Whack commodities pricing

[Frank Lee]

Farmers are dumping milk down the drain because consumer demand has dried up, allegedly because of closed bars and restaurants.

I'd buy milk if it cost a reasonable amount for what is mostly a jug of water. It's cheaper to buy nearly four gallons of gas than it is to buy one gallon of milk. Looks like they'd rather write the loss off than get real with the pricing.

COVFEFE shut down a MAJOR hog processing facility so I read pork prices are tumbling. Looked at buying a package of bacon and that hasn't dropped a cent. No sale. Gonna be tough to shove those pigs down a drain.

Reminds me several things that I, a price-point purchaser, have 100% dropped over the years: Orange juice, chocolate milk, potato chips, Top the Tator, Oreos, Velveeta, peanuts… I used to buy the hell outta that stuff before the prices DOUBLED.

[redpoint5]

Why would shutting down processing reduce the price?

I have a theory that we're in for increasingly worse economic news, unemployment will skyrocket, and jobs will be slow to return. People will default on car payments and either sell them or they will get repossessed. Used car prices should plummet, so I'll be looking to buy. As a tangent, one report forecasts EV sales to be down 45% this year. I wonder what that will do to the used market?

[Frank Lee]

This spells out the bacon bits more than I'd been aware of:

https://www.seattletimes.com/busines...-are-plunging/

[Ecky]

I wouldn't know. I stocked up for 12+ months (aside from fresh vegetables) at the first sign of trouble.

Don't drink milk or eat meat either. Starting a big vegetable garden, not because I expect to be able to grow everything I eat (not even close) but mostly just for fun, something useful to do while the world is on fire.

[Frank Lee]

When I was a youngster we had dairy goats on the farm; I alone drank more than a gallon of milk EVERY DAY. It's been months since I last bought some, and for many years now it's been pretty rare that I buy any at all except once in a while when I get on a cereal kick.

[redpoint5]

I stopped eating breakfast (cereal) but milk consumption hasn't dropped. My family of 4 goes through 2 gallons of whole per week.

In high school I'd start my morning with a quart of chocolate milk.

I've attempted and failed twice to drink a gallon of milk in an hour. I can drink the first 3/4 of a gallon in 10 minutes, and can't choke down the last 1/4 in the remaining 50. First time I attempted this I learned to warm the milk first, because putting 8lbs of 38 degree fluid into your body can make you hypothermic.

If I were to try again, I'd warm to room temperature, slam the first 1/4 immediately, then wait until 15 minutes are left on the clock to slam the remainder. Probably would still fail.

Milk seems to be in shorter supply in these parts, and the price has gone up a bit.

[Vman455]

In the last 2 years--since going back to school--I've become a morning coffee drinker. At the same time, I've gone from a cereal person to not, so now the only time I drink milk is in my coffee or with baked good desserts. A gallon usually goes bad before I can drink it all.

I think the milk market has slowed down around here (perhaps a consequence of 30,000+ students not coming back after Spring Break); the local grocery store had it for $0.99/gallon last week. Checked the expiration date: literally the next day.

[ksa8907]

Considering the slowdown plus the houses and cars left after the owners fall victim to covid. I would expect used car prices lower as has been said, also slow demand for new. Should we expect a cash for clunkers V2.0?

[serialk11r]

A thought: Is making cheese capital intensive? It would help reduce storage cost by a lot I think, if you throw away the whey. Cheese is supposed to be bad for the environment, since you're letting bacteria consume all the sugar in the milk which is a decent portion of the energy, but dumping the milk entirely is worse.

I really wish I had a car right now, going for a drive would be nice and gasoline is practically free.

[Xist]

When I earned my second Bachelor's I ate a box of Kashi GoLean every other day and went through milk pretty quickly. However, people always acted like I was bizarre for letting it sit for a while before eating.

The bark and twigs were still pretty hard.

However, I regularly have problems with my teeth, and I decided to switch to oatmeal with peanut butter and milk.

I used to go through a 42oz tub of that in 10 days, but I do not eat like I used to.

I usually do not finish a jug of milk. Sometimes I just want half a gallon, but 128oz is cheaper.

Maybe they have excess inventory.

When TPGate happened I couldn't find milk, plain oatmeal, or cereal. Who would have thought that there would be that much demand for rolled oats?!

Did you guys see the pictures of shopping carts full of milk jugs? What were they thinking?!

It was a week before I could find any and it was at Family Dollar.

I shared it on Facebook because people were freaking out trying to find it. I rarely pay more than a dollar or two, but I did not have any idea when I would see it again.

It sold out quickly.

Cheese is definitely an interesting idea. It lasts much longer!

Or ultra-pasteurize it.

It is crazy that just a short time ago milk was in ridiculous demand and now they are dumping it.