How Much Is a Gallon of Milk Near California Colllege of Arts in Oakland Ca
Bay Area charged college prices for milk / Consumers pay 29% more than U.S. average in study
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
Getting milked? Apparently so. A gallon of milk costs 29 percent more in the Bay Area than it does, on average, across the country, a consumer group reports.
And, the largest grocery chains in the region proceed charging the almost, getting most $2 more than than mom-and-pop shops for a gallon of milk.
It adds up to a big beak for a common, and sometimes necessary, buy. "Our survey shows that big grocery supermarkets are gouging consumers and earning huge profits from this of import family unit grocery staple," said Elisa Odabashian, senior policy analyst for Consumers Spousal relationship's Due west Declension office in San Francisco.
In a report released Wednesday, Consumers Union surveyed milk prices in 83 food stores in San Francisco and in Alameda, Marin and San Mateo counties from June fourteen through June 18. Information technology found the average price for a gallon of milk was $iv.71, or 29 pct college than the $iii.66 average price reported past the U. Due south. Department of Agriculture in a survey of 29 major U.Due south. cities exterior California.
Shopper Dora Delpozo, a researcher from Oakland, was asked exterior the Albertson's store at 5727 College Ave. on Wed what she made of the consumer group's study. "Information technology's not good," she said. "Women demand milk. Kids need milk. Anybody needs milk. And it's expensive. I judge it'southward ridiculous."
Consumers Union found that milk can be purchased for as much as $2.20 less per gallon at neighborhood grocery stores and smaller bondage. Odabashian said, "Information technology makes no sense that the large supermarkets charge customers and then much more than for milk than many mom-and-pop stores. The smaller stores pay higher costs per gallon for moving a smaller book of milk, and many of the big supermarket chain retailers are also milk producers, so they should be able to charge less because they cut out the middlemen."
She acknowledged, however, that small stores set milk prices relatively low so customers will be drawn in and purchase that and other goods. Modest grocery market workers said that'due south clearly the practice.
At Mi Ranchito Bayside Market in Berkeley, director Jaime Alejo said a gallon of milk is $three.29, a toll that is stable even while his costs fluctuate. "We don't win a lot on milk, but nosotros want to be competitive with any store. Milk is one of the well-nigh important things in the market, and we keep it at a toll where the customer will keep coming dorsum," he said.
At Market La Raza in San Mateo, Ahmed Ali, an employee, sells Berkeley Farms milk for $three.50 a gallon -- he buys it for $3.09. "I buy cheap, and I sell cheap, just that'south a proficient price for customers," he said.
In one pricing comparison in the Consumers Union report, the consumer grouping said Cala Foods' store on Mission Street in San Francisco charged $4.99 for a gallon of Clover brand whole milk and $4.39 for a gallon of Ralph's brand whole milk, while Casa Maria's California Fruit Market less than a block abroad charged $3.49 for a gallon of Foster Farms.
Cala Foods is a Ralph's store (owned past Kroger), and spokesman Terry O'Neill had an caption: "Our milk prices are competitive against the majority of our competitors." He added that Cala Foods offers a range of milk at unlike prices from different producers. For instance, in San Francisco, Cala Foods was selling Clover brand for $4.99 per gallon; a gallon of Ralphs for $4.39; and in a special, a two-gallon package bargain on Ralphs for $five.99.
At Safeway, spokeswoman Teena Massingill said it, also, offers a depression- priced brand, Dairy Glen, which is sold as a two-gallon package for $five.99. Since the late 1960s, retailers have been prohibited by state law from selling milk for less than their actual cost.
"We sympathize milk is an of import production for families," said Massingill. "We cannot go any lower" in setting a cost for the 2-gallon package, she said.
"We would not argue that you can buy milk a lot cheaper at convenience stores," she said, "only go in and buy common cold medicine or soup or newspaper towels, and y'all will notice the price drastically higher. No 1 is going to do their major shopping at a convenience shop. It is toll-prohibitive."
