What’s Inflation Got to do With the Price of Mushrooms in Idaho?

Have you seen the cost of canned mushrooms?  I swear it’s double where it was a year ago.  I was looking to buy some mushrooms to blend into homemade spaghetti sauce.  Friends told me after the fact I could probably get a better price on fresh mushrooms.  I’m not sure, and fresh is usually for salads.  In sauce, wet from a can always seems like the logical choice.  A decade ago, I could buy an eight-ounce can of pieces and stems for sometimes under a dollar.  Then there was a slight increase, and then the cost stabilized.

Get our free mobile app

A year ago, I was buying an eight-ounce can at WinCo for $1.39.  Now, the price for the same can is in the ballpark of two dollars.  The same store was selling the four-ounce cans for 69 cents before Bidenflation.  Now those same cans are $1.02.  As you can see from the picture above, that’s a bargain compared to some other shops.

I guess the consolation was a sale on Spam at the very same store, though.  At the regular price, Spam goes for just under four dollars a can.  We’re not talking prime cuts of pork.  I suspect some of the cost per can is because of a shortage in aluminum, which translates into more money for the metal.

Last spring, I was watching a television interview with the chief executive of a grocery store chain.  He warned inflation would be much more obvious in the fall.  He was prescient.  He advised viewers to stock up on dry and canned goods.  I did, and I can get through winter with what I bought before summer.  So what happens?  Some economists argue the worst is yet to come.  The same people who said inflation would be transitory also tell us to ignore the typical measurement for a recession.  The president went on CNN a week ago and said he didn’t expect a recession.  When pressed, he switched direction and said any downturn would be mild.

The man and his political associates need to go.  Will it solve the problem?  Maybe not, but from what I can see, ignoring what’s going on isn’t a solution.