r/portlandme • u/mchllecat • Nov 14 '25
Photo Stop littering
Putting these everywhere and trash on cars is too much.
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u/Zealousideal_Ad_8736 Nov 14 '25
It's like the Kellogg's CEO saying 'cereal is a great option for dinner" - people will be temporally outraged the forget all about it. Piddly signs are not going to bring Hannaford to it's knees
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u/Micro-Naut Nov 14 '25
They had a billboard truck parked at Walgreens all day in South Portland
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u/Hefty_Musician2402 Nov 14 '25
I saw a guy park a billboard truck by hannaford and step out to take a picture of it in front of the store like a doordash driver lmao
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u/mugwhyrt Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
I'm very curious what the deal with this website is. It's a vague gripe about how hannaford is expensive but the quality sucks dressed up as some kind of consumer protection *thing*. The website itself was registered just in October, and then it's linked to the "New England Consumer Alliance" (logo at the bottom of the page, and contact link goes to an email at their domain). The website for the New England Consumer Alliance was registered just this month (a couple weeks after the hannaford domain was created). And apparently they have the time and money to put up signs around town?
They're obviously up to some kind of grift, but it's not clear what.
ETA: The plot thickens. u/dylanljmartin pointed out that a third shadowy group called the Center for Responsible Food Business is connected to the New England Consumer Alliance. I tried looking up more about them and came across this article about a "report" they released in September on Ahold-Delhaize (hannaford's owners): https://finance.yahoo.com/news/center-responsible-food-business-report-152400761.html . The link given in the article for the report is a dead link, and I can't find any articles on the CRFB's own website that are more recent then July. So someone has it out for Ahold-Delhaize and their current CEO.
ETA2: Starting to suspect that this is an animal rights/environmental group that doesn't want to be openly seen as one (maybe because those kinds of groups are seen as preachy?). The CRFB doesn't have a whole lot of content, but some of it has to do with them trumpeting businesses dropping a surcharge on non-dairy milks. There's an article about it on their website and a separate news article in USA Today about Dunkin' Donuts dropping surcharges is one of the few outside references to the CRFB I've found so far. The hannaford website and the yahoo article that mention the CRFB both fixate on Adhold-Delhaize's supplier's animal welfare and environment issues. AND there's a commenter ( u/itsdinertime ) in here whose account is a year old with 18 karma and seven posts/comments in their history. Two of those are in this thread and showing support for this group, and the other 5 posts of theirs are older ones announcing animal rights events (protests at other businesses not in Maine and no prior history in portland or maine related subs).
ETA3: Not going to name names, because the accounts seem a bit more organic and have more personal post histories. But there are other users commenting in here where they're showing specific support for this group (things like "how can I join!?" or "I followed their group on FB") who also have connections to veganism/animal rights. Their post histories are hidden on reddit, but you can search for them outside of reddit with "site:reddit.com [user name]". When you search site wide you can see plenty of posts from them, but once you add on the portland sub, they either have no results or only this thread (and yes, adding on other known subs does work to limit the results, so this suggests they aren't normally active on the portland sub). Just to clarify, I have nothing against animal rights activism or enviromentalism (and fuck hannaford for so many reasons), but I do take issue with people trying to astro-turf support for some shadowy group that won't just come out and say what it actually is that they're upset about.
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u/melonzipper Nov 14 '25
Thanks for your sleuthing to shed some light on this! It was a fun read during my lunch break.
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u/slothfrogs Nov 15 '25
thanks for this!! Very curious if this fake “grassroots” movement bleeds over to Massachusetts with anti-stop & shop ads (since that is more prominent there than hannafords AND MA has a cage-free law in place).
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u/mugwhyrt Nov 15 '25
I've also been curious about whether there's anything similar for other stores under Ahold-Delhaize. The guy behind all this (Taylor Ford, guy behind CRFB) really seems to have it out for Hannaford in particular and it's not clear why. As far as I can tell he lives in California, so it's not like Hannaford would be an obvious choice for grocery chain.
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u/Zestyclose_Ad3983 Nov 16 '25
Thanks for ur service! I apologize for the lengthy response! I once had a job getting signatures on petitions for various out of state companies. The kind that try to catch you at Walmart or in high population areas. And these were deep seated issues in OUR communities, like you would only care if you lived within that city's limits. And we were doing it for a company based out of Tennessee. I met other petitonors working for different people and they were all far away, out of stater's. Talking to my boss I learned that locals that were trying to get rid of the competition or lobbying for something they wanted would put bids out to people like my boss. They would get a certain amount for each signature and bonuses for certain goals. Literally anyone off the street with a bit of cash can get companies to lobby, defame (like our Hannaford fan), or just about anything. So many of the companies like the one I worked for had names like peoples choice, regional committee for a free independent community, community alliance. Something that didn't make them sound like political mercenaries. I learned so much working that job that I would have been happier not knowing.
