Shopper Kathleen Postal said her grocery bill has been slowly climbing over the past few weeks. “The prices are just so high,” she said. “Everything just seems to be a dollar to two dollars higher. This creep has just happened and it’s very expensive.”
She’s not alone.
Shopper Irwin Ginsburg said, “Prices are going up high.”
When asked what goods are more expensive now, Ginsburg answered, “Everything.”
According to new figures released by the Labor Department, wholesale inflation jumped more than 8 percent from august of 2020 compared to August of this year. That’s the biggest gain on record since the department started tracking it more than a decade ago.
Phil Lembert with supermarketguru.com said, “We haven’t seen anything yet. Prices are going to continue to go up for a good year and a half.”
Lembert is the editor of Supermarket Guru and a food industry analyst. He explained, “The biggest increases that we’re going to see has to do with anything with animals. Whether it’s eggs or milk or pork or beef.”
Fires up north have decimated their feed. Supply chain issues, like bottlenecks at the Port of Los Angeles and labor shortages, are also to blame.
“We have a huge problem with a lack of truck drivers,” Lembert added. “Refrigerated transport is up about 10.4 percent in cost.”
As prices increase, supplies have decreased.
“We’re just having a hard time finding the types of things we want,” said Postal.
At the grocery stores we went to, we saw a limited supply of things like milk and butter, soda and snacks. Also, paper products and baking supplies.
Lembert said, “Retailers who are filling out their orders to fill their shelves are not getting what they order. It’s estimated to be anywhere between 50 and 70 percent of what they order.”
Experts say it pays to shop around, you may want to look for lower prices at independent grocers and stores with different models, like the Dollar Store and Aldi
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