What's for dinner? Lately, at Apral Jack's house, it's whatever is on sale. Jack scouts an app for deals at her local supermarket before she buys groceries. When she reaches the store, she grabs the weekly circular to look for coupons she might have missed. If the shelf prices look too high, she scratches items off her list or tries to find lower prices someplace else, the AP reports. "The apples went up here, the ones I eat, so now I'm not going to get them here. I'll go to Market Basket, where I can get them cheaper," Jack, 50, said as she pushed a cart into a Stop & Shop near her home in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Couponing, comparison shopping, and cutting back on favorite foods are new habits for millions of Americans as they absorb the biggest jump in grocery prices in a half-century. Buying food to eat at home has gotten 33% more expensive in US cities since the beginning of 2019, according to government figures. In the 7½ years before that, prices rose 6.4%. The historic increase happened for numerous reasons, per the AP:
- The coronavirus pandemic snarled supply chains and raised labor and transportation costs.
- Droughts, hurricanes and diseases like bird flu drove down production.
- Tariffs raised prices on foreign products like coffee, tomatoes and chocolate.
- Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine disrupted oil and fertilizer supplies.
With a fresh conflict in the Middle East accelerating food price inflation again this year, the cost of filling American refrigerators, freezers, and pantries has become a frustration for Americans and made affordability a central issue in the fall midterm elections. And consumers are developing their own ways to deal with the prices, a market researcher said. The AP's full report, which includes some of those strategies, can be found here.
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