Anarchism

Complete anecdotal evidence : I’m vegan, and here in France almost none of what I eat has gone up in price much at all.

I don’t buy any fake meats, I just buy rice / legumes / vegetables / fruit and cook them. I tend to add a lot of spicy sauce, which also hasn’t changed much in price (but it was expensive to begin with).

I guess check the price of vegan whole foods ? I dont know if this is applicable to any other country, let alone any other supermarket 😆

You forgot the others with the same problem.

For most food there are agricultural cooperatives (Community-Supported Agriculture, CSA). They have several benefits, but one is a relatively steady and plentiful supply of local, seasonal food. It's best to share surplusses with friends or local foodsharing networks (online, public fridges) and to become knowledgeable in food conservation.

For foods and products better produced non-locally (transport costs are just a small part of product life cycles (Life-Cycle Assessment)), there is the group buying strategy, where folks gather to buy at reduced costs (be careful not to reinvent the supermarket from scratch though).

Not exactly sure how this is related to Anarchism, but an anarchist answer would be: shoplifting ;)

Of course buying in bulk and sharing with others can also help to some extend.

Not exactly sure if I understand it right, but I do have some habits connected to price gouged goods. I always try to shop in a way that the price I pay for an item is as close as possible to the price to manufacture it (get good deals basically).

For new clothing I only shop at outlets where I can get good quality from name brands for a 50%-90% discount. Shopping “behind the season” helps a lot. I usually buy warm clothes in the spring and summer clothes in the fall/winter when they try to clear out surplus, or just buy last year’s models. A few weeks ago I bought 70 euro shirts for 10 euros because they were from last year.

For food I buy stuff in bulk when I can, but I also go for sell by date discounts. Close to me there is a shop that always orders a huge inventory of premium groceries that they can never move in time. So once or twice a week I walk in and check whats on sale and what is likely to be on sale soon. That’s how I end up eating the occasional lobster dinner or go on a premium chocolate binge for pennies. A few times I ran into some discounts where the item was sold at a loss.

So yeah, just look for good deals and try to reduce the profit margin of the company selling it as much as you possible. Then, take all the money you saved and support local businesses.

Tbh I think that simply considering each purchase in light of your circumstances is likely more useful than generic advice & you already seem to be doing that.

Suppose I'd be a bit wary of assuming that that local sellers really do rely on local producers paying local wages. Many are fine & I've no problem with any of these pulling minor illusions to keep going (in many cases might encourage it!), but there's acres of opportunity for the extra-exploitative uber-gouger in this part of the market.

Seems to me that groups to grow food, mend stuff, make things, share tools, exchange knowledge etc. are more likely to be useful resources when you do need guidance on specific types of purchase wherever you live than us randomers.