Servers, Multiple

[Kellemora]

No, I don't think we should ever suspend the Constitution for any reason!

But when you consider all the things Biden has done just this week alone, he needs to be out of office.
He lies about everything, doesn't know what he's doing half the time, and sides with enemy 100% of the time.
He's a disgrace to our nation, and has made us an international laughing stock.

But apparently, a socialist society is what the younger generation who voted him in really wants.

You're not a Republican, so why would the democrat owned FBI be looking at you?

[yogi]

You do know there are other people in this world besides Democrats and Republicans, do you not?

Joe is one hella good guy, by they way. His birthday is the same as mine.

[Kellemora]

Yes I do, there are a lot of Independents, but when they run for office, they usually only steal votes from a Republican or Democrat which causes the least desirable candidate to win.

WHAT if anything HAS Joe done for the American People? He obviously HATES the Military and America in general.
Sides with Criminals, but that's probably because that is all he and his son know to be.

[yogi]

mmm ... under Joe's administration I got an 8.6% increase in my social security payouts. Never got that much from any other president.

[Kellemora]

Inflation has never been at 16 to 18% before either. Under Obama we did not even get the 3% we were used to getting while the Republicans were in. And that 8.6% don't kick in until the new year, and we've all suffered runaway inflation ever since old Joe was Installed in office, you know, like a Toilet.

[yogi]

Not sure where you get your numbers from, but inflation never was as high as 16% during the last two years. Plus, inflation under Obama was lower than that under the Republicans preceding him, which is why the COLA was less or nonexistent. And, as I mentioned above, the COLA for Social Security payments is based on the previous year's rate of inflation. You actually have to live through that year before you can calculate what the going rate is.

None of the above really matters. The next two years will see the Republican party in charge of finances via their control of the House of Representatives. Things will be much better starting January.

[Kellemora]

Not the way you measure inflation, but the way the citizenry measures inflation is by the cost of the goods they have to buy every week, like groceries and utilities. Plus all the other expenses they can't get out from under.
They could care less about how the price fluctuated on corn or soybeans sold overseas, or how much the shipping to get it there has gone up. Citizens LOOK AT the Prices Skyrocketing on the store shelves of those things they must have!
Most of what we buy is well over 25% more this year than when Biden took office, and the rest is all around 12% so it balances out to around 16 to 18% overall for us poor folks out here.

The Senate will Stop anything the Republicans try to make better for us non-elite folks out here!

[yogi]

Inflation is the change in the CPI (Consumer Price Index). Per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ...

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services. Indexes are available for the U.S. and various geographic areas. Average price data for select utility, automotive fuel, and food items are also available.
https://www.bls.gov/cpi/

That' clearly states what inflation is, and it clearly includes all those things the citizenry buys on a daily basis.

I fully appreciate the fact that what you are experiencing in Knoxville, and in your specific financial situation, is likely the worst case scenario of those average numbers. It's not reasonable to judge the entire economy based on what you are seeing in Knoxville. You might find it hard to believe by reading my comments, but I sympathize with you completely. I know that you are in dire financial straits and I truly wish I could do something personally to help. Also likely to be hard for you to believe (or accept) is that this inflation cycle started under Trump. The CPI numbers were good during his tenure but the economic policies he put in place, or did not put into place, started the inflation ball rolling. Economic trends are not instant occurrences and they may take many months to show their ugly head. Joe Biden can be accused of giving free money to people in dire need during the pandemic. Perhaps it was too much of a handout, but I didn't read anything about people wanting to give it back. All that extra cash added to the existing inflationary pressures from the tax cuts and import tariffs initiated by Donald J Trump. The most effective way to curtail inflation is for the Federal Reserve Board to raise interest rates on loans issued between banks. This cure unfortunately also adds to inflation in the short term, but effectively cuts back the money supply to slow down overall spending. If Joe Biden is doing anything to lower inflation (and he is), the bulk of his policies will not be felt for just as many months as it took to get inflation started. That lag in economic effects is what allows uninformed citizenry to misjudge the source of any existing economic problems.

So now you know why things are happening the way they are, but even if you took my word for it all, my explanation doesn't help your bottom line one cent. Accusing Joe Biden, or his predecessor for that matter, of being the cause is a mistake. There are many factors besides what I already pointed out and the most influential one is the global economy. If you are paying attention even a little bit you will have read that China's economy is crashing - oddly enough they are also experiencing a COVID crisis. Europe isn't doing so well either, and the war in the Ukraine is messing with global supply chains in ways we have not seen since 1942. It's complicated and the poorest among us are suffering the most.

