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Target lowers prices on thousands of items, including staples, in 'sign of disinflation'

Good news for people's grocery bills.

Photo by Shabaz Usmani on Unsplash

Target is dropping prices.

It's been a weird few years for theU.S. economy as the COVID-19 pandemic threw the entire system into disarray and recovery from it took some unpredicted turns, for better and for worse. One thing we knew would be coming was inflation, and Americans have felt it at the checkout counter. Price increases on basic food staples as well as restaurant prices across the board have been painful reminders that, despite record unemployment and a booming stock market, everyday life has gotten ridiculously expensive.

But there are some signs things may be taking a positive turn, such as Target's announcement that they will be cutting prices on thousands of items, including household essentials, in the coming months. Here's what shoppers can expect:

Target has already reduced prices on approximately 1,500 items and will continue through the summer to drop thousands more. "Consumers will enjoy savings on everyday items such as milk, meat, bread, soda, fresh fruit and vegetables, snacks, yogurt, peanut butter, coffee, diapers, paper towels, pet food and more. These price reductions will collectively save consumers millions of dollars this summer," the company shared in a press release.

More specifically, a pound of Good & Gather Unsalted Butter that was $3.99 will be $3.79, Good & Gather 5 oz. Organic Baby Spinach will drop from $3.29 to $2.99, and a 20-ounce package of Thomas' Plain Bagels is going from $4.19 to $3.79. Just in time for summer, Aveeno SPF 50 Sunscreen (3 fl oz) will drop from $13.89 to $13.19.

Savvy Target shoppers know how to get the most bang for their buck on a Target trip by using their Target Circle Card, which gives them an additional 5% off purchases, and the company recently reintroduced Target Circle, its free-to-join membership program that applies deals automatically at checkout and features member-exclusive sales throughout the year like Target Circle Week and Target Circle Bonuses—personalized deals to help members earn rewards and get extra savings.

LinkedIn editor Cate Chapman calls Target's price cuts a "sign of disinflation at work"—a hopeful sign, considering Target isn't the only store to announce price drops . Walmart predicted months ago that a "deflationary environment" would mean lower prices on dry groceries and consumables and they were already seeing lower prices on grocery items such as eggs, apples and deli snacks.

People's money should go a little further at the grocery store this summer.

Photo by Arren Mills on Unsplash

Even already-low-priced grocery chain Aldi has announced lower prices on 250 items for the summer of 2024. “We don’t want food prices to hold people back from getting together with friends and family or spending time outdoors this season," Dave Rinaldo, president at Aldi U.S., said in a statement.

And McDonald's, which has seen price increases over 100% over the past decade, announced recently that it is exploring a $5 meal option. It used to be that $5 could easily pay for a full McD's meal, but you can't even get a kids' Happy Meal for that price in 2024.

People have reacted to the news of lower grocery prices with a mix of relief and annoyance at feeling like they were being price gouged. They have a point. In fact, President Biden had taken aim at corporations in November of 2023, saying, “Any corporation that has not brought their prices back down, even as inflation has come down, even as the supply chains have been rebuilt, it’s time to stop the price gouging."

Whatever the reason for the lowered prices, feeling a little ease instead of squeeze at the checkout counter will be a refreshing change from the past few years.

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Wellness

Nurse shares her emotional plea after trying to buy groceries following a 48-hour shift

BBC Yorkshire/Twitter

By now we've all seen reports of empty shelves at grocery stores as a result of people stocking up on food. For some, such stocking has been prudent preparation for hunkering down at home during this pandemic. For others, it's been panic-hoarding of everything they can get their hands on.

Despite public pleas for people to stop clearing out groceries, people keep doing it. And it's hurting those who are on the front line of this crisis—the people who have been so busy making life-saving preparations in hospitals and clinics that they can't "stock up"—our healthcare heroes.

A critical care nurse named Dawn, from the U.K., posted a tearful message online to ask people to stop and think about who may be impacted by their actions.

"So I've just come out of the supermarket," she said. "There's no fruit and veg."

"I had a little cry in there," she continued. She said she'd just come off of a 48-hour shift and wanted to pick up some food to get her through the next 48 hours before she returned to the hospital.