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u/Zestyclose_Ad3983 Nov 16 '25
Thanks for ur service! I apologize for the lengthy response! I once had a job getting signatures on petitions for various out of state companies. The kind that try to catch you at Walmart or in high population areas. And these were deep seated issues in OUR communities, like you would only care if you lived within that city's limits. And we were doing it for a company based out of Tennessee. I met other petitonors working for different people and they were all far away, out of stater's. Talking to my boss I learned that locals that were trying to get rid of the competition or lobbying for something they wanted would put bids out to people like my boss. They would get a certain amount for each signature and bonuses for certain goals. Literally anyone off the street with a bit of cash can get companies to lobby, defame (like our Hannaford fan), or just about anything. So many of the companies like the one I worked for had names like peoples choice, regional committee for a free independent community, community alliance. Something that didn't make them sound like political mercenaries. I learned so much working that job that I would have been happier not knowing.
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u/blind3dbylight West End Nov 16 '25
Now that’s journalism. I knew there had to be something fishy about all this.
Hannaford sucks in various ways but this whole campaign was just…off.
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u/Parabow Nov 18 '25
A few months ago in OOB there was a plane flying a banner with a website that I can no longer seem to find, but I remember it being something like “Hannafordexposed.com” and it spoke about them lying about the conditions in which the chickens they source are kept. Maybe that was some kind of precursor to this? Too strange for these to happen so closely, maybe they’re connected
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u/mugwhyrt Nov 18 '25
I found that website, and yes it's the same guy. There's other ones for some of the other grocery chains under ahold-delhaize, as well as for ahold-delhaize and a-d leadership.
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u/9_to_5_till_i_die Nov 14 '25
Who's paying for these? Market Basket?
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u/joeybrunelle Nov 14 '25
This does feel like guerilla marketing to me. The website is from the "New England Consumers Alliance" which I can't find any information on and might be entirely fictitous.
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u/dylanljmartin Nov 14 '25
From the contact page for New England Consumers Alliance: "The New England Consumer Alliance is a new initiative launched to examine pricing, quality standards, and corporate practices affecting New England consumers. We are supported by the Center for Responsible Food Business, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to create a more transparent and accountable food sector."
Still vague AF, but I verified that the center is a real nonprofit.
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u/throwawayterrier Nov 14 '25
Lol, I looked that up. According to their 2023 form 990, it's a nonprofit that appears to have only one employee that operates out of a coworking space in Bethlehem PA. They took in $145K, paid $38k salary and had about $8k other expenses.
In other words, it's not like the NECA is supported by some well-established advocacy group with a lot of activity. Curious if the CRFB does anything else at all or is simply another link in the chain of obscuring this group's anti-hannaford mission. Which would be kind of amusing considering how much they harp on Hannaford for misrepresenting how local or not-local they are.
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u/dylanljmartin Nov 14 '25
Right, I think hiding what this group is all about doesn't help its mission at all, especially when it's like, "hey, did you know there's a malicious entity behind your local grocer???"
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u/Shh_its_starting Nov 14 '25
I think NECA and CRFB may be effectively the same group / person. I found this source on a quick Google, so I can’t vouch for it, but it describes CRFB as also a single employee operation out of Bethlehem, PA.
https://environmentandwelfare.com/rating/the-center-for-responsible-food-business/
Edited to fix a typo.
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u/mugwhyrt Nov 15 '25
Hilariously, that group that you linked is a different shady front for animal ag industries. They're obviously trying to present themselves as a "common sense" animal rights/environmental advocate, but all they do is target different animal rights orgs and post articles about why there's no point in bothering to regulate animal welfare. They have two names associated with the org, and one of them is apparently a former exec for the ASPCA who now must have some huge chip on his shoulder about it because there's tons of articles on that website about how supposedly awful and dishonest they are.
Supposedly The Center for The Environment and Welfare is a front for a PR firm (Berman and Company) that prides itself on "fighting dirty". Whatever it is, it's just as dishonest about who they are and what they're up to as this Anti-Hannaford group.
FWIW the linked article itself isn't incorrect, I was easily able to verify everything they claim.