[Kellemora]

I do understand what you are saying, but there is a bit more behind the scenes that we are not supposed to know about.
Many raw materials suppliers held back on increasing their prices until they saw if things were going to stabilize out or not.
When things got worse under Biden, they raised their prices more than they should have to take advantage of the situation.
This in turn made the manufacturers up their prices, and some of Biden's policies were the incentive they needed to up the prices even further. And this creates a snowball affect so the end consumer prices go way up.

Starting last year, after Biden was elected, a 6 ounce can of Pringles went from 99 cents to 1.19, then the can size was changed to 5.7 ounces for !.29. The two cans my wife picked up for me last week were now down to 5.2 ounces for !.79.
Our normal 20 ounce loaf of sandwich bread at Kroger was like 2.19, and now it is 3.29 for 16 ounces.
And let's not talk about eggs going from 99 cents a dozen to 4 dollars a dozen. That sure doesn't sound like 8.6% inflation to me.

[yogi]

Yes, there are multiple reasons for the rise in inflation, and greedy corporations is one of them. Today the people I cited in the above link published the CPI numbers for November, 2022. If you click that above link and scroll down the left column just a bit you will see the latest numbers for November. Spoiler: .1% increase. That is abnormally low for inflation but it only reflects what happened last month. The chart right above that panel shows food increased 10.6% over the past twelve months. Basically the monthly numbers are coming down but the trend line will take some time to synchronize. I could suggest that the downward trend is the result of initiatives taken by the current administration. But, I do know also that the pound of sandwich bread remains at $3.29 regardless of the trend lines. And I also know that even if inflation levels out to zero, that will not bring down the cost of bread. Being the former businessman that you have been means you must know exactly why that is the case.

Not that it will make you feel any better, but the cost of groceries around O'Fallon has increased too. My first years down here were a bit of a shock given that the cost of living was about 20% less than that in Chicago suburbs. The quality and availability of certain things was disappointing, but the immediate drop in the price of gasoline, for example, was a blessing. That all goes to show that location has a lot to do with the rate of inflation due to the standard of living being different. I've not calculated the exact amounts, but I can make an educated guess about the current cost of groceries being about 30-40% higher than seven years ago. If I never lived up north in the high priced suburbs of Chicago I'd be moaning that the increase was an outrage. However, due to my history I'm thinking I still am getting a bargain and remain about at the level of spending I was at seven years ago.

[Kellemora]

Yeppers, once a company gets their prices up, they are not going to lower them back down again, UNLESS their competition is doing so and it is hurting their bottom line to keep their prices overly high.

Technically, the price of gasoline, except for Alaska and Hawaii, is the same price all across the country. What makes the difference at the pump is the amount of state, county, and city taxes added to a gallon of gas.
I figured this out a long time ago when folks were posting how much gas was in their town. It was fairly easy to check how much their state, county, and if their local area added any taxes and deduct that from the pump prices.

We have a couple of low cost grocery store groups down here, so when Kroger is 3.89 for a loaf of rye bread, WalMart is like 3.69, and our UGO stores are around 2.39 or less for the same brand, only last year it was 1.89 at UGO. That's a 25% increase in the cost of bread there, a LOT MORE than our upcoming 8.6% SS increase.

Many staple items, like sugar and flour have come close to being double the price over the past two years.

[yogi]

The people who calculate the national rate of inflation are using universally accepted methods and standards. When they claim the cost of food increased by 10% that is an average for specific items across all parts of the country. Some places had zero increase and others had 20% so that the reported average is that 10% figure. All I can imagine is that Knoxville is experiencing the high end inflation for some reason. It so happens that on average wages increased by about 4.2% which is about half the increase us fixed income folks experienced. You would think that is an imbalance but those working folks are making as much in a week as us fixed income people get in a month. Thus their 4.2% brings home more dollars than our 8.6%.

You are fortunate to have some stores that cater to the low income population. I guess we have a few here too. I only know of Walmart and Aldi at the lower end of food costs, but even they are not that much cheaper. I've mentioned elsewhere that there are a lot of mobile homes in O'Fallon if you know where to look for them. That means there are a lot of low income and poor people as well. I can't say I know how they are all coping with inflation because I've not run across many comments in the neighborhood newsletter. Maybe I need to get out more.

