Peter Brooks5 said:Well... I wouldn't say prices in the EU and here are the same... especially not for food.
I shop for food in Italy quite often. Some things are similar to what we have, but most items there are cheaper by up to 50%.
What I want to know is why food is so cheap in Italy while it's painfully expensive here?!🤷
With their salaries, it's no wonder they're always vacationing in America, while Americans can never afford to go anywhere with our wages.🙄
Look, the answer is staring us right in the face, and honestly, it’s pretty damn obvious. This whole country is being run by special interest lobbies. The biggest player? It's the retail lobby, and Ivica Todorić is basically the king of that mountain. He’s sitting there pulling all the strings, raking in government subsidies like it's his job—because it is! He’s got his own people planted deep inside the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce. They aren't there by accident; they're there to make sure those handouts keep flowing straight into his pockets. It's a total setup, 101%.
Look, I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t gamble, and I definitely don't bet on anything. But coffee? Coffee is my one true vice. Honestly, it’s probably the only thing I'm actually an expert in. I’ve got a high-end Century espresso machine sitting right in my kitchen at home, and I usually stock up on Starbucks beans. If you want to understand the absolute mess that is our retail landscape right now, just look at the coffee market—it’s the perfect example.
In America, you see Starbucks products everywhere, especially in big spots like Target and massive Walmarts. If you head over to a Metro, you can grab their whole bean coffee—they usually carry about three different varieties—and the prices per pound range from $1.29 up to... $53And then you’ve got Walmart just tacking that on top like it's nothing! Seriously! $6.75 They’re just hiking their own margins, plain and simple. That’s why you see prices jumping all over the place, anywhere from $149 up to... $60That’s the number one issue right there—it’s absolutely massive. $6.75 Can you believe these margins on just one kilo of coffee?! It’s absolute robbery. I did some digging to see how much Walmart was actually ripping people off before this—check out the numbers below!
Metro is supposed to be this massive international retail chain with the same big bosses everywhere, but we’ve been dealt a bad hand here in America. Our market got completely swallowed up by Canadian interests, so the local Metros actually fall under some shady Canadian management that calls all the shots. Because of that, the shelves are constantly packed with low-quality junk specifically imported for Canadians, Poles, or us—basically just whatever they consider "Eastern Bloc" grade stuff. It's frustrating as hell.
Honestly, you look at one of those Metro stores in a place like Austin, and it’s basically run by Austrians. It’s constantly packed with nothing but Austrian, German, and other Western imports. Half the time, you walk in and feel like you’ve stepped into a completely different shop altogether, rather than a store that’s supposedly part of the same corporate family.
Ugh, I have to go back to Starbucks: over at the Austrian Metro—wait, let's call it the local Target—they aren't just stocking three types of Starbucks, they actually have nine different kinds on the shelves. That’s basically their entire lineup! The prices are sitting somewhere between $7.50 and about $11.50. It's honestly ridiculous. $29 Look, let’s talk about the price of coffee beans per kilo. When you factor in—and unfortunately, this is only a temporary thing—the ability to opt out of that 7% sales tax on food products in Austria, the price for a kilo of the EXACT same coffee you'd find at an American Walmart or Metro drops down to somewhere between $51 and... $27It’s simple math, really—I buy three pounds of coffee and the whole trip from Washington, D.C. to Graz pays for itself before I even hit the highway!
Look, it’s simple math. Both the American Metro and the one over in Austria are buying their Starbucks beans from the exact same supplier in Italy. This means there isn't some massive gap in what they pay upfront to get the product. Sure, you might have tiny differences due to EU tax stuff or customs, but we’re talking peanuts. Then you look at the Sales Tax. In Austria, food tax is sitting at 7%, while here in the States, we're dealing with a much higher rate. Once you factor in that huge gap—nearly 18% right there—plus whatever small duties exist, the logic is pretty obvious. If the starting costs are basically the same, the price difference here should be at least 20% to 40% higher than what you'd pay in Austria. It just makes sense!
Look, when you crunch the numbers, the retail price gap is insane. We’re talking a massive 227% markup on the cheap stuff and over 203% on the premium blends. Basically, that arrogant Canadian guy just fleeced everyone buying the expensive coffee, while Ivica Todorić made sure his profits were locked in tight. It makes you want to scream. Honestly, it leaves us with nothing but a few burning questions—questions that pretty much explain exactly why American shoppers are struggling so hard to make ends meet.
Where does the greed end? Seriously, where is the limit to this absolute arrogance? You see companies out here in America just ripping people off, selling garbage to the public with zero consequences, hiding behind their legal loopholes and "following the rules" while they bleed everyone dry. It’s blatant. They are stripping Americans of their hard-earned money without a shred of decency, empathy, or basic human morality. It makes my blood boil!
