The Grocery Problem Is Getting HORRIBLE — And Americans Are Very Concerned

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]Grocery prices are getting worse. They just got worse. According to Homestead uh Journey and these clips, man, you're going to see how people are really stressing over groceries. Why is it not going down? But good slightly silver lining here. Gas in my area has dropped almost 20 cent uh at most gas stations.

[00:00:22]I don't know how for how long, but let's go ahead and see what the grocery prices are looking like around the United States. Nobody should be able to anything.

[00:00:29]>> 50 bucks. No joke, dude. We wanted roast for Memorial Day. So, I got a roast, one onion, two cans of potatoes, two cans of carrots, and one can of corn. $47.

[00:00:43]>> Damn.

[00:00:44]$47 for five cans of vegetables, a roast, and one onion. How are we going to survive this? And you can come on my contact and say, "Oh, well, that's actually a decent price. Whatever, dude.

[00:00:54]No way. I got six things at the grocery store. didn't even fill up two bags. And the roast, >> look at this crap. Look at the size of this roast. It's uh 1.8 lbs. $35.

[00:01:10]>> Oh, >> we're not surviving this. Until those people in Washington start getting new neck ties, we're cooked.

[00:01:15]>> We just spent $279 at Walmart. I'll prove it to you. $279.

[00:01:23]That's what we got.

[00:01:26]I grew up in a time when these things were 10 in a pack for a dollar. I want you to look at this. This is ridiculous, man.

[00:01:34]Four in a pack for $125. That's ridiculous. Where have we went wrong, y'all?

[00:01:39]>> All I got right at Walmart this morning.

[00:01:42]This is all I got. I tried to eat a little bit better. This is not even an expensive coffee. The Wagu burgers is like eight bucks for the burgers. But look at this right here. This is $48.

[00:01:52]48 bucks. That's it right here. $48 for this right here.

[00:01:58]Think about this for a second. This is just for one person. $48.

[00:02:03]That's it. Just a few items. Try to hit clean, but it comes at a cost.

[00:02:08]>> Apparently, recession warnings come.

[00:02:09]>> If you don't know, man, look, man.

[00:02:11]Eating healthy that organic stuff and trying to eat clean is way more expensive than eating just regular food.

[00:02:17]Like I don't know why it it's more expensive to want to eat better to feel better. Like that should be opposite really >> with your Costco membership because Costco just said something we should all be concerned about on a recent call. As one of the largest retailers in the world, Costco has an innate advantage to see trends happening in real time.

[00:02:36]Costco CFO has said on a call that they're seeing people shift away from more expensive proteins to cheaper ones.

[00:02:41]What does that look like at Costco?

[00:02:43]People are moving away from beef to chicken, chicken to can tuna. When Costco sees these trends, they acknowledge that consumers are under tremendous financial pressure. Previous times they saw these trends, 1999 to 2000 and 2008 to 2010. Costco understands that when wallets get squeezed, people don't stop eating. They just calculate every single meal. And honestly, it says a lot about America's largest retailer when they can track Americans economic anxiety through the meat section. But when people debate whether or not we're in a recession, ordinary people say, "I don't know what the charts say, but I'm switching from steak to canned soup." Yo, Costco is ridiculous.

[00:03:20]>> 40 bucks, bro. They used to be 30. Damn.

[00:03:23]So, >> I'm walking around Costco here and I'm noticing these prices. For example, these madress lentils, $15.99. I bought those a year ago for $6.99.

[00:03:30]Let's look at what else we got going on here.

[00:03:36]Dang. This is the flower we were buying for $5.99.

[00:03:45]Damn, we >> literally bought this chicken broth 5.69 two months ago and I keep getting told that we got, you know, 6 7% inflation.

[00:03:51]You got to be kidding me.

