Yesterday I visited the local LDS Home Storage Center here in Kansas City for the first time in probably a decade, which sounds like I’ve been lazy with my food storage, but we did move away to Seattle for several years during which time we visited the the nearby LDS Home Storage Center in that area on occasion.
It has been long enough, however, since I’d been to a Home Storage Center that things have changed a bit…and for the better. For starters, you no longer have to spend hours canning your own food, since all of it comes pre-packaged in #10 cans, ready to purchase. I believe this is true for all centers throughout the states, though there could be a few outliers.
In addition, they now ONLY accept credit cards, rather than requiring you to pay by check or cash, which has it’s benefits and certainly encourages you to want to spend more. 🙂 I should mention that this may not be universally true, so be sure to call ahead to check.
As usual, the volunteers who work they are super helpful and nice; they’re always a pleasure to meet and talk with. After only a few minutes, they had my order pulled and on carts, ready for me to wheel to my car.
I was curious, however, how much prices may have changed over the years, so I hopped on over the the Wayback Machine and plugged in the relevant URL. Luckily, they had snapshots back three years, so I picked the furthest date I could, July 27, 2019, and waited for the results. [FYI: The pricing sheet on the website stated the prices were effective January, 2019, which isn’t unusual as they don’t change their prices very often.]
And of course, the first thing I did was check those prices as compared to what I paid yesterday. Here’s a breakdown of the in-store pricing from January, 2019 as compared to January, 2022:
At the bottom the table, I average the prices, which comes out to a rise of 23% in total. Excluding the only item that went down in price, apple slices, the hike in pricing rose 25% on average.
Granted, I know this isn’t an ideal way of analyzing the data, since not all foods are used to the same extent (e.g., apple slices will be used a lot less than wheat), but it’s the easiest way to show an overall trend.
You can see for yourself, however, that major foodstuffs, what I would consider the “core” foods because they’re found in nearly everything, like wheat, rice, and sugar are all well over 30%–with sugar being the worst of the bunch at 43%–and I suspect that will only continue as crude oil prices rise. How much worse? I don’t know, but I do believe they won’t come down to any reasonable level, at least not for some time. That’s why I made a trip to my local Home Storage Center, and I encourage you to as well.
Truth be told, a “mere” 23% rise in total average pricing over the past three years, especially given the circumstances, isn’t nearly as bad as I’d feared they would be. That said, the LDS church isn’t in it to make a profit, at least that’s my understanding, so they could be less susceptible to price fluctuations than most. I am interested, however, in seeing what prices are like a year from now. Let’s only hope they haven’t skyrocketed or we’re all in deep trouble.
My advice: Get off your rear end and buy what you need. Now.
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