Amazon Fresh just became the latest big-box retailer to cut costs on thousands of items, following in the footsteps of Walmart and Target in reversing course on years of inflation-induced price hikes
About two years too late for me to accept apologies on post pandemic price gouging, already cancelled prime and use local groceries over corpo stores. In general they have better quality of selection and prices most of the time, plus it encourages me to explore more variety of small groceries from other cultures, farmers markets, etc.
Similar with fast food if you want to charge me 16 bucks for a meal I'm going to an actual restaurant instead
Big-box stores lowering prices wasn’t an altruistic move to throw customers a bone during tough times. Retailers have suffered from weak sales due to customers’ struggle with high prices. Target reported a 3.1% drop in net sales from a year ago and a 3.7% quarterly dip in comparable sales, marking its fourth consecutive quarter of declines. Though Walmart has continued to soar, it owes much of its 6% revenue growth to its e-commerce successes and wealthy customer base, the latter of which makes up a growing chunk of its audience.
This trend has continued in fast food, with McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King all announcing meal deals following earnings reports that suggest customers are losing their taste for high-priced fast food, including $18 Big Mac meals and threats of surge pricing.
Anyone noticed a pricing difference with "local" grocers? Obviously there aren't many left and at least in my area they rely on a regional distributor that's pretty consolidated. Just curious if they've been treating consumers any better.
It's basic economics. As prices rise sales drop, you just need to adjust to find the point of maximum profit. Since market information isn't perfectly known you'll occasionally see overshoots like this.
Funnily enough I haven't really used a big retailer in ages. I might hit Walmart on very niche items, though only if I'm not aware of a local alternative. Same for Amazon: Go on there, look for stuff, check who makes a thing, go to that website or spend a minute and scroll through Etsy. Amazon: The worldwide product distributor info marketplace.