Merely it was the $5 per gallon, or more, price for specialty brands in the Bay Expanse in particular that caught the attention of Consumers Union -- that and the gap between the price farmers are paid and the retail price consumers pay.
"We think (prices are so high in the Bay Area) because consumers will continue to buy milk at any price, and they practise non shop around for milk, and they are at the supermarket and they only want to get it done, so they are somewhat conceited in the high toll of milk," said Odabashian.
Supply and demand, as well as prices assail the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, drive milk prices, which accept fluctuated wildly recently after being at rock bottom for two years. About 4,000 dairy farms across the state went out of business between January 2000 and March 2004 because of low prices to farmers, said Jim Tillison, the primary executive of the Brotherhood of Western Milk Producers in Sacramento, representing dairy cooperatives who market milk for threescore percent of farmers in California.
Still, i of Consumers Matrimony's arguments is that California is the leading milk-producing state -- annually, 35 billion pounds of milk (the equivalent of iv.i billion gallons, valued at some $4 billion), of the nation's total of 170 billion pounds -- so prices should be more moderate.
The July price to California farmers, set by the country, is $1.58 per gallon, but it volition fall to $1.32 on Aug. 1, said Steve Lyle, a spokesman for the California Department Food and Agriculture. A year agone this month, the price was $1.01, the lowest in a year'due south time, and the record high cost was $one. xc per gallon in June.
Consumers Wedlock complains that as the price to farmers rises, retailers increase the price that much and more than, but when information technology falls they either don't lower the retail cost, or they do so only partially, or they're late, said Odabashian.
At the time of the survey, the subcontract cost for a gallon of milk was $1.90, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture estimated that retailers paid an additional $1 per gallon for processing, distribution and store costs, bringing the total cost to $ii.90 for retailers. The Consumers Union survey showed that Albertson's charged $5.49 per gallon at virtually of its locations for its Berkeley Farms make of whole milk or $2.59 more cost (an 89 per centum profit), while Safeway charged $4.79 for its Lucerne brand of whole milk or $1.89 more than than price (a 65 percent profit).
Cala Foods and Mollie Rock'due south charged $4.99 for a gallon of Clover brand whole milk or $ii.09 more than cost (a 72 percent profit).
Afterwards the cost to farmers savage to $one.58 per gallon on July 1, Consumers Union checked to see if the retail prices fell at the stores it surveyed. The report said prices remained roughly the same past the end of the first calendar week in July, and by July 20, during another spot bank check, the retail prices at major supermarkets had dropped between twenty and fifty cents per gallon.
Consumers Union had this communication to consumers:
-- All brands of milk must encounter minimum nutritional standards set past the country, so spending more for milk volition not buy college quality milk.
-- Consumers concerned nigh milk from cows on which bovine growth hormone has been used should cheque the milk carton for information. Clover, Berkeley Farms and Trader Joe's brands say their milk is not produced with bovine growth hormone.
-- Families should take advantage of the two-gallons-for-less offers at Costco, Foods Co., More For Less, Smart & Final, Safeway, Cala Foods and Albertson's, which are the cheapest per-gallon prices in the survey, equally long equally two gallons are purchased at one time.
Got money?
Average toll per gallon: $3.66 In the U.S.
$four.71 In the Bay Expanse
Milking consumers A comparison of milk prices in June 2004 in selected cities. Prices are for a gallon of milk. Bay Area $four.71 Seattle $four.29 Chicago $three.92 Philadelphia $3.82 Miami $3.74 Houston $3.72 Boston $iii.64 Pittsburgh $3.58 Baltimore $iii.54 Dallas $three.36 Cincinnati $iii.03 Sources: California information from Consumers Spousal relationship's Milk Cost Surveys; other states' data from USDA Relate Graphic
Source: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-charged-higher-prices-for-milk-2704979.php
0 Response to "How Much Is a Gallon of Milk Near California Colllege of Arts in Oakland Ca"
Enregistrer un commentaire