If you think food inflation at the supermarket since the COVID-19 pandemic is just bananas – it’s not.
Bananas, averaging 62 cents a pound in January, have stayed relatively cheap.
As of January, the cost of groceries at the checkout is 24.7% more expensive than it was in March 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The overall price of food has risen so high it has outpaced the 20% rise of overall inflation since the pandemic outbreak nearly four years ago. (Both food and the overall rate continue to climb, albeit at a slower pace in the past year.)
The price of groceries is heating up too as a political issue as President Joe Biden scrambles to address consumers’ struggle to pay for it all. In January, Biden accused companies of "ripping people off” by keeping prices high even after many food costs have begun to level off or come down in recent months. Last week, Biden announced a “strike force to crack down on unfair and illegal pricing” against corporations that “may be violating the law and keeping prices high,” including in the food and grocery sector.
Consumers, the president and even Cookie Monster are upset about high prices and side effects like "shrinkflation" where food manufacturers package everything from cookies to potato chips in smaller bags or boxes to obscure higher prices.
Perhaps sensing the sour national mood, Cincinnati-based Kroger reiterated its promise to lower food prices if the supermarket giant is successful in winning federal approval for its proposed $25 billion takeover of rival Albertsons. Federal officials weren't convinced: They sued days later, saying the deal could mean still higher prices for consumers.
“That inflation is a problem can matter for politics – people notice these things, in the same way they notice gas prices, and it matters for their sense of how well the economy is doing,” Katherine Cramer, a political science professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, told The Enquirer. “Paying $2.50 for a dozen eggs when the cost until recently had been below $2 tells people inflation is a problem.”
Here’s a closer look at what’s happened to the prices of the staples you put in your shopping cart.
Everything in the store is more expensive since the COVID-19 breakout
How bad is food inflation at the supermarket?
There’s not a single food item (out of more than 100 closely tracked and seasonally adjusted) at the supermarket that’s gotten cheaper since March 2020, according to federal data.