in the past six months. The prices on any kind of beef are through the roof, even at Costco. I live in SoCal where it's usually easier to find fresh produce, but 1.49 for ONE undersized red pepper or 1.97 for a scrawny English cucumber at Trader Joe's? .89 EACH for naval oranges at Wal Mart, which is usually reliably cheaper. I make more meatless meals now, which is fine, but still...

Can't afford to eat out often at all, there are no more bargain meals out there, the prices are so high that it's better and ultimately healthier to just eat at home. I don't mind simple food with simple ingredients, but it's the story behind all of it that's alarming to me.

I too am in So.Cal. I don't know how a supermarket thinks it's ok to display a full supply of lettuce that is brown and obviously rotten. Not one or two heads but the full supply of 15-25 and charging over $2.25. The oranges have a discoloration as though they were dyed. I recently read an article about oranges being soaked in a solution that makes them "look" ripe. Coffee is 45% higher than before tariffs. Pork if 150% higher. Beef, forget about it, I don't drive a Bentley. Butter/cheese +15%.

Best of luck to you in your shopping, do you have a Sprouts or a Frazier Farms nearby? They both run decent sales on produce.

Foodstuffs are, of course, susceptible to price gouging because of oligopolies at various stages and because of the inherent rather inelastic demand of food at large. Everyone has to buy something to eat.

I do not think there is an artificial price fixing which will be relieved just before the midterms as you have posited. Public sentiment (i.e. anger at incumbents for the state of everything economic) doesn't change rapidly enough for that to be a viable plan. It would take more than a handful of less painful grocery trips to change how people have been feeling for well over a year at that point.

Why I even considered my theory is due to the drastic and rapid increase I'm seeing, almost purposeful instead of reactionary. Following the tariffs I did notice an increase but not as substantial as my most recent trips.

The first change I noticed was the lack of customers like during the Covid shutdown and then the price changes.

and others overstocked inventory before the tariffs took effect to avoid them---
now as they run out of the cheaper inventory and have to pay tariffs,
the prices will rise. I've read something to the effect that a lot of prices
would now be rising which hadn't yet, for this reason.

Fresh Road Kill and Dumpster Diving.

Not gonna starve.