industry - which is very hard line socialist. Much more socialist than Sanders or Mamdani.
Don't be too sure. This is not your grandpa's politics.
They’re afraid of him!
He's amazing. They are short-sighted jerks (although I would like to think better of Jeffries and Schumer).
The old guard Dems are still using inch wrenches in a centimeter world.
You are 100% correct! So what is the DNC's Chair priority right now? Figuring out a Dark Money strategy. How far down the list of your priorities is Dark Money? When the democrats fled Texas, that must have started a stampede for all democrats to go on vacation. I don't hear a word except from Republicans.
The DNC has become the biggest obstacle to its party’s success.
They're afraid to elect a Muslim who is a Democratic Socialist. Jeffries, Hochul and Schumer want to preserve a political party that is failing. They have become like the GOP in one respect - they rely on corporate donations to finance political campaigns. Corporations want politicians to do their bidding. This quid pro quo hurts individual Americans and diminishes the power of democracy. We are effectively under a dictatorship, and the only way there is any way out is through the 2026 midterms.
A chicken in every pot.
Every time I go to the grocery store, which is not often anymore. I've been on SSDI since 97, so I don't get much money . I am at the bottom. I've literally been doing my grocery shopping at the food bank. I found one that has lots of fresh fruits and veggies. That's how I get my groceries now. It has been so frustrating moving back into the US to take care of my father and I can't afford food. The United States is on such a decline it's embarrassing! I have not lived in this country for 16 years and to come back down to this madness was very sad. Thank you Jess for all you do for Missouri I wish there were more of you for all the other states.
I’m so sorry, friend. My neighbor works at a local food bank and she said they distribute a ton of fresh fruit and vegetables. I am so happy to hear that.
At least it's good food, not starches and other crap.
I'm so sorry .... we are doing ok, here in a small town in N CA, but we're in our 70s now, and I still work PT. I'm afraid of the future.
You see a lot of that on comment threads - "I'm afraid for the future."
Doesn't matter what age the commenter is.
I'm afraid for my kids and grandkids. We've had to do emergency bailouts for them a few times.
Kym, we have David Pepper here in Ohio, who is an activist, speaker and writer here on Substack. He also happens to be a friend of Jess (I asked him recently if he knew her). People like Jess and David are my heroes these days.
You are very fortunate. Back in 2010 I hit a bad patch and needed to get food from a food bank. Everything i got was canned. Beans and fruit cocktail, nothing nutritious.
I thought about this yesterday after I went grocery shopping. I am just shopping for one and didn't have much(nothing organic, nothing high end, bought mostly generic brands) and somehow it totaled to around $52.26.
I'm a data person and know how to make a dashboard or two. I am so tempted to visualize my past purchases for curiosity's sake. I can get my previous receipts through my grocery store app.
I think that would be a great graph to post!
Dorris, please do that. Many people would be interested.
It'll be both fun and depressing at the same time to work on it haha.
I started saving my grocery receipts at the beginning of the year. At some point, I'll start comparing. It is true that gas is finally a little cheaper here, but in CA it is still way above the national average.
The comments you’re getting from the Trump people- they all but prove that it was never about money, never about inflation, never about “the economy”.
Thank you, Jess. That is good advice for the national level. When I knocked doors on the state level, people told me they were disgusted that their vote didn’t matter in Jeff City, bc the politicians just do what they want, no matter how we vote. That’s the perfect opportunity to let them know it’s bc we have had an R supermajority 20+ years. Vote them out!
Also, here in US House District 5 (KC metro area), Redistricting is the winning topic!
Thank you for doing the work, friend
I went to Stand Up KC’s meeting yesterday to organize against redistricting. Daniel Tucker told a packed hall, whoever you are, whatever you’re working on, you must be working on this, too.
I'm in Coward Hawley's district. 🙄
Robot Bender, You understand the assignment.
If Dems think they’ll be in power 2026 & beyond, they MUST follow your sage advice: food prices, housing, insurance, & child care are the important practical issues needing fixed!
And THEN, DEMS have to actually DO something to MAKE a decent living AFFORDABLE and ACCESSIBLE.
Exactly. It doesn’t do any good to run on affordability if you don’t do anything about it when you are in office.
I volunteer at a community food market. Until recently we always stocked milk and occasionally eggs. Now due to federal cuts no milk!! I check people in by birthdate and I’m sickened by the number of people my own children’s ages 24-29! And a number of people have set ups in their cars. Most have jobs but just can’t afford to eat and especially to eat anything healthy. In a country with so much wealth this makes me ill.
