Shoppers crushed by grocery store prices despite cooling inflation: survey

News

By Ronny Reyes

Americans are furious as they continue to get crushed by high grocery store bills despite inflation nearing pre-COVID levels, according to a new survey.

The latest Axio Vibe Check survey of 2,120 adults in December revealed that about 72% of respondents felt inflation was still hitting hard at the grocery store.

Nearly 60 percent also said they feel anger, anxiousnes, and resignation whenever they shop for groceries as they struggle to make their budgets work.

The negative feelings at the grocery store come as food prices remain stubbornly high despite inflation plummeting since reaching a four-decade high of 9.1% last summer.

Now at just 3.4%, inflation is nearing the Federal Reserves’ target goal of 2%, but not all prices are dropping equally.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found that in December, the cost of groceries were still on the incline, with the cost of cereals and bakery products up 2.6% and fruits and vegetables up 0.3% since last year.

The price of eggs also shot up 8.9% from November, which was fueled not only by inflation but by the effects of bird flu that is once again ravaging the industry.

Overall, the category of “food at home prices” rose 1.3% for 2023, a seemingly small number but one that comes after years of high costs and a high of 13.5% in August.

This means that Americans who spent $100 on their grocery bills in 2019 would be spending about $125.51 on the same amount of food in December, according to data from the BLS.

This shows that Americans are still spending more than 21% on their grocery bills than they were before the pandemic, a clear indication that inflation remains a sore subject for most consumers, according to the Axio survey.

Perhaps some of the anger also stems from the fact that grocery prices were plummeting after the highs of 2022, reaching more normal levels in the spring of 2023 before rising again in the fall.

While hope remains that inflation will dip to its pre-pandemic levels, the drop will likely not come anytime soon as the Consumer Price Index remains volatile.

Although inflation is relatively low at 3.4%, it’s actually an increase from the 3.1% recorded in November and higher than the 3.2% that was predicted by economists.

Despite the bumpy road predicted ahead, Bill Adams, chief economist for Comerica Bank, said that the latest BLS Consumer Price Index report showed inflation was likely to continue to ease in 2024.

“The big picture is that the economic dislocations caused by the pandemic are fading, economic growth is settling into a more normal pace, and labor shortages are much less of an issue, helping bring inflation back to normal,” Adams wrote in his overview of the BLS report.