[Kellemora]

Fresh out of college, my step-son Joshua landed a job paying over 55k a year, and my step-daughter Amy worked her way up in only three years to over 125k per year. During this time, I considered my 25 to 30k a year excellent income, more than I needed to save up money and keep all my bills paid.
I was raised in an era when salaries were around 150 dollars a week, going up to around 250 per week for a few folks.
I turn around and learn that only ten years later, most of the kids joining the workforce were making that amount PER DAY, not per week. So the cost of what I bought had to go up to meet those kinds of salaries. Meant I bought less, and less, and less, as time marched on.

Around here, WalMart is actually one of the higher priced stores to shop at. Not as high as Kroger of course. But most of the mom n pop and smaller local chains are always cheaper than WalMart on most items. They do this by joining Co-Op's to gain buying power like the big guys.

[yogi]

WalMart is notorious for it's predatory marketing. Any competitor nearby is the enemy and Wally World will take a loss just to put those folks out of business. Being the giant merchandiser that they are WalMart can afford to operate at a loss if it gives them a strategic business advantage. I've seen them put at least two grocers, one being Kroger, out of business by undercutting prices of the competition on a consistent basis. Back home in Illinois it was pretty hard to find stores that could sell items at prices lower than the local WalMarts. Typically those mom and pop shops could not compete and they were fairly rare unless they were highly specialized and nobody wanted to sell what they were selling. There probably are co-ops in Illinois, but I doubt that any of them operated near the Chicago suburbs. You are not the first person to tell me about the advantages of co-ops and I'm glad you have something like that available in your area.

McDonals has a huge corporate building (maybe their headquarters) in one of those Chicago suburbs. That place was picketed many times by people who were tying to get their wages raised to $15/hr. Even today in the inflated economy I find it hard to see paying a burger flipper that much money. It took several years but eventually McDonalds capitulated. A lot of other places followed the clown's lead. So, if working the hamburger counter can get you $15/hr, just imagine what a highly trained software programmer can get. I've read of some companies who offer entry level programmers six digit salaries. With that kind of pressure on costs It is amazing that inflation has not been a lot higher for a lot longer.

[Kellemora]

Kroger stores didn't make it well in St. Louis either. They were not as upscale as they thought they were, and they have a LOT of BLOAT in their management and home offices.
Both Schnucks and Dierbergs started with a single store in St. Louis County and grew from those. Schnucks grew first and spread out to a couple of other states. Dierbergs didn't start to grow until the old man died and left a new store to be built, one for each of his kids. While his wife would maintain the central distribution to all stores, which worked out well for them.
Each Dierbergs set their own prices for groceries, and since Ruth and I shopped a few of them, we learned the one closest to us to the west was cheaper than all the rest. And it was cheaper than Schnucks on nearly everything. But the same could not be said for the Dierbergs to our east, which was higher than Schnucks on nearly everything, hi hi.
I drank Pepsi back then, and Dierbergs and Schnucks had it on sale on opposite weeks, The same with Coke products, if Coke was on sale at Schnucks, then Pepsi would be on sale at Dierbergs.

When I first moved down here, we had a Food City, a Food Lion, a Kroger, and a place called Bargain Barn, which operated more like an Aldi store. It turns out that Bargain Barn was the first of the UGO stores, United Grocery Outlet, and now they own several stores around the area. Food City and Food Lion were large stores, but not as nice back then as Kroger, and even Kroger down here is nothing like a Schucks or Dierbergs, not even close.
As Food City and Food Lion moved out of Knox County, UGO took over their stores.

Let me jump back to when it was Bargain Barn for a bit. They existed by buying warehouse overloads and packaging house overruns. So you never knew for sure what Bargain Barn would have in stock, but over time they got it down fairly well pat so you could get what you went in for, but not perhaps the exact brand you were after. At least not until they got established with certain companies who kept them filled up with folks favorite products.
There are like 6 major grocery wholesalers here that supply all the grocery stores, and besides those, we have 2 or 3 fairly new CoOp warehouses who are big enough to buy at the prices the wholesalers buy for, sometimes even less. Especially since the CoOp caused a couple of the large wholesalers to close down.
The CoOp supplies all the UGO stores, GO stores, and most of the smaller mom n pop grocery stores.
And the quality of the foods they carry now are like the products at Kroger and other large chains.
In fact, all the UGO stores opened their own butcher departments with fresh Angus Beef and other things. And they undersell Kroger by 2 bucks a pound and WalMart by a buck a pound.
If a Sirloin Steak is 5.99 a pound at Kroger, it is often 4.99 a pound at WalMart, but it is only 3.99 a pound at UGO. It all comes from the same slaughterhouse and of the same grades, not Old Meat either, all Fresh.
But UGO works more like a Butcher Shop, not like the prepackaged stuff at Kroger and especially not like WalMart. Although they do package meats, it is done in-house by the butchers at each store.