Also, Molly, in a country with so much good land, we are basically growing industrial feedstocks and gasohol and not much actual food - and we ALL are subsidizing that. Imagine if we subsidized local food producers as much as we currently do industrial monocultures and ethanol production!
Exactly - but unfortunately most of our "support" is not by direct choice.
Well said, Joonbug! I am guessing most are at least somewhat unaware of these subsidies.
We can talk about prices all day long, Jess, but as long as Trump supporters are listening to the disinformation peddled by the right-wing propaganda machine, we are whistling in the wind. We need to tackle the disinformation problem. It is THE scourge of our time - and the reason Trump was elected, when Dems led the country through a pandemic without a recession, and an economy that was the envy of the world. That didn’t matter, as long as so many people didn’t believe it.
I agree, but it’s really hard to get them to stop drinking the Kool-Aid. They do see their own bills, even if they pretend they don’t online. They know.
You’re right, it is hard to get them to stop drinking the Kool-Aid - but as your post shows, reality isn’t making them change their minds - yet. Maybe at some point, it will be bad enough that it will. But we MUST address disinformation. I don’t know how we do it, but I know others are working on it - I hope they succeed!
One thing Im working on is creating a little free library in my area with a special focus on social justice and education. I do agree we need to fight against the growing disinformation and the blocking of information/knowledge
Good idea!
Debby, their probably isn't a magic bullet solution to the messaging game,
"if Democrats would just say XYZ if would wake people from their MAGA trance..."
But we all have people in our lives who trust us and we need to be brave and start some difficult conversations. I think it would help to be vulerable and open up about our own struggles.
I just reached my full retirement age (FRA) for Social Security. Because of the booming stock market, I've been able to draw down investments in a taxable account (so I only pay taxes on Capital gains) and postpone taking Social Security in order to increase my monthly benefit going forward. Now I am questioning the viability of that strategy. Will Social Security need to cut back on benefits in the future?
I have a fully-paid off house, so I know am more fortunate than most. But I have several chronic health conditions that necessitate taking daily medications. Fortunately all are generic and currently affordable, but I definitely don't trust the Trump regime and the GOP members of Congress to keep it that way.
I’d like to think that talking to Trump supporters we know about our reality would make a difference - but sadly, it just doesn’t work. Jess’s own experience with her relatives attests to that, as does my personal experience. When people are truly brainwashed - as Trumpsters are - it takes a lot more to deprogram them. Academics are working on this problem & I just hope they figure it out, or we are truly lost.
I wouldn't put effort into people who are diehard Trump voters.
But there are people who voted for Biden in 2020 and then voted for Trump because they were mad at Biden for not fixing everything (or because he wasn't condemning Israel) or people who just didn't vote at all. That's who I would concentrate on trying to reach if you already have a connection.
Don't expect them to admit that they were idiots, but you never know when you might give them some food for thought if you keep the lines of communcation open and don't act hostile or condescending.
Debby, it's not so much the disinformation as it is the scapegoating of "the other" (immigrants, brown and black people, etc.). Stoking hatred seems to win every time. How do you stop people from hating? The regime will invent some way to blame the undocumenteds for high grocery prices.
Yes, but all that scapegoating is part of the disinformation campaign. So we’re in agreement!
MAGATs are addicted to rage, and addictions are so very difficult to overcome.
And that is disinformation.
I’m not sure we can win over any MAGA people, but there are plenty of moderates and those who are simply “disinterested” politically. They are the ones we need to be having conversations with about food, rent/housing, insurance, healthcare - the daily cost of living.
What I see a lot of are people who don't have time to follow politics, let alone delve into the "bread and butter" stuff that affects all our lives. Young parents, people who work 2 and 3 jobs - people who are harshly impacted by Trump's presidency but may not even be aware of it. This is actually what hurt Biden's campaign - inflation, but unlike Trump and his tariffs, it was pandemic price gouging that Biden couldn't really control. And Biden actually did things to help working people, unlike Trump, who seems unaware that they even exist. Trump is even fascinated by the word "groceries," as if it's some kind of novelty.
Yes, absolutely!
I often think of the folks who work full-time jobs and live in their cars and what will happen to them under this regime, now that they're disappearing homeless people. My heart aches for them and for us all. If more people understood that most of us are just one illness, divorce, death, accident, or a couple of missed paychecks from homelessness, maybe they'd give a damn.
