Holy Moo Juice, Batman!
@RichardMeister (5328)
Otis Orchards, Washington
April 19, 2017 2:56pm CST
On the fifth of this month I was in Costco and bought two gallons (7.25 Liter) of milk. (Costco only sells two gallons at a time.) The price for those two gallons was $3.96. Today I was in Costco and bought two more gallons. This time it cost $5.19. A jump of 61.5 cents a gallon (or $1.23 for both gallons) in a mere two weeks! I would say that deserves a “Holy moo juice, Batman!”
What happened? Did a bunch of cows die causing the price to take such a jump in that short of time? I don’t know. I had heard the cost of milk was going down due to more people buying soy, almond, and the like, milk. It was supposed to be causing a glut which was driving the price down.
The normal theory is when there is huge supply and low demand the price goes down; when there is low supply and high demand the price goes up. Maybe the alternative milk drinkers decided they like pain old milk to their highfalutin milk creating a demand for good old plan milk. Or maybe the price for the alternative milk skyrocketed causing more people to buy regular milk. Or maybe the farmers got together and decided they were not going to sell their milk at a low price.
Whatever the cause, that is a huge jump in price.
2 people like this
2 responses
@much2say (55574)
• Los Angeles, California
21 Apr 17
Ohhhh, I should make a Costco run tomorrow just to see what the prices are here (I usually get milk from Trader Joe's and didn't notice a price increase - yet). That is quite a jump! I haven't read up on it in detail, but I have seen articles saying other countries are not liking the "Buy American" motto . . . and I don't know if has anything to do with it but Canada has dropped their milk prices - and American dairy farmers can't stay competitive. The dairy industry here is apparently suffering now as many companies are/will no longer being contracted to export their milk. Something like that.
1 person likes this
@much2say (55574)
• Los Angeles, California
23 Apr 17
@RichardMeister For sure there is a big excess of milk right now, but I don't know what's going to happen with milk production from here on out. I just read that Wisconsin alone has more cows than all of Canada! I didn't have a chance to get to Costco, but at Trader Joe's it seems the milk prices has not gone up, or at least not that much. I renewed our membership at the beginning of the year, so at least we'll be good for the year. Ugh, the price of everything is going up.
1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
23 Apr 17
@much2say Maybe it just hasn't hit California yet. Or since it was selling so cheap at Costco their supplier may have raised the price. I think Costco's milk here comes from a big dairy outfit called Wilcox Farms. They sell a lot of dairy products that comes from Wilcox Farms. I'll have to check other stores but my brother told me he has been buying milk for $2.49 a gallon from other stores for a long time now. Maybe Costco is just bringing their price for milk up to what everyone else is selling it for. But Costco prides itself in selling products at a lower price than most stores. I'm a bit curious what milk costs per gallon down there.
Yes, prices are going up but I bet your hubby's wages are not or if they are not as much as everything else is.
1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
21 Apr 17
A friend of mine told me Canada quit buying milk from the U.S. I would think not exporting the milk would cause a bigger glut causing prices to drop to get rid of the excess milk. Or maybe the farmers are doing what they did several years ago to cause the price to go up. They poured their milk out on the ground creating a low supply of milk. All I can say is I had to look at the price twice to make sure I was looking at the milk price and not a price for something else. Oh, buy the way, Costco Membership is going up in June. My membership renews at the end of June and a woman at Costco told me if I go into the store before June 1, and pay for my membership I won't have to pay the increase. It's going up $5 ($60) for primary and $10 ($120) for executive.
1 person likes this
@atoz1to10 (6780)
• Australia
20 Apr 17
Maybe it's to do with the dollars going up/down?
Or maybe the first price was the introductory price to let buyers know of the new product and now it is back to the real price?
1 person likes this
@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
20 Apr 17
I think "no" on both counts.
If it were dollars going up/down everything in the store would have changed. It's not a new product because I've been buying the same milk for at least the last 2 years.
1 person likes this