[yogi]

The first year I moved down here I was at a loss buying groceries. Certain items did not exist in this county, and I only had a vague notion why. For example, I like to prepare lamb and veal from time to time simply because they are different. Nobody had any such thing in their meat department. Then one time I asked the butcher at Deirbergs for veal, and he went to the back room to cut some up for me. Encouraged by that I asked for lamb, but they didn't have any. They used to carry it, I was told, but nobody was buying it. So, the next time I shopped Dierbergs, they had lamb chops prepackaged and waiting for me. LOL Apparently I wasn't the only person buying that expensive meat, but also apparent was the fact that it did not sell well and probably was not profitable. A second Dierbergs at the other end of town told me his customers would not even know what veal is so that they never get any. That store is only 5 miles away from the one that did sell it.

I use to favor shopping at Dierbergs even though their prices were higher than the nearby Scvhnucks. Their in house bakery was superior to Schnucks as well. Then, one fine day, my favorite Dierbergs didn't have any veal or lamb on their shelf, and the butcher didn't have any to cut for me on the spot. He said he didn't know when they would get any more. It took a couple months, but both veal and lamb reappeared in the showcase. It was prepacked and branded, and it looked terrible. The price of this low grade meat was outrageous as well. That happened about the same time they stopped selling bulk cookies made in house. Doughnuts were put in their place. The breads, all of them, now had twice the amount of air bubbles, meaning less dough. Obviously they switched to a central distributor instead of baking things in house. They only handle the high margin meat in their butcher shops now and the stuff in their display case comes from god only knows where.

When DIerbergs decided to lower the quality of the food I liked, I sought out a butcher shop about the same distance from home but in a different direction. These guys don't sell lamb either and the veal they do have is frozen but likely from a local farm. Their chickens too I suspect are raised locally because there is nothing like them in any of the other stores in town. And, being a mom and pop shop, the prices are even more outrageous than Dierbergs or Schnucks, but they do have high quality meat, most of which is cut in house. If I could only find a similar bakery I would be in seventh heaven. I must say that Schnucks has the best in house baked rye bread, however. It's not bakery quality but it beats anything in all the Dierbergs stores I've been into.

There was a discount grocery store physically located half way between Schnucks and Dierbergs the first few years I lived here. They had terrible looking meat but everything else, especially their produce was good quality. They claimed to be lower priced than the other guys but I couldn't tell by the price I paid for a cart full of groceries. They had just about everything I wanted, other than the meats, so that I could generally do one stop shopping there. They might have been lower priced than the rest, but they went out of business about the third year I was here. Schnucks took over the stock and the store for less than a year, then shut that place down. I could never understand why they closed down until I realize they were less than a mile away from the WalMart super store. Wally World did it again, right here in O'Fallon.

[Kellemora]

It's about like that here too. No matter where or what brand of bread you bought, it was always high quality, and 90% of it was baked and packaged at Kern's bakery, who did lots of brands sold locally. But after Kern's bakery closed down, most of the breads comes from National bakeries factories, and the closest one to us is in Nashville I think. So they come a long way to deliver bread. Custom bakes breads like we used to use in our restaurant back home, are just not available down here at all.

Brands I was raised on, like Topmost, an AG (Associated Grocers) brand, I've not seen in years. Mom would drive from Ballwin all the way to Kirkwood to get some IGA branded canned goods, but then she just started buying whatever brands Schnucks or Dierbergs had. Mom like Schnucks better than Dierbergs in her area, but when she stayed with me, she was disappointed in Schnucks up there and found the Dierbergs I shopped at normally, to be the one she liked the best. She would sometimes drive all the way to the store near my house, passing at least 4 other Dierbergs to get there too. So apparently the stores don't all carry the same things, especially in meats and other things, like baked goods.

On a sad note. Every time I find something I really like at a store down here, it seems to get discontinued.
It's almost impossible to find anything down here in East Podunk, hi hi.

