蜜柚直播

The latest survey of food prices in 蜜柚直播 shows that shoppers can find ground chuck at just two-thirds the price it was two years ago.

Not interested in red meat? Chicken breasts also are far cheaper now than they were as recently as last year.

And if you like egg salad, a glut on the market is also driving down prices.

鈥淚t鈥檚 hamburger time for everyone,鈥� quipped Julie Murphree, spokeswoman for the 蜜柚直播 Farm Bureau Federation which conducts the quarterly surveys.

So what鈥檚 driving down prices?

Murphree says some of that involves the normal laws of supply and demand.

That鈥檚 the particular case with eggs, she said, citing conversations with the Hickman family, which is a major egg producer in 蜜柚直播.

鈥淭hey have said that prices have been way too low,鈥� she said.

鈥淲e are overproducing right now,鈥� Murphree said. 鈥淎nd in summer, sometimes, demand is not quite as high as it is, especially in the fall when we鈥檙e starting to ramp up a lot of baking and stuff.鈥�

As to those beef prices, Murphree said there鈥檚 a good supply on the market. She also said that ranchers are figuring out ways to deal with the high feed prices which had driven the cost of red meat into areas where some shoppers were choosing alternatives.

But there鈥檚 also something else at work.

Murphree said 蜜柚直播 has one of the most competitive 鈥� some would say cutthroat 鈥� competition in the grocery industry. Even with the consolidation that鈥檚 occurred during the past few years, she said supermarket chains feel the need to keep prices as low as possible to retain customers.

That competition played out during the past few days on the stock market.

Kroger Co., owner of the Fry鈥檚 grocery chains that have a major presence in 蜜柚直播, saw the price of its stock drop by about 25 percent. And that wasn鈥檛 helped at all by the decision by Amazon to purchase Whole Foods, setting the stage to make that much smaller chain a major competitor.

The bottom line is the survey found the cost of a market basket of 16 typical items this quarter was $46.06. That compares with $49.26 for the same quarter last year.

Of note is that prices generally remain below where they were two or three years ago, even with the effects of inflation.

The survey is done by Farm Bureau volunteers who check local grocery stores and look for the best prices on the list.

The costs reflect sale items but do not take into account other bargains that may be available to shoppers, either from using digital or printed coupons or being a member of a store鈥檚 鈥渁ffinity鈥� network that provides further discounts.