What happened? I went to the store to get milk one week and milk was $3.00 a gallon, and the next week when I went back it was $6.00 for a gallon of milk.
I thought I’d lost my mind so I asked around and some people said it had been rising over the last month or two and not a week like I thought but everyone was in agreement that the price of milk has more than doubled in an extremely short time span.
The price of gas is a natural focal point for everyone and a well known economic barometer, but when a gallon of milk is close to the minimum wage we’ve got problems.
And why? What are the driving economic forces behind the price of milk shooting up to $6.00 a gallon? Fewer cows? Better organized farmers?
Milk is a staple. I haven’t noticed any other food staples with such a disproportionate jump in price. Come to think of it, I haven’t noticed a jump in price like this for any items staples or not.
Where are we going as a nation when it’s cheaper to buy a six pack of beer than it is to buy a gallon of milk?
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price growing is a burden for everyone ~~~
lawtree on March 16th, 2008 at 12:11 am | Link
you should be happy that you are not in china, everything is getting more expensive here!
EmmaLiu on March 17th, 2008 at 7:36 pm | Link
Unintended consequences. Making more and more fuel from food crops reduces the amount of food crops available for cattle. The price of grain has gone way up. Milk is part of that equation.
So, we want to reduce oil consumption, but increase the price of food. Nothing in the Ethanol guidebook says ethanol is CHEAPER or will save us money, just reducing oil dependence.
What are you talking about… have you been under a rock? Eggs are four times as much as they were this time last year… and bread… it costs three bucks a loaf!
Kristen on March 20th, 2008 at 8:42 am | Link
yeah the price of milk absurd. Here in Colorado there are more dairy cows than ever before and higher production so much so that we are exporting milk to Texas but yet not a drop in the price. Yes a well organized dairy coalition keeps prices as high as possible by this type of distribution network. Also as stated above every dairy farmer you talk to will tell you what a struggle they are facing with highly inflated prices of corn. When corn becomes the “black gold” you can grow as a crop where do think it will go? The dairy farmers have to compete with this for their grain to fee their cows. Then the cost of fuel to deliver it to the processing plant has increased the cost of operating the plant due to fuel costs have increased the minimum wage has increased increasing costs throughout the system from milkers to store clerks. so yep the price is up to stay!
msmmark on March 21st, 2008 at 12:03 pm | Link
Where do you live and where do you shop for groceries? This could be the answer to your problem. If your answer is some place like Safeway or Albertsons then that should be the last place you go shopping. Get a membership for Costco. And if you live in the west, shop at Winco - best prices all around. Milk is $2.78 at Winco in Boise, ID on June 8, 2008.
My Two Cents on June 9th, 2008 at 1:44 pm | Link
Don’t knock safeway too much as here it it the best milk in town and the cheapest as well. Its like 5.75 for two gallons.
mark on August 5th, 2008 at 8:10 am | Link
Please tell us where you grocery shop and what state you are in.
I shop at Walmart in Florida and milk is $3.50 - $3.78 and at times was a little over $4.00. Prices seem to go up and down all the time here and it is fustrating because I keep a tight budget.
I used to shop at Winco in California and the last time I shopped there in 2006 milk was $2 something and always under $3.00.
Jules G. on January 13th, 2009 at 7:44 pm | Link
I don’t know where you guys get milk but the Kroger in Cincinnati, OH sell it for $1.98 a gallon.
sometimes they have sales on 1/2 gallons 5 for $4 or something of the sort..