Price of Store Brand Butter

[LeeB]

Just bought scratch and layer pellets yesterday. Scratch was $25/100 and pellets was 28.80/100. For sure the commercial operator gets a better price because of volume but it still adds up. Add in the middleman's costs and eggs ain't a cheap food any more.

[thecfarm]

Good deal on grain!!
When I left the hardware/grain store layer was a little over $20 for a 50# bag.

[newoodguy78]

 

 

 
This isn't store brand. However it's a good indication of what small time producers and vendors have to charge to make a profit. I know the mark up on these products and it's on the low side of most retail operations. 
Products and prices like these certainly aren't for everyone. The number of people willing to pay these prices put a value on knowing where their food comes from. I've seen a rising number of people from all walks of life and income levels being drawn to these products knowing and trusting the source of their food. 

[Paul_H]

This milk and other dairy products are produced on a small independent family farm near us and there are two more a bit farther away. The milk is not quite double the price of regular store bought milk but is creamy and we know where it comes from and where they live. It really came to light for us when the highways to the coast were cut off over a year ago and milk and other supplies were under pressure, dairies were dumping milk into the manure pits and yet people couldn't buy milk or cream because the farmers could lose their livelihood if caught. Since then we support more local small independent family owned farms and enterprises so they can grow and be there in hard times and good.

It's nice to open a new bottle and pour a bottle into a glass and have a dollop of cream drop out.
They make great cheeses too.

[SwampDonkey]

I think it is great to be able to do that, all for it. The trouble is our milk production here is tightly controlled. The only dairy farm we had on this road is gone now. But, you and I could not go there and buy milk. It's not that the farmer had anything against it, he in fact tried to sell direct to local customers. The government stepped in and would have no part of it and put an end to it a number of years ago. You can't buy milk or cream at any farmer's market around here either. Back a few years ago there was a local dairy who set up his own processing, that part of the operation lasted about 10 years. Everything here now had been acquired by conglomerates in Quebec. The 100 plus year old brands that began before regulations are just names held by outsiders. The local dairy here that sold out, said their milk was shipped to Quebec by then.


The monthly newsletter of Dairy Farmers of New Brunswick.

https://www.nbmilk.org/downloads/milk-matters/January%20Milk%20Matters%20ENG.pdf

[SwampDonkey]

Big bucks there for 1/2 a lb. I know it's not cheap to produce, I have no illusions about it. But I can't pay them prices. When do I get a raise? :D

[Paul_H]

ABOUT US | grassrootdairies

These people are still independent, thank goodness for stubborn Dutchmen

[sawguy21]

There were two large dairies not far from here that were eventually bought up by a large conglomerate then shut down. Most milk is now trucked to a huge operation near Vancouver for processing  and distribution, the major retailers don't deal with the small local plants. No wonder our costs are so high! As Paul mentioned we were cut off from the coast for a time, dairy products and other foodstuffs were in very short supply. I just wish my pension would go up accordingly. >:(

[SwampDonkey]

Yes, you guys out there have all them mountain ranges to drive through and some highways following rivers with steep mountains beside. A road can be blocked in most any bad weather event. Even worst would be blocked from either end, then it would get a bit more squirrelly.

[Ianab]

Ironically it's the large dairy factories that are keeping the prices down (hard to believe I know). 

Paul's local dairy shows that, they are MORE expensive, but are still operating by supplying a superior or "niche" product. It's the same as your craft beers, the small local operations don't have a hope of competing on price with the industrial scale breweries. They have to look for the niche markets. Cheese is exactly the same, the small produces can't hope to compete selling 2 lb blocks of cheddar in the supermarket. But some specialist feta / mozzarella /  smoked etc, then they are competing against the expensive imported stuff and the higher prices make it viable. 

[Magicman]

Which is what us guys with portable sawmills do every day.  A commercial sawmill can saw in two minutes what it takes me all day to saw.  It's a niche market.  I am not in competition with them and neither are they in competition with me.

[Southside]

Yup - and the quality of both products reveals itself accordingly.  You get what you pay for.   Store milk these days really isn't milk anymore.  Modern pasteurization is done using a continuous process known as HTST, High Temperature Short Time, method.  The milk is headed to 211F for a 1/2 second, before being further processed, vitamins added, butter fat added back in, etc.  The issue is that at 195F milk proteins fracture.  You need to heat milk to above that temperature to make quality yogurt and the fractured protein is essential so the culture has more surface area to bond to and react the milk.  Well the same fractured protein product is now put into a bottle for people to drink.  Our bodies rightfully don't see it as yogurt, and they don't recognize it as milk any longer, for some of us that means our bodies violently reject it - lactose intolerance.  We have many lactose intolerant customers who get our milk weekly, had a new one begin just last week, and they can all drink our milk just fine.  

Cheap, modern, food isn't worth the savings.   

[21incher]

We find it's not just butter and eggs that have doubled in price lately. Or maybe it's just that the dollar is shrinking.  Costco had no eggs last week brown or white so we saved a lot of money to put towards the $10 box of cereal that was $4 a couple months ago.

[SwampDonkey]

Funny about cereal, a lot here comes from England. Been buying the same brand for 5 or 6 years, the price is always fluctuating, but I buy on sales at $5.00 a 500 g box on sales. And another one is usually around $6.50 for 680 grams. And I also get steel cut Quaker oats, which are cheap. Store brand is cheaper, but inferior to. :D I always add more stuff to oat cereal, including chashews, dates or Turkish figs and a mix of seeds and dried fruit that is labelled for salad topping, no salt. Saltless cashews are $10 more than ones with salt. How can less ingredients cost more? Just another gimmick to push salted processed crap. The food processors are masters at their game.  One clue the prices are manipulated is when the store put a freeze on prices of it's brand products. How come it doesn't have the same pricing pressures? :D