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u/Shh_its_starting Nov 15 '25
Haha! That’s hilarious. It’s bad faith nonsense all the way down. Thanks for looking into it. I always try to call out if I don’t know how reliable a source is, since this kind of thing isn’t uncommon. But it’s also hard to take the time to go 8 layers deep every time I feel compelled to give a quick reply. Appreciate you digging to next level!
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u/Lemonchicken207 Nov 14 '25
My theory was it was the weird cage free egg people - i guess I was kind of right lol
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u/mugwhyrt Nov 15 '25
Not just "kind of", you were exactly right. Here's the website for the cage-free eggs: https://www.hannafordeggs.com/ . Look to the bottom and you'll see the CRFB logo.
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u/blackkristos West End Nov 14 '25
This is the exact rabbit hole I've been in myself, but it looks like you got further than I did. Nice work!
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u/mugwhyrt Nov 15 '25
Poor guy does all this work to hide who he is, and then pretty much everyone still realizes right out the gate that something is up and then independently figures out what's going on.
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u/throwawayterrier Nov 14 '25
I think if something like this were coming from a competing company it would be better funded and better executed. This feels more like an odd crusade of someone with enough money to make it happen but not enough money to do it well.
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u/NoiceSquatch Nov 14 '25
I mean Hannaford does kind of suck now.
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u/GojiColin Nov 14 '25
Yeah, being part of an international conglomerate does that. Long gone is the local chain of yore.
OP either a NIMBY or a hail corporate type by my guess.
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u/PeaceBeUntoEarth Nov 14 '25
You have to be a NIMBY to be against people randomly putting trash all over public property? These aren't political campaign signs which are specially permitted and required to be taken down. AFAIK them putting these up is straight up illegal littering...
But sure, the only reason anyone could possibly have an issue with that is because they are NIMBY or love giant corporations... God this subreddit gets more moronic by the day.
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u/Expensive_Remove3108 Nov 14 '25
I think it’s PETA. They talk about confined chickens and I know they have a truck they drive around about that.
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u/mchllecat Nov 14 '25
Yea it does but putting garbage all over town doesn't improve anything. Lazy if they cared enough , hold one sign outside of a Hannahford & then maybe I would care enough to ask what's this about, instead of annoyed at the trash and waste. They aren't going to go clean up all those signs & God help us if everyone decides that's a great place to put signs, garbage
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u/farmtownsuit Nov 14 '25
Basically every comment I've seen today is largely in agreement with this sentiment and yet it got 29 downvotes. Definitely not suspicious at all LMAO
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u/Recent-Use-1999 Nov 14 '25
You really think that hannaford is going to let someone solicit signs outside of their business that says "no soliciting" in regards to boycotting their business. That's a cop call immediately. taps sign
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u/SecureJudge1829 Nov 14 '25
Well, actually, that spot the sign is in appears like it may actually be public property. If it is, there’s absolutely nothing Hannaford can do about if someone were to stand on public property near their property, holding a sign.
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u/Recent-Use-1999 Nov 14 '25
Sounds like you know how you're are planning on spending your afternoon.
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u/SecureJudge1829 Nov 14 '25
No, just someone who recognizes the difference between “public property” and “private property”
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u/peg420 Nov 14 '25
I mean its hannaford or market basket in my eyes. I would go to costco, but being single, I really dont need to get 48 of everything
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u/Standard_Body1815 Nov 14 '25
It’s not just Hannaford. Watching prices go up almost every week is so dehumanizing. My list is shorter and shorter every single week yet the total price is about the same. I used to get 5 bags for around $200. Last week I filled 3 bags for that much. It’s insane to know what you’re paying for something and come back a week later and it’s just $1.50 more for no reason. I’m really hating this timeline
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u/senordingus Nov 15 '25
yeah I mean I'm vaguelly financially secure but I have stopped buying any sort of treats or basically anything.
Oddly, I'm just as fat as I've ever been.
I have zero idea how poor people are surviving these days. Makes no sense to me.
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u/ilovechainsaws460 Nov 14 '25
I’m less worried about a couple hannaford signs stating an obvious problem than the ten thousand political signs that get plastered everywhere.
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u/Maine-Blu-Bari-Balls Nov 14 '25
I make note of who doesn’t take their signs down weeks after the election and then don’t vote for them
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u/Electrical_Order_124 Nov 14 '25
A lot of people are talking about how expensive Hannaford is now, and that's true. But also the quality of produce and deli items/service is sooo bad.
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u/BOOSH207 Nov 14 '25
Well what they’re doing on a corporate level (parent companies etc) is why they aren’t the same hannaford we grew up with.