[00:03:52]>> Walmart is wild, folks. It's wild. So, we don't really have a Walmart near my house in, you know, outside of Philadelphia. So, it's just not convenient. So, it's just not somewhere that I shop. Um, traveling down to Virginia to take supplies to my in-laws, um, who are elderly, um, and and homebound with healthcare workers that come in and help them. So, you know, I stopped at Aldi and got some supplies there, groceries, etc. And then Walmart, I'm in Charles Town, Virginia, or maybe I'm West Virginia. I don't know where I am. Um, and the Walmart is it's just bonkers. It's bonkers. So, um, I got everything I needed. I still spent combined $320 for not nearly as much as I should have gotten for $320. Um, and I'll tell you what, like the the selfch checkckout didn't work. Sitting there struggling. Um, the gentleman there was about my age. And I have to tell you, as nice as the day is long, um, and he's just like, "Oh, they don't want to fix the machines, but they don't want to pay us." He's like, you know, "They're too busy being billionaires." No words were sure spoken, folks. No words were true or spoken. Peace. Walmart strikes again.

[00:04:48]So, this is some Angus premium Joyce beef lendal. Um, 1.45 ounces. So, one pound45 ounces. And this was purchased at the Blue Springs Walmart um in Missouri. And as you can see, 1.45. It's still packaged. I literally just picked this up about an hour and a half ago.

[00:05:05]Um, here is my scale.

[00:05:07]I'm going to zero it out. Okay, so zero.

[00:05:10]It's on weight. You can see that's on weight. All right, let's stick this on here. It's at 1.09.

[00:05:17]So, if you can see 1.45, 1.09. And that's even in the packaging. So, imagine what the meat may be taking off a couple, you know, little half ounces or something. I don't know. Um, with the packaging, I'm not taking it out of the packaging because I do plan on returning it. Um, but 1.45 and it comes up to 1.09. 09. So that is >> Man, that stuff, man. They are literally stealing people's money. God damn.

[00:05:40]>> Definitely um being overcharged for that meat. So you can see it's back to zero.

[00:05:45]So now we have some chicken. So let's go ahead if I can get this out of here.

[00:05:49]Let's weigh this chicken. Um so you can see this chicken. Um I did weigh this one last week and it was under as well.

[00:05:56]So I kind of hung on to it. I've been meaning to return it. Um but here you go. You see 2.67. Um here's my scale at zero. So, we're going to place that on there. And you can see that it is 2.10.

[00:06:07]So, that is definitely under as well.

[00:06:09]Um, 2.67 2.10. So, um, 2.11. Sorry, I have my beef under there. Um, so 2.11.

[00:06:16]Um, 08. And here you go. 2.67. So, this one as well is definitely under. Um, so it looks like Walmart. Here you go.

[00:06:22]There's the Walmart symbol there. Um, definitely is overcharging for its meat.

[00:06:27]>> Wow.

[00:06:28]>> Walmart strike.

[00:06:30]>> Wow. Walmart. Somebody has a bad scale.

[00:06:34]I don't know. Y'all just messing over people. What are y'all charging for water weight at this point, man? Like, this does not make any sense. Two different types of protein, two different types of kind of packaging.

[00:06:45]You can say it's too different. That it's too different. We're going to say two different. And the it wasn't off by like a couple grams. That it was off by a considerable amount. Like, what happened here? You get what I'm saying?

[00:06:57]If there's anybody that you know is a butcher or can explain maybe a difference, a shift in weight over a period of time. Is it because of water weight? Is it because you know um maybe it was frozen then it was defrosted?

[00:07:09]Like what what happens to cause just a small shift in weight >> again? So this is some Angus premium choice beef London broil. Um 1.45 oz. So one pound >> Hershey bar. In what world does a Hershey kingsize bar fit in a ziplockc bag long ways and basically up and down?

[00:07:27]I got so many requests to do cereal.

[00:07:28]This is the only unopened box cereal I have right now. It's the Aldi version of Lucky Charms. And it is supposed to have eight servings in this box. And each serving is supposed to be one and a half cups. It does say that one and a half cups should be 40 g. Eight servings times 1.5 cups is 12 cups. So we're going to say there's actually 12 cups of marshmallows and stars in this box.