Where the hell are the laws meant to protect the average citizen? We need regulations that cap profit margins! Look at banking—there are actual legal limits on how much they can charge you in interest. Why isn't there anything like that for everything else? It’s a joke.Look, you can go ahead and ask yourselves this: we’re pretty sure both of those Metro locations are pulling in solid profits. They’ve definitely baked a decent margin into the price per pound of that coffee. I mean, come on—you think an Austrian businessman is out there selling goods at a loss or just giving away premium coffee for free? Not a chance!
Seriously, how long are we going to be slaves to the bottomless greed of these arrogant, self-serving corporate thugs (like that Canadian guy acting in America like he wouldn't dare back home, or those bankers...)?
Corrupt politicians peddle nothing but hollow fairy tales, always playing one side—their own side—to justify their moves. They basically give a free pass to these massive corporations to act completely unhinged and reckless under the guise of "free market competition," all while blaming the European Union for dictating terms!
The whole "the EU is forcing us" excuse is total garbage. In the countries supposedly "forcing" these rules, they actually have order, real interests, and protections for their people. They don't let anyone talk nonsense to them. Meanwhile, our "capable" politicians run to Brussels for permission before they even think about changing a single law (that’s "independence and democracy" the American way, right?)...
It’s a lie, at least in the sense that they could stop this mess themselves if they wanted to. But why would they? It suits them perfectly. They’re getting fat envelopes under the table to dismantle their own country and sell it off without following any laws (which explains why the leadership doesn't give a damn about referendums, public opinion, or constitutional lawsuits).
American politicians were paid to turn this country into a banana republic ruled by foreigners. These political elites—who, according to EU MEP Farage, took 310 million euros in bribes to make sure America entered the EU without any resistance—will just pack up and live somewhere else with their families. Meanwhile, the average American will be left as a slave and a pauper in their own damn land.
No one in Europe would say a word if the Government actually stepped up. If they set maximum profit margins, enforced quality controls, and set up an agency to dictate which goods are even allowed to be imported (just like almost every other country does!), we wouldn't be in this mess. Instead, the American market is flooded with rotten meat, toxic toys, expired goods, and suspicious, untested junk...
we’re part of the EU, so we get to be the world's dumping ground for a few greedy vultures collecting kickbacks to keep America a landfill.And the stuff that *is* decent? The arrogant bastards hit you with 200% markups, bleeding people dry. I know from experience that my job and salary, worth about $850, would pay $3,000 in Austria for the exact same work. That’s roughly 3.5 times more than what we get here.
At the same time, many items of much higher quality cost way less over there. For instance, 800 grams of top-tier, fragrant pâté in Graz is $6.00, whereas here 400 grams costs us $25; high-end deli meats are cheap there, maybe $8 a pound $4.75, but here they’re $18, and that’s "on sale"... and so on. Start with that coffee from the beginning of this post, which is 200% cheaper there... take that 200% discount, add the 350% higher salary, and then ask yourselves—if it hasn't clicked yet—where exactly is "America"? Sure, the ratios shift sometimes, but for anyone making less than I do, the gap is even more soul-crushing...
Canadians might have lower incomes than us (which lets politicians brag about our "standard of living"), but they won't tell you that the same deli meat is three times cheaper there (high-class ham like Gavrilovic costs about $14 a pound there $13, compared to $35 here $50). When you look at the big picture, Canadian purchasing power is actually much higher than ours. Maybe that's because they don't have guys like Ivica Todorić living there, extorting the entire agricultural sector or running the Ministry of Agriculture or Trade... Todorić is just my go-to example since he’s the most obvious conductor of this orchestra, followed by all the other retailers. That’s why the people stay poor...
Everything American is being destroyed—especially our farming—just to line the pockets of the trade-political elites through import kickbacks... Once the country is left empty because it’s no longer profitable to grow anything, they'll sell it off cheap to foreigners "because it serves us no purpose anyway, and the EU says fertile land shouldn't go to waste"... (I can already see some limp-wristed Prime Minister trying to explain it to us).
Look, this is just a tiny glimpse into why Americans—despite all the supposed wealth—are still struggling to put food on the table. Why are we importing everything from bees and eggs to rotten meat that’s been sitting in a freezer for two years, not to mention grain, milk, and god knows what else? Does this list ever end??
Go ahead, pick between the Democrats or the Republicans again. It’s the exact same story, just different colors and different names (not to mention their little coalition satellites who were busy carving up thick European Union commissions before the last big vote). Then, feel free to be certain that the end is near—and I mean a total, bankrupting, starving, weeping disaster kind of end. Because as long as the government refuses to put America first, refusing to compromise on anything unless it benefits their own interests over the nation, we aren't going to survive. We won't even make it. We'll just spend more and more time arguing about why things are getting so bad, and they keep getting worse...