Readers’ Scoop: Food Prices & Proper Labeling

Dear Friend, Does anybody care anymore about food prices going sky high? Do you realize that every little while, the price of food goes up another .20 cents another .50 cents? No of course not, how can you realize it, if there are no price labels on any product and non on the shelves, so you have no idea what you are paying, then you can’t keep track when the price goes up and up, right or wrong?

How come non of the frumer grocery stores label the price on the product or on the shelves?

The only answer I can think of is, 90% of us are on food stamps and the other 10% are rich.

So either way most people don’t care about food prices.

But me the little guy who is not on food stamps and is not rich, has to suffer with the high prices.

Please start keeping track and demand products be labeled! It’s a total outrage that price are not marked, then maybe people will start occupy grocery stores till the prices come down.

You’ll be surprised how much a box of “Jewish” cookies costs these days.

Did you notice a while ago bread was 2.39 then 2.69 now its 2.89

Your friend.

P.S. Did you know after the protests in Eretz Yisroel, Osem products prices dropped around 20%?

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30 COMMENTS

  1. Couldn’t agree more!
    My local grocery always finds the “time” to mark up thier prices but there is never enough “time” to update the prices indicated on thier shelves.
    This is very misleading and dishonest. In NY there is a law that penalizes up to $500 for any incorrectly priced item. It’s time this law makes it to 08701.

  2. I also think that they raised prices because so many are on WIC and Food stamps, I was wondering if they could give a small percentage off orders for those that are not on food stamps, or lower prices on certain items. I come home spending so much money after being careful and it just doesn’t make sense.

  3. Sir, have you followed the price of raw commodities lately? There is good reason for the prices of food going up. The people who manufacture and sell the food that you buy do not have to forgo profit to make you happy. Yes, the prices should be on the shelf but please stop kvetching. No one is ripping you off.

  4. Have u noticed that the price of milk, eggs, bread and other staples are LOWER than they were about two years ago? It is based on the general teens of raw goods pricing. You might be better off without the prices on the shelves. You will probably buy the products anyway and you will save Hatzalah time not having to take u in for sticker shock. Chill.

  5. i totally agree. i am not on food stamps and barely scrimping by. i try to bake cookies because the cookies in the store are too much. but i used to think it was only the jewish stores but shoprite is just as expensive unless they have a sale. Take for example shoprite snackers are only about 20 cents cheaper than the kosher company.

    maybe the lakewood scoop could have a section showing which products are cheaper in which stores and that also may be an incentive for the stores to give deals.

  6. There are two issues here.. cost of food and price labeling…

    1. Cost of food – This is a result of high fuel costs and higher costs of raw materials. The food companies are paying more in gas to ship their products, so they have to pass that cost on. They are also paying record high prices for sugar, wheat and other products, so they have to pass that cost on.

    2. Price labeling. – I agree, many of the Jewish owned stores do not have proper labeling on shelves, although I noticed that the new NPGS on james has 95% accurate shelf labeling, so it is a breeze to shop there. If not, what I once did was ask the manager to let me use one of their hand scanners that they use for inventory, he said yes, and I was able to shop with the scanner is hand and instantly get the price of any product. This is very helpful because depending on the brand you can pay 59 cents for a can of corn, or $1.49, so the savings do add up!

  7. HOW ABOUT IF THE CASHIER WILL HAND YOU A RECEIPT AFTER YOU CHECK OUT? LIKE THIS AT LEAST YOU CAN SEE WHAT YOU WERE CHARGED! I KNOW THAT NPGS GIVES YOU A RECEIPT ALWAYS, BUT I KNOW FOR A FACT OF A CERTAIN GROCERY/SUPERMARKET THAT WON’T GIVE YOU ONE UNLESS YOU ASK FOR IT?!?! (I CAN’T SAY WHAT ALL THE OTHER STORES DO.) MAYBE THE PLACE I’M REFERRING TO IS AFRAID TO OFFER IT TO YOU – JUST IN CASE YOU REALIZE THAT HE KEEPS RAISING HIS PRICES… (YOU WOULDN’T KNOW THAT HE RAISED THEM OTHERWISE, CUZ NOTHING IS MARKED!!)

  8. Don’t Forget that having the price label on the shelf is only a partial solution… The price in the computer has to match the price on the shelf.
    A big problem locally is that even when the prices (or sale items) are properly labeled your receipt doesn’t reflect the proper prices.
    Check your receipts. You will be surprised how many mistakes there are.