[00:07:45]You don't. Okay, hold on. I lost one marshmallow. Let me go get it. Oh, I'm not going to let any not get measured.

[00:07:50]Don't worry. Move the cereal into my bag. I got my one cup measuring cup. I know everybody says it looks big. First of all, I have tiny hands. This is a regular one cup. I've checked it.

[00:07:59]One cup. I didn't even one cup.

[00:08:03]Two cups. Again, not three cups.

[00:08:09]Four cups.

[00:08:12]Five cups.

[00:08:15]Six cups.

[00:08:18]Seven cups. That's not seven.

[00:08:23]Eight cups.

[00:08:32]I got to sweep it off the table. Oh, you can't even see what I just did. Okay, bag is empty. There's a little bit on the table. We're going to get it off.

[00:08:44]Okay, so less than nine cups of cereal in the bag and it supposed to have 12 cups. I am curious to see because it says the serving is 1 and a2 cups and that's 40 gram. So I want to see how much cereal is actually 40 g. Okay. So we can see the scale. We're going to see how much cereal ends up at 40 g.

[00:09:03]Let's try one cup.

[00:09:06]So one cup is 40 g. So why are they saying one and a2 cups? This clearly says serving size one and 1/2 cups. So why is only one cup 40 g?

[00:09:16]Ma'am, um, you just showed the box. That was kind of weird. You just showed the box saying there was eight servings in a container.

[00:09:25]You just said there was eight You just said there was a little over eight.

[00:09:28]Look, look at this. About eight servings per container. That's about right. So maybe, are we missing a point? Like I'm sitting here looking at you trying to weigh these things out, but you said there was little over less than nine servings in that bag. It clearly says about eight servings on this cold container. The the cereal box is right >> cups.

[00:09:51]>> I don't know.

[00:09:51]>> So, why is only one cup 40 g?

[00:09:59]>> Oh, that's terrible.

[00:10:01]>> I just got back from and I've been seeing the girl all over my time like macaroni and cheese.

[00:10:06]I'm not going to lie, getting a bag of chips with nothing but air in it is probably my pet peeve cuz chips, I love chips, especially when I'm driving on the road. But man, bro, it just feels like, man, chips are getting so expensive now.

[00:10:19]Some thinly sliced fried potatoes, man.

[00:10:22]And I'm not going to lie, getting a bag of chips where you open it and it's gone before you know it just breaks my heart.

[00:10:28]>> Products in her house and showing us about shrinkflation and showing us that we are not getting necessarily what we are paying for. And one of the things that she measured was the chicken fries from Aldi. And I just bought some a brand new unopened bag. And we're going to open it. We're going to count them and we're going to see how many we get.

[00:10:44]Now, it says, >> see if you can see it. Seven servings per container. And it says there are about eight servings in the bag. So, THAT SHOULD BE 56 CHICKEN FRIES in this bag.

[00:10:53]>> We'll see.

[00:10:56]>> Okay. So, like I said, um this is a brand new bag. It has not been opened.

[00:11:03]And it says about seven about seven servings per container. Serving size, eight chicken fries. So that should be 56 chicken fries in this bag. Got my bowl >> about >> and I'm going to open it and count them out.

[00:11:18]Two 24 It is not looking good.

[00:11:25]26 41 I need I mean a 42 and the rest is JUST so we got 42 in this bag and we were supposed to get around 56. So yeah, >> you know the one thing about chicken man what I noticed is that man you you know you want to think by the piece as a consumer you want to think by the piece but most of these people package these things by the weight right so the weight doesn't always equate to the piece and that happens the confusion uh the conversion gets people all the time they might say hey this bag of fries that chicken fries that she got she they only wanted to sell her 2 lb or three lbs right so in those three pounds, she was supposed to get roughly 56 ounces. But if it if it's truly three pounds, that's how much three pounds of chicken fingers uh is. That's how many portions or how many sticks you got out of it. Now, if the bag says yes, you will get exactly 60 pieces. Then you have more of a a fuss. But most of this is bag by weight when they when they when they are putting this together in the factory.