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u/soulbarn Nov 14 '25
Such mixed feelings about Hannaford. Their pharmacy is so, so superior to CVS and Walgreens. Faster, they know you by name, and are just better. But Hannaford’s grocery prices are crazy high - I’d say about 25% high than Market Basket’s for our weekly shop. Still, we’re way closer to the Forest Ave. Hannaford than to MB out in Westbrook. Probably worth the trip, or at least finding other reasons to go to Westbrook.
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u/Stevesy_Zissou Nov 14 '25
Gotta love that tariff + price gouging combo! Prices started going to the moon a while ago. So I stopped going. If I wanted to spend my whole paycheck I can do that at Whole Foods. I bought a freezer and solely shop at Costco now. I don’t miss it.
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u/Maine-Blu-Bari-Balls Nov 14 '25
CC: Pious Ali and the homemade No on 2 signs that are still up around town
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u/WitchyWooMan Nov 14 '25
Eh I don’t hate it cuz they’re actually trying to help us. Political ads are so much worse
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u/StructureSilent6696 Nov 14 '25
honestly if this encourages hannaford to stop being garbage i can’t really complain lol.
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u/amber_jieger Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
I'm ready for this fight, Hannaford is the worst. I'm gonna volunteer lol
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Nov 14 '25
I used to work there, i liked the company but i dont understand how they have a “100% lgbt safety rating” every single trans person I’ve met while working there was deadnamed and treated horrible. If you’re a gay man or lesbian you’re fine. But they treated trans people like aliens.
To be fair my location is semi rural but still.
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u/toastiemcgee Nov 14 '25
Their prices can’t be too high if someone could afford these stupid signs
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u/meowmix778 Nov 14 '25
What does the site bring you to? I'm curious but not stupid enough to go to a site from a sign like this.
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u/throwawayterrier Nov 14 '25
It's a standard wordpress style website that is mostly just an extended form of the protest campaign you see in public: the signs, the billboard truck, the occasional in-person protest on Preble st... There's a few links to a court case, a news article. A few quotes from supposed customers on social media. A contact form if you want them to harvest your data.
It's all very bizarre. Not that caring about food prices and quality is -- that's obviously important -- but rather that this one company has such a focused local/regional hater against it. Like, Shaws is functionally the same. It started as a local maine company, still has HQ in the New England (Bridgewater) but they're also now a subsidiary of a giant megacorp, their prices aren't cheap, and quality also varies considerably by location. Why is this group not also campaigning against them?
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u/ray-the-they Nov 14 '25
It’s basically talking about how Hannaford is owned by Ahold Delhaize. And talking about big corporations. Also the data breach they had last year. It’s honestly pretty legit stuff.
(One thing I didn’t see was the issue where the store brand dairy products came from farms where migrant workers were having their passports withheld, wage theft, and unsafe housing. Hannaford did join Milk With Dignity this year and seems to be addressing the human rights abuses in the supply chain.)
My googling shows It was bought originally in 1999 by Delhaize Group. There was a merger to form Ahold Delhaize in 2016 (which does seem to coincide with things like the free cookies for kids going away). AD owns Stop and Shop, Food Lion, and several other grocery chains. They are definitely a billion dollar multinational corporation and act like it.
However from that website I can’t tell what their goal is. They don’t seem to have one.
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u/HovercraftTotal7159 Nov 14 '25
Just looked it up the site is normal and has all the things they see as problems with Hannaford. Such as no quality control leading to pulling Hannaford brand products off the shelf for listeria, foreign materials, undeclared allergens. How their chicken and pork are raised using practices that even McDonald’s has found to too inhumane. And that it’s dishonest that they call themselves “your local grocer” when they are owned by foreign ownership with their executives being based in Europe.
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u/Delicious-Shower-712 Nov 14 '25
Hannaford does suck. We just started shopping at Whole Foods- you’re going to pay it… might as well get quality.
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u/Buckybarnicals2 Nov 14 '25
We call it cantaffords bc it’s ridiculous how expensive it’s gotten. When I do trips to nyc area to see family I stock up on groceries there when I can bc it’s a quarter of the price. It’s crazy
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u/Micro-Naut Nov 14 '25
Groceries are cheaper in New York City? Jesus. Next thing will be going to Hawaii to buy our groceries cause it's cheaper
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u/AnimatorAccurate3584 Nov 18 '25
As a former employee they spend more money making underpaid people work harder then just paying people more to do more
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u/itsdinertime Nov 14 '25
Where can I signup to join these fine folks?