It happened to me. After I lost my job, my life fell apart overnight. Really, people don't know what it's like. Homeless, jobless. I ended up in a shelter for a month until the local Muslim community (I had converted a year before, and I reached out to them) came to my rescue. They found me an apartment and a job, saving my life. Really, people have no idea of the kindness and generosity of Muslims. Homelessness is psychologically devastating. I felt like I had been expelled from society, in a strong sense I had disappeared because everything in my life that gave me a sense of place and identity had disappeared.
Your post is very on point as always.
I did have a flashback re raising teenage boys. Mine wore size 14 shoes&to this day don’t do sidewalks. A gallon of milk, at least, a day. We went away for a weekend, on our return the fridge looked like a swarm of locusts had been there. Even condiments were gone.
It’s not just about my reminiscing, feeding teenage boys, feeding kids of any age is expensive. Giving kids good nutritious food is a struggle&more expensive.
ThankYou for what you do&your perspective.
Our daughter (SE GA; lives in a military community but works as a public school paraprofessional) is a single wage earner. She must forever work two jobs to make ends meet. She cannot afford to rent; we bought a small house because mortgages are cheaper than rents, and she pays us to live there—but we subsidize around $400 monthly of her living expenses because she couldn’t gas up her car or eat if we didn’t. It’s only getting worse. Wages are shamefully low (she earns $10/hr) and prices are exorbitantly high. I do not know how our younger Americans will survive this without our support. When we’re gone … what then?
I feel that, friend. In my soul.
I had a similar, yet unintentional an undocumented experience a day or so ago. I make a "ones recipe" of "Spanish" rice fairly frequently: One pound of ground beef, one can each of stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, and one cup of rice. I used to be able to get this for about $10, depending on the grade of beef I got (usually 85% lean) and not factoring in the cost of the rice (I usually get 3 servings out of the wild rice blend that I get). Same ingredients rang up at $16.
This was at Albertsons, not WalMart (where I will not shop). But still.
WalMart addendum: A dear friend whose 93 year old mother lives with her had her right knee go out on her; we took her to the ER (due to blood clot concerns; she's had them before). She hobbled out with a diagnosis of a Baker cyst and a hematoma. She lives in a SDU (garage converted to a studio, minus a kitchen) and has to navigate 3 steps to the door to the house.
My friend (who is politically of the same mind as me) asked if I would be willing to take her to the "evil empire" and look for a bedside commode for Mom. We went, had a difficult time finding it, and decided that $99 was too much to pay. Left the EE, went to BiMart which is a local, employee owned store that carries groceries, camping gear, hardware, health and beauty aids, USED to have an amazing pharmacy (which we lost thanks to a freaking bizarre governor's decision), housewares and an electronics department, and were able to buy a bedside commode, extra set of side support rails AND a seat extension for under $100.
I hate WalMart. They put in a store in Eagle Point, OR (small rural farming community less than 10 miles from Medford) with the intent of closing the local grocery store, Ray's Food Place (a chain which specialized in bringing full service grocery stores to small communities; after Ray died, they became employee owned). Rays did not close, and more people shop there for groceries than they do at WalMart.
I feel the same about Walmart. And space is like mine, it has become a necessary evil. They ran off every other competitor.
Just a comment to say I’m in Portland and love BiMart! I like supporting a store that is employee owned. I’m not sure if I’m just seeing what I want to be seeing but it seems as though there are younger folks shopping there more and more. I really hope so. We’re also lucky to have a Winco, an employee-owned grocery store, within a couple miles of us.
We’ve got 3 WinCo stores.
My sister now works for Sherm’s down in Medford at Food For Less. The 3rd generation of Sherm’s family is involved in managing the 5 stores they run (one each in Roseburg and Klamath Falls, Food for Less and 2 Thunderbird stores in Medford
Our folks shopped at the first Sherm’s in the 60’s.
That’s awesome - all of it!
Jess is spot on! This should be required reading for every Dem candidate.
I posted outrage when I went food shopping on Monday. There isn't a topic in America that isn't heart breaking. Our taxes are lining the golden pockets of Trump and his Oligarchs.
Not just our taxes.
Trump, his administration, and the GOP treat the country in the same way that Trump and Epstein are accused of treating young, poor girls: Use abuse, and throw away.