[00:12:45]>> They're shorting us big time. Like what?

[00:12:50]Yeah.

[00:12:54]So yeah, they're shorting us big time.

[00:12:56]So yeah, Aldi, I'm need you to holl at me cuz what's what's good? Also, just to make sure I'm not tripping, I'mma count them again while I put them back in this bag cuz I do need to put them back in this bag um to go in the freezer. Two.

[00:13:14]And I even counted this little nub as 42. Yes.

[00:13:18]Aldi. Audi Audi, what's up?

[00:13:24]>> Something I don't hear enough people talk about with shrinkflation is the fact that all these recipes are being affected. Like, you know how a recipe says like, "Oh, one can of sweetened condensed milk or one can of cream of mushroom soup." I'm using a recipe now that specifies to use one can of cream and mushroom soup, that's 10.75 ounces.

[00:13:37]Well, now the standard can is only 10.5 ounces.

[00:13:41]I mean, truly, I doubt my recipe is going to be affected that much, but I mean, it's it's going to keep happening.

[00:13:44]It's gonna keep shrinking and then all these older recipes are just going to become useless just or wrong because all the ingredients are wrong. Maybe it's not a big deal at all and I'm kind of overreacting, but like someone please be annoyed with me, please.

[00:13:55]>> I spent $100 and it's just me and my husband. I'm like, how are people affording to pay for kids and their family? Oh my god.

[00:14:00]>> I spent $100 in just this. This is not a law for $100. It's so crazy how everything's just so expensive now. Oh my god. And I don't even have kids yet.

[00:14:08]>> This is how crazy grocery store prices >> you at Sam's >> for making a casserole. I made a chicken and broccoli casserole tonight to bring over to my sisters. It fed me, my sister, brother-in-law, my niece, my nephew. There was a little bit of leftovers that I left with them for lunch the next day. But this is like a chicken and broccoli casserole. This is kind of a staple in the Midwest. It's not typically an expensive thing. It's like a cheap way to fill out, you know, to feed a bunch of people. I went to my local grocery store, so this wasn't a Walmart. And my local grocery store is more expensive than something else. But this isn't like a a fancy grocery store.

[00:14:34]Like this is the local grocery store that many of us go to because it's right there, right? It's local home. Um, $33 to make a single casserole, $20 for two pounds of chicken, $8 for two bags of frozen broccoli. I was astounded by the broccoli prices, by the way. Um, and it's not like it would have been cheaper to get fresh broccoli. It would have been more expensive to get fresh broccoli. 350 because it was on sale for a block of cheddar cheese that I grated.

[00:14:55]Uh, the soup was uh that goes into it, two cans of soup. They were two for $3.

[00:14:59]I got the generic brand. And I already had the stove top chicken uh stuff at home, which is good because if I got it from there, it would have been an additional $7 to come to $40 for a freaking casserole. Like, I was shocked.

[00:15:10]I mean, granted, is this significantly cheaper than if we had purchased a meal for all of us? Yes. Could I make much cheaper meals? Of course. But to spend that amount of money on a single casserole because everything besides the two for $3 soup was like, "H, sorry.

[00:15:23]What is that? How much is that? Are you freaking kidding me on that?" Yeah.

[00:15:27]Absolutely insane.

[00:15:28]>> No, it's done now. The gas is going up.

[00:15:31]And not just the gas, the box of tomatoes. What?

[00:15:34]>> Damn. Box of tomatoes is >> $75.98.

[00:15:38]>> 98.

[00:15:39]>> Listen, this box of tomato about two months ago was $19.99.

[00:15:43]Then 29. Now look at it now.

[00:15:45]>> Wow.