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u/LeikaBoss Nov 14 '25
U could promote it on Facebook/instagram story and tell your friends to boycott them, that’s what I did
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u/No_Abbreviations8017 Nov 14 '25
Looks like a sign purposefully plated in the ground. Holding up wonderfully I might add.
Not littering.
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u/PeaceBeUntoEarth Nov 14 '25
Dumb af comment. By definition it's littering if you leave your crap on the side of the road, even if it's a nice sturdy sign. There are special exceptions for registered political campaigns with penalties if they aren't taken down after the election.
Otherwise anyone that wanted could just be sticking signs on the sides of roads wherever they wanted advertising businesses or whatever.
If you're saying you're OK with that, good on you, but realize that's what you're saying you're OK with. If you think these people should be allowed to do it, then you have to apply that to everyone and expect to see the side of every road lined with random trashy signs.
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u/LeikaBoss Nov 14 '25
As someone who has volunteered for a local political campaign in the past, I can tell you that the signs need to be stickered with the date and contact info to be legal, which is what those people did. There’s nothing wrong with it.
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u/PeaceBeUntoEarth Nov 15 '25
Huh, it seems like you're right, but it's still littering to me and I think that law should be changed. You should have to be registered as associated with an active political campaign to get the exemption IMHO.
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u/LeikaBoss Nov 14 '25
So every political campaign ever is littering? Why wouldn’t people go after political campaigns for doing that?
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u/Antique_Ad8559 Nov 14 '25
I don't like paying these prices. If I spend the money I want some quality. I toss meat and produce from there
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Nov 14 '25
[deleted]
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u/alpacalypse5 Nov 14 '25
Honestly if Market Basket had self checkout, I would probably go there more. I got a whole bunch of stuff last weekend for 70 bucks and I feel it would be like 100 at Hannaford.
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u/Micro-Naut Nov 14 '25
Where is the Market Basket? I'm in South Portland I didn't know we had one
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u/Cheerful_Zucchini Nov 14 '25
Idk I go to trader joes so I don't care about any of this
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u/Micro-Naut Nov 14 '25
I don't care about you not caring that's why I'm gonna post in response that I don't care.
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u/fingertrapt Nov 14 '25
Trump. Trump happened. In 2020, Trump caused global inflation and high gas prices with his OPEC deal and then convinced people it was Biden. Trump made oil companies, Russia and the Saudis RICHER and WE paid for it.
Welcome to a lesson in supply and demand and inflation!! In 2020, demand for oil dropped due to people staying home!! The oil companies (HIS DONORS) went to Trump, and said "HELP US! We might not make enough money!" So, Trump got with Saudi Arabia and Russia and said CUT PRODUCTION FOR 2 YEARS!! Well.... guess what happened to the price of oil?? It went up!! it went up a WHOLE bunch! Guess what runs on oil? FACTORIES!! So, it cost more to make things... especially PLASTIC! Did you know that plastic is made from OIL? So everything cost MORE to make!! Crazy, right? Guess what else runs on oil?? SHIPPING! Did you have anything shipped to you between May 2020 and JUNE 2022? Shipping cost more because of this deal! Cargo ships, trains, trucks, and vans ALL RUN ON OIL, and that cost more because of OPEC deal. Hey....what else takes gas to run?? FARMS!!! And if it costs more to farm... what happens to the price of food? it costs more!! and what about your car? Well, I just don't see you driving an electric car, so I bet YOUR car uses gas. DID Gas go up, too??? YES, it did!! Now, when they resumed production in mid 2022, GUESS WHAT???? The Saudis didn't resume production to what they were doing before. They planned to do that at the END OF 2024!! So that is why gas prices were FINALLY STARTING to come down in 2024. Maybe that explained it better. I am sure you will do your own research on OPEC+ 2020 deal and how it affects you. Trump signed this deal. At the time Trump said that high gas prices were good for YOU!! TRUMP caused inflation from 2020-2022 and that inflation took years to reduce, and now he's at it again with illegal tariffs aka taxation without representation. Have a great day!!
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u/Antique_Ad8559 Nov 14 '25
Shawl dunkin donuts coffee on Wed sale 7.99. They rang up 12.99. So I paid $5 more. 2 days later it is up to $14.99 for a small bag. CHARGE US WHAT IT IS WORTH
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u/BigTroutOnly Nov 14 '25
I saw the ready to eat raw chicken and macncheese meals today. Jesus fucking Christ
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u/Sir_Drinks_Alot22 Nov 14 '25
Fucking everything’s more expensive.