[yogi]

I never saw an undernourished Irishman so that I had great expectations for the available food in O'Fallon. I will admit that I see more Irish looking people here with ruddy complexion and auburn hair than I ever saw up north, but that's it. Apparently there is no such thing as Irish food. Oh, they have green popcorn in March, but that's just for fun. Also in March I can get some genuine soda bread at the organic food store. But that's it for Irish cuisine. I was hoping to learn a whole new way of cooking but instead it turned out to be plain vanilla. Then again, I can get hog jowls and crayfish pieces at that organic food store. Never saw that kind of thing back home. No, I've not tried to cook any of it. I have no idea what to do with hog jowls and I'm thinking I don't want to find out.

You are absolutely right about the Deirbergs and the Schnucks chains. Each individual store seems to have a lot of freedom regarding prices and what they keep in stock. I think they all get their stock from a central distribution center, but each store can pick and choose what they keep on their shelves. It's particularly noticeable with produce. Schnucks buys low quality fruits and veggies no matter which store of theirs you shop in. Dierbergs is a bit more consistent with the quality, but they don't carry the same variety of fruits. I can get star fruit at Schnucks, but they simply don't handle it at any of the Dierbergs. All the food stores have some Angus beef; some places more of it than others. I don't know from where the local butcher gets his meat, but it's definitely not the same place as Schnucks or Dierbergs. Most of all I miss the ethnic variety of food I was able to get in Illinois. There might be some ethnic shops in St Charles County too, but I've not found them. Well, I haven't bothered to look very hard either. I"m not starving down here in O'Fallon, but I do miss the occasional gourmet meals that I was able to prepare back home.

[Kellemora]

I may be a Kraut, but I don't like hardly any of the foods most Krauts eat, hi hi.
I'm a plain old Steak n Taters type of guy, with no mishighas on anything.
Don't put Garlic in my Spinach or Mashed Potatoes, and no sauces on my Steaks, hi hi.

The two Dierbergs that were close to me in Creve Coeur had half an aisle or more of all Kosher Jewish foods, which was understandable considering the population density of our Hebrew speaking folks.
In Des Peres, Schnucks always had a whole aisle of German foods, so what an area seems to dictate they carry, they do.
Doubtful if you would find any Irish cuisine in the Des Peres Schnucks, hi hi. At least not when I was growing up, hi hi.

Perhaps if you could study the demographics for around your area, you might find a pocket of Irish settlers who would then dictate what the stores around them sold. Heck, my mom used to drive all the way out to Herman, MO a couple of times a year to get some of the foods dad was raised on. Usually around his birthday, and during the German festival season.

[yogi]

I don't have any special cravings for Irish food. I simply don't know what it is and would like to learn more about it. It turns out that Irish cuisine probably is that "plain vanilla" atmosphere I find so dominant in town and in the groceries. I've talked to a few genuine Irish folks and they claim there is no corned beef and cabbage in Ireland. LOL Well, at least it's not a national dish. You can get it if you want it, but it's not typical Irish. I went looking for Canadian bacon in Canada one year, and they laughed at me saying it was an American thing. Canadians don't have a special bacon they call their own. They do have ham, if that's what I want.

It's true that I don't know a lot about the history of this area. Most of what I do know is what you have talked about here - and THAT is most interesting to me. You are correct about there being enclaves of ethnic neighborhoods scattered about. You told me about a genuine jewish deli at one time, and we took a trip to visit. The neighborhood definitely was Kosher and the deli genuine. A mile away, however, was back to Nowheresville. Chicago is said to have the largest Polish population outside of Warsay. Guess who comes in second. I"m told it's St Louis. My friend Google points out that there are quite a few Polish stores in STL proper so that it probably would be a worthwhile endeavor to visit a few of them. I've been out to Herman a couple times, by the way, because that is where the Rock Hill Winery is located. That vineyard has the best German restaurant I've ever been to. But will they sell me some Spätzle? No, I have to go online if I want to buy anything like that.

I used to eat things pretty much the same way you describe your favorite menu. Then I learned how to cook and my diet changed dramatically. I use spices and herbs, and garlic , but sparingly. Certain dishes need the flavoring to make them what they are known for. I never thought much of garlic bread, for example, but then discovered how to prepare it properly. It's amazing stuff with all that seasoning. Now, if I could only find the right kind of bread to spread it on ...