[00:15:46]>> How do people afford to live? I am leaving Costco with six items. $165 for six things. I mean, salmon's one of them, but my heart goes out to all you moms and dads who are raising families and trying to feed your kids. I don't have any college educations to pay for.

[00:16:00]Six items, $165. How our families making it and surviving in this day and age?

[00:16:04]Holy cow.

[00:16:06]>> This is why I can't shop at Publix anymore. Two for $11 for shredded cheese. Are you kidding me?

[00:16:12]>> That's like the worst shredded cheese.

[00:16:14]>> $1.98 for the roast. This is why I can't shop at Publix anymore. $4.69 for Publix of rice. So, I'm an American who has been living in Cork, Ireland for a little over four months now. And I'm honestly just sitting here in so much gratitude and like I want to cry. Um, I'm just so thankful, honestly, to be here and I'm just so thankful to have this experience. Um, but what is bringing this about is I just went to the grocery store and first I walked um why I'm getting teeyed, but I walked to the grocery store, which just feels amazing to be able to walk places. Um, it it's really not set up like that in the US, but I I walked to the grocery store. I got to peruse the aisles by myself and I ended up getting about two big bags full of bits and bobs as the Irish say of um a few things that I needed and I go to check out and I just, you know, she tells me how much it is and I just sit there and I'm just like, "Oh my gosh, I would have spent double that probably in the States on what I got." And so I want to show you just the small things just the small things that I got. And then I'm going to tell you how much I paid for it because I just that would have it just wouldn't have happened where we used to live. And we did come from North Carolina in the States if I'm new to you and you don't know who I am. Um but yeah, I I'm going to show you. And again, I'm just so I'm just in so much gratitude. I'm so thankful to be able to buy fresh food and it be so inexpensive. So here, let me show you everything I got. Okay, first we got some milk. I got some dried mango. I am obsessed with dried mango.

[00:17:37]Um I got these little wraps. uh some pads because I'm a woman. Um another wrap, a block of cheese that I will be grating. Um then I got some nexarines. I got some Irish strawberries, which everyone has been talking about the Irish strawberries, the Wexford strawberries. I don't know if these are the Wexford. I know that they sell those on the side of the road, which we haven't gotten yet, but uh these are so good. Uh some black beans, a can of these beans, um some yogurt. I don't know if I said that already. Some yogurt for my kids. Uh some ground beef or they call it beef mints here. Um some what are these called? some like gummies, some little gummies for my kids that they love. Some bananas, some carrots, some baby bell cheeses, two zucchinis, some mushrooms, some spinach, um Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, these, uh I I don't really eat these, but my kids do like some hot we call them hot dogs in the States. Um some bell peppers, uh some raspberries, a whole bag of sweet potatoes, and then a humongous and it's filled like it's filled to here, which is crazy. Like in the States, it would have been like filled to here, but it's filled all the way up to here. Like all this is like that's how full it is of pitted dates.

[00:18:37]And and of course I get all of this. I go up and I check out and all of this all of this was only $47.

[00:18:47]47. I'm not even sure what that is.

[00:18:50]Dollars. Um let me go check. Hold on.

[00:18:52]Okay. So 47 is $5527.

[00:18:59]I I would have this would have easily been over $100 in the states >> probably. in North Carolina. Um, I really am. I just >> Man, look, uh, that was your video, guys. Man, just more things, more uh proof that things are shrinking, food is costing more, the packaging is shrinking, just more to you. Like, how much can a lot of people take, man? What are we going to be doing next? What are we going to be doing next? Let me know where you're watching from. Uh, what did when's the last time you went to a grocery store and how much did you spend? Like when's the last time you went? Like I think I went to grab a few things. I think I wound up spending like $55 and that was just to uh put some things together for the kids' lunch for day camp. And that still felt like a lot cuz it wasn't even much. You get what I'm saying? So, what did y'all uh spend on your last grocery trip? Where you watching from? Don't forget to like the video, comment, and subscribe. I'll see you on the next one.