While making a smallish grocery run today I snatched up a can of Juanita’s Mexican Style Hominy, which I like to have in the pantry in case I find myself in a mood for a pot of posole, prepared in lazy gabacho fashion.
But it didn’t look quite right. … and it wasn’t.
These suckers used to be 30 ounces. Now they’re 25. Last March 15, a can cost $2.99. Today, it cost $3.79. For 5 ounces less hominy.
Hmmm. Whatever could’ve happened? Wait for it. …
From foodnewswire.com, dated May 2, 2025
Apex Capital, a private equity firm focused on investing in the consumer sector across the Americas, is pleased to announce the acquisition of a majority stake in Juanita’s Foods, a leading producer of authentic Mexican food products in the United States.
Maybe this is why Juanita’s has been tough to find lately. For the last pot of posole I made I used canned white hominy from Goya Foods, whose CEO is a big fan of the pinche pendejo Charlie Pierce calls “El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago.” The boss-fella’s breath may have a whiff of ass to it — ¿quien sabe? — but it was a 29-ounce can and it only cost $3.69.
In any event, while I can’t say for sure exactly when it happened, it sure seems like these capitalistas carroñeros from Apex Capital have done slipped the pork to my posole via shrinkflation.
Mad Blog Media 
Vulture capitalism strikes again.
O, indeed. I’ll have to start doing my hominy the hard way, seems like.
Lots of things in the ol’ feed bag cost a good deal more now than they did last March. This wasn’t a typical grocery run; I’ll do a more extensive breakdown sometime soon. Two more items: I love me some Boulder Canyon Kettle Style Potato Chips (Classic Sea Salt/Avocado Oil). They cost $5.99 last March and $6.79 today. And a 12-ounce packet of roasted cashews is up a buck.
I can totally picture vulture capitalist types talking to their quants and thinking there are inefficiencies in groceries that they can hack. Make the bags heavier so you can put fewer potato chips in it. Add those bottom of the wine bottle dimples to canned veggies so it looks taller but contains less. Maybe add some water and hydrogenated pork rinds to the 2%, they’ll never know the difference.
And sawdust. Can’t go wrong adding sawdust to just about anything. Bonus: It’s organic!
Holy hominy Dogman ! You spend a lot on those tasty pantry vittles. I’d give up store bought chips if I had to pay over 5 bucks. Fortunately we have a chip making facility a few hillsides over and so I pick up the local stuff for a reasonable amount. I haven’t chased the hominy down in a while but I’ll have to see what’s available. I like hominy and we ate a good bit when I was a kid growing up.
Convenience is costly. Still, it can be worth it to be able to slap something together out of (mostly) nonperishables if you’re feeling lazy, strapped for time, or the power is out and you’re working with the Coleman two-burner.
My fallback rescue meal is the humble quesadilla. Not the one-corn-tortilla, fried-in-a-pan variety, but a deal that uses two flour tortillas and between them whatever peppers, cheese, leftover protein, and salsa you happen to have on hand. Baked in the oven for 10 minutes at 350°. Bing, bang, boom, and dinner is over, with minimal cleanup.
Your posole ain’t the only thing the private equity funds be porking.
O, to be sure. Them dudes is promiscuous. I bleeve they’d pornicate a buzzworm if someone held it by the ears.
PS: Went to see some friends playing at a local venue. Passing a gas station, I noticed unleaded was $4.19 a gallon.
Mmm, hmmm, goooooood. Remember those Fabulous Seventies? The prices, the long lines at gas stations … nothing like a 12-mpg roll down Memory Lane in the old Escalade EXT, hey?
I can donate to every tree-hugging non-prof that shows me their palms, and it will never make up for driving a dozen 15 mpg vehicles over the years, including
Plymouth Fury III
Olds 442 Cutlass
Ford Country Squire wagon
Pontiac Vista Cruiser
At least those could haul the entire varsity soccer team, if those in the back turned sideways and made their buddies smile. I’ll never understand why our Audi 100 5-cylinder got sub-20 mpg. My guess is that fifth cylinder was moving horizontally while the rest were going up and down
Y’know, I’ve never owned a real gas hog. Unless you count that accursed, bare-bones 1996 F-150 I bought just before we moved to CrustyTucky. Great John God, what a miserable piece of shit that thing was. Had to have been built on a Monday or a Friday. Everything that could go wrong with it did.
It ate thermostats like a fat kid popping M&Ms, and when it did (usually during a road trip) I’d be lucky to get 17 mph on the highway. Driving downhill. In Irish Overdrive. With a tailwind.
That was the rig of which an exasperated and befuddled dealership mechanic once said: “Mr. O’Grady, you don’t need a mechanic — you need an exorcist.”
The ‘73 Fury had rusted fuel tank brackets and a hole in the tank, so if you put more than 5 gallons in, it leaked gas and threw sparks. (Learned that the hard way.) Electrical issues that prevented me from driving in the rain. If it sat for more than four hours, needed ether to start it.
It was my $300 stop-gap vehicle for a six month stay at Fort Lost in the Woods, Misery, knowing I was Seoul-bound afterwards and would not need a vehicle.
Sold it to a buddy for $1 when I left, and he immediately entered it in a demolition derby.
There’s a short story in that one, bejaysis. It’s our strength, don’t ye know. …
Well, the story begins with me test-driving a ‘64 Volkswagen bug, which burst into flames the second I pulled back into its parking space at the used car lot.
Gotta love me a German engineer, but putting the battery box underneath the backseats that seemed like a good idea.
I could probably get 5000 words out of that.
I know your pain, First week here wen to smith’s and found a #10 can of Hominy. A pound of cubed pork,some onion and cumin. Voila one day posole. I will be making a run to Colorado soon. Will get a few packages of dried Posole courtesy of Alamosa, CO.
I know it is a pain to rehydrate overnight but with Then Corrales Garden market, I have a nice supply of green chiles. Nothing like home cooking. Carumba, what a selection of tortillas. The local markets have all sorts and they are good.. Gas todayn $3.89 per gallon. up $1.00 in 2 weeks idiot OBS.
I’ll bet you can find dried posole at one of the ABQ tiendas. I’ve seen packets of Los Chileros posole at Chile Traditions and other brands here and there. Maybe Keller’s, possibly La Montanita Coop. The Santa Fe School of Cooking has tins of white and blue posole in their marketplace.
Round here (cue Counting Crows) butternut squash used to be so cheap they almost paid you to take some home. Which is why we stopped growing it. That and it WILL take over a garden plot and if not pollenated on time, withhold the payout. All you have is vines all over the plot. Gotta rethink that since I paid $6 ! for one a few days ago raised in…wait….Mexico. Although it made some righteous soup with garden garlic (a bit too much) and onion along with some chicken broth, Penzey’s Sandwich Spread seasoning, a bit of orange juice and some kosher salt. And you better believe a bit of Kerrygold butter.
And finally, avoided wrecking it with edition 2025 HHHS (Herb’s Heinous Hot Sauce) which although tried as an ingredient in the past, ruins the subtle “buttery” flavor. HHHS best in last weeks potato soup medley of black eyed peas, Seven Sons Farms ham cubes, carrots, Swiss Chard, onions, garlic, plain yogurt, chicken broth and the star of the show….potatos from Masser Farms in Pittman, PA. And as you already guessed, Kerrygold butter.