  9. just because someone is on food stamps doesn’t mean they don’t care how much their food costs. i have have a family of 6 and we get 531 dollars monthly. you wish that covers even 1/2 of my food expenses (with being frugal and shopping on sales). so stop counting other people’s money! we also care about how much we pay for our food, its what we live on.

  10. #9…u must tell us what city you are from! Is it a couple of hours south of Lakewood? Shopping with the stores hand held scanner??? Omg…I can not take this. Help.

  11. Regarding food pricing, stores work on very small markups, and the price is determined by what the suppliers are charging. You are however correct that the stores should have the shelves correctly labled. Even Shoprite has items not properly priced, however there they will give you one for free if you catch them.

  12. I totally agree about wic! Once I thought I would save money while shopping in a large grocery store by buying the frozen Tropicana, because my local small corner store had it for about a dollar cheaper. Unbelievably, it was MORE expensive than a container of fresh OJ. The reason, I was told, is because its a WIC item (in those days) and since the goverment gets charged for it, they up the price. I have never been on WIC and don’t plan to be on it, but does that mean that I have to be penalized if I want to buy the WIC milk company, the WIC cereal etc. Its time this town realized that not all of us are deadbeats on gov’t programs.

  13. if you shop carefully and only buy what you need and use you should be ok as the price wont make any diffrence realize we are going thru hard economic times and prices will automatically go up only purchase what you need and stay away from luxury purchases as much as you can

  14. I don’t buy too much ready made food. I buy mostly staples, basic foods and I do all my cooking and baking from scratch. I only shop in NPGS and in Shoprite and I stock up when there are sales. I think by being careful I am not spending more than in the past. I also don’t buy take out, ready made salads etc. Anyway high prices mean Moshiach is coming soon, because the nevuah says before Moshiach everything will be expensive, so take it as a good sign.

  15. when my husband or i go shopping we always look at prices
    we are very careful how we spend our money as we are not on food stamps and are not rich. we are average people trying to stretch our money as much as we can.
    one thing i do notice when shopping is some people who have food stamps do not shop wisely. for example: they are at a jewish grocery and clemtines are $8.99 and at shoprite they are $5.99 instead of buying them at the jewish store and paying so much go to shoprite and maximize your food stamp money. people feel that its free money so they just shop. why not let your blank amount of money stretch as far as possible.

  16. I asked an owner of one of the main grocery stores why they cant have a price scanner so i can shop wisely he didnt have any real answer . Every retailers dream is to try and distract customers from the cost of items. This is what I do . Any items that I am buying that are dependant on price (the regulars milk etc are fairly stable so i generally know the price) I put in the child section of the wagon . At checkout I make sure to concentrate on the prices as they are being scanned ( either at the beginning or the end od order) .In this way I am able to realize before i pay the for the item if i can do better elsewhere. Its not by mistake that prices are hard to tell what they are or the fact that stores spend hundreds of thousands to remodel but they cant remember to install a price scanner .Beat them at thier own game

  17. You are 100% right the items should be labeld with the price.
    as far as high prces go, yes commodeties are higher, but does that call for 33 percent [average] mark up on each item?

  18. Has anyone notice the growing gap between halav yisroel products and halav stam? It’s now more than double. Go compare prices of cream cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, etc.
    It’s criminal!

    I say we should pull a tnuva style boycott here in the US and force the manufacturers to lower their prices.

  19. 100% right? the 33% markup goes to cover the expenses of the store, Ex. workers to stock the shelves, lights so you can see what you are buying, electricity so the food does not spoil. just to name three costs of the grocery store.

  20. Many comodities have gone up to bring the prices up. Most stories and wholesalers work on a min. markup in the Jewish market and many stories have costomers who have bills as long as NY to Florida-WHAT DO YOU EXPECT??

  21. The two issues are interconnected. If people knew how much they were paying, there would be real competition on prices. The real price of manufacture would be reflected in the retail price of the object. However, now that we have no idea how much we are paying for food, they have no incentive to lower prices.

  22. Here’s the intro to the NJ law.
    “These regulations implement the Unit Price Disclosure Act, P.L.1975, c.242 (N.J.S.A. 56:8-25) and provide for the disclosure of information necessary to enable consumers to compare easily and effectively the retail prices of certain consumer commodities regardless of package size or quantity.”

    N.J. Admin. Code 13:45A-14.1

  23. Please explain why a lowfat cholov yisroel yogurt on average is 1.09 in a heimishe store .yet in a regular non jewish store the average yogurt with an ou is 37 Cents. If this is not geneiva then whaat is?

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