{"id":653593,"date":"2026-08-17T23:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T23:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=653593"},"modified":"2026-08-17T23:40:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T23:40:00","slug":"record-ground-beef-prices-may-finally-be-breaking-consumer-demand-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=653593","title":{"rendered":"Record Ground Beef Prices May Finally Be Breaking Consumer Demand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden\">Record Ground Beef Prices May Finally Be Breaking Consumer Demand<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>Last week&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/world-cup-hangover-triggers-retail-sales-slump-july-k-shaped-economy-waning\">retail sales report<\/a> provided fresh evidence that the K-shaped economy is buckling, with national average gasoline prices still printing above $4 a gallon and discretionary spending weakening. <strong>Consumer stress is now surfacing in the grocery aisle<\/strong>: <em>as beef prices hover near record highs, Americans are beginning to trade down to cheaper proteins<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-08-16\/skyrocketing-beef-prices-finally-have-americans-reaching-their-spending-limit\">Bloomberg<\/a> cites new data from Chicago-based market research company Circana, showing that <strong>beef sales volumes declined .3% during the 13 weeks through mid-July. Volumes had risen about 5% during the same period in each of the previous two years.<\/strong> The decline is notable because it <strong>occurred during the peak grilling season<\/strong> around Memorial Day and July Fourth.<\/p>\n<p><a data-image-external-href=\"\" data-image-href=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/inline-images\/2026-08-17_08-52-09.png?itok=mdbh51sT\" data-link-option=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/inline-images\/2026-08-17_08-52-09.png?itok=mdbh51sT\"><\/a><\/p>\n<figure role=\"group\" class=\"caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"32951eea-533d-4412-b0b5-dc501b6730eb\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" height=\"159\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/2026-08-17_08-52-09.png?itok=mdbh51sT\" width=\"500\" \/><figcaption><em>Source: Bloomberg<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) show that the national average price of ground beef in the supermarket is hovering just <strong>below $7 per pound, a record high<\/strong>, as a prolonged cattle shortage shows no signs of abating anytime soon.<\/p>\n<p><a data-image-external-href=\"\" data-image-href=\"\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/ground%20beef.png?itok=q-jg4dkH\" data-link-option=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/ground%20beef.png?itok=q-jg4dkH\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"0db30ff3-4d4d-433f-ae91-d339d218355d\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" height=\"308\" width=\"500\" class=\"inline-images image-style-inline-images\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/ground%20beef.png?itok=q-jg4dkH\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration has focused on easing elevated beef prices\u00a0through increased imports, but any meaningful relief will take years. The <strong>US cattle herd remains near its lowest level in more than five decades<\/strong>, while imported animals must be raised for months before entering the food supply.<\/p>\n<p>Bank of America analysts recently cited Oklahoma State University agricultural economist Derrell Peel, who <strong>warned that the US cattle cycle is unlikely to improve anytime soon<\/strong> and that beef prices are poised to remain elevated through at least next year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/food\/when-will-cattle-cycle-turn-bofa-has-answers-beef-lovers\"><em>When Will The Cattle Cycle Turn? BofA Has Answers For Beef Lovers<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We noted in late July that one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/personal-finance\/forget-beef-protein-way-cheaper\">most overlooked affordable proteins is pork<\/a>, which averaged $4.81 per pound in mid-June, compared with $7.95 per pound for ground beef, while pork chops cost roughly one-third as much as beef steak, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-07-24\/pork-struggles-to-gain-ground-even-in-middle-of-protein-craze\">Bloomberg<\/a>, citing NielsenIQ data.<\/p>\n<p><a data-image-external-href=\"\" data-image-href=\"\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/usda_ground_meat_retail_prices_2015_2026.png?itok=u2j3N-so\" data-link-option=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/usda_ground_meat_retail_prices_2015_2026.png?itok=u2j3N-so\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"186606aa-c9f8-41aa-9193-d263991eac16\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" height=\"281\" width=\"500\" class=\"inline-images image-style-inline-images\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/usda_ground_meat_retail_prices_2015_2026.png?itok=u2j3N-so\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>Consumers are stretched<\/strong>,&#8221; Chris DuBois, an executive vice president at data-analytics firm Circana, told Bloomberg. &#8220;It&#8217;s not always just about the price of food, there&#8217;s the price of life that hits, so that puts some of the pressure on total volume in the store.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Last week (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/world-cup-hangover-triggers-retail-sales-slump-july-k-shaped-economy-waning\">view report<\/a>), retail sales in July were a big disappointment, with discretionary categories seeing spending pullbacks. Notably, <strong>lower-income spending held up well, while higher-income spending cooled modestly<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\" xml:lang=\"en\">July retail sales weakness was driven by a plunge in non-discretionary spending by higher income households <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TbbJ6WB81K\">https:\/\/t.co\/TbbJ6WB81K<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dDUdAOGawX\">pic.twitter.com\/dDUdAOGawX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 zerohedge (@zerohedge) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/zerohedge\/status\/2088247791831191626?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 14, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>With that said, <strong>demand destruction levels for beef may finally be hitting<\/strong>, which is a promising sign of early rebalancing. However, consumers will not be thrilled, as they will <strong>have to trade down to cheaper proteins<\/strong> such as chicken and pork.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <span class=\"field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden\"><a title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/users\/tyler-durden\" lang=\"\" class=\"username\" xml:lang=\"\">Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden\">Mon, 08\/17\/2026 &#8211; 19:40<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/2026-08-17_08-52-09.png?itok=mdbh51sT\" title=\"Record Ground Beef Prices May Finally Be Breaking Consumer Demand\" \/><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Record Ground Beef Prices May Finally Be Breaking Consumer Demand Last week&#8217;s retail sales report provided fresh evidence that the K-shaped economy is buckling, with national average gasoline prices still printing above $4 a gallon and discretionary spending weakening. Consumer stress is now surfacing in the grocery aisle: as beef prices hover near record highs,&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=653593\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Record Ground Beef Prices May Finally Be Breaking Consumer Demand<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":653575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-653593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-empowerment","category-national-security","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=653593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/653575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=653593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=653593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=653593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}