"There's no fruit. There's no vegetables. I don't know how I'm supposed to stay healthy...people are just stripping the shelves of basic foods. You just need to stop it, because it's people like me who are going to be looking after you when you're at your lowest"

Dawn is clearly exhausted and emotional, which is perfectly understandable. Working a 48-hour shift under the best of circumstances is difficult, but as a healthcare worker during a pandemic crisis, it's almost unfathomable. To then be greeted with empty shelves when you go to buy basic groceries? Overwhelming.

— (@)

BBC Yorkshire shared an update that the nurse had been overwhelmed by people's kindness in response to her video and that she now had food and was doing fine. But stockpiling continues to strain stores, putting people on edge. So what can be done?

Aside from governments and public health officials telling people to buy responsibly, many supermarkets are starting to place limits on the number of any one item people are allowed to purchase. Rationing food, which just over a week ago seemed like a wartime remnant of a bygone era, appears to be the wisest course of action right now as we make our way through the uncertain weeks ahead.

If we all shop reasonably—buying a bit more so we don't have to go to the store as often but not hoarding—we can makes sure everyone gets what they need, especially our healthcare warriors on the front line.

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When customers at one San Francisco grocery store went to the checkout one day, they were outraged. The cost of their groceries had increased astronomically.

Look, we've all cringed once or twice while the cashier rings up the fancy yogurt we decided to get last minute because "screw it, I wanna eat fancy yogurt," but this wasn't a few pennies or dollars here and there. This was $25 for a box of spinach and $40 for a loaf of bread and some cigarettes.

GIF via Tipping Point Community/YouTube.

The cost of their groceries had inflated. But why?

It was all part of a social experiment meant to show people what buying groceries is like for people living in poverty.

1 in 10 families in the Bay Area live on $24,300 or less per year, below the poverty line and well below the Bay Area average. The experiment was set up by Tipping Point Community, a poverty relief organization, which set up a register in a Nob Hill grocery store where customers checking out would be given "poverty line prices," or prices that were proportionally representative to living in poverty.

"If eggs cost $6 for someone living on the poverty line, or 1.4% of their weekly salary, the adjusted price would be $29.64 for someone living on the average San Francisco salary," TPC's website explains.

Imagine if your groceries, rent and college supplies were five times as expensive. For the 1 in 10 families living below the poverty line in the Bay Area, this is how it feels. Visit tippingpoint.org to calculate how expensive your basic needs would be if adjusted for #povertylineprices
A photo posted by Tipping Point Community (@tippingpoint) on Nov 17, 2016 at 1:26pm PST

Tipping Point also set up a website where anyone can plug in their annual salary and see what grocery shopping would be like if they lived in poverty.

While those skyrocketed prices were temporarily frustrating for the people trying to buy groceries, the sticker shock they experienced is one millions of Americans face every day.

In 2015, over 43 million people in the United States were living in poverty. That's down 1.2% from 2014 but is still a massive number. Sticker shock doesn't just affect people below the poverty line either. According to the Corporation for Enterprise Development, nearly half of all Americans are one financial shock — a job loss, a medical emergency, etc. — away from poverty. Feeling financial discomfort while you shop for basic needs is something that could happen to any of us.

The income gap between the rich and poor in the United States is ever-widening, and closing it would require landmark financial restructuring, or at least some out-of-the-box thinking.

If you had to pay $30 for cold medicine or $15 for a gallon of milk, you might be outraged like the folks in the video. Most of all though, you'd want to do something about it. You'd want somebody to recognize that it's an unfair burden on you and your family.

You'd want things to change.

Watch people react to poverty line prices here:

What to do with blemished or expired food? This restaurant is selling it.

What are the chefs at Restlos Glücklich serving today? Waste.

Food waste that is.

This Berlin restaurant is giving blemished ingredients a second chance by turning them into exquisite, mouthwatering meals.

Chef Daniel Roick holds a creation made from discarded groceries. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.

Restlos Glücklich (which loosely translates to "completely happy") works closely with an organic grocery store chain to procure its ingredients.

Most of the bread and produce they receive is imperfect and might otherwise languish on the shelf. And incorrect deliveries can result in accidental surplus, so the restaurant puts that to use too.