By Shaniyah Hubbard
Lately, there have been a lot of changes in store prices, especially on grocery store items. The inflation of many prices is causing people to shop not only on a budget but simply in the hope they can feed their families. There are many reasons for inflation, but the one major reason is the pandemic. Many people are stocking up on foodstuffs to the point that food markets have to put a limit on how much shoppers can buy. In a Forbes article titled, Why Are Food Prices Still Rising, it explains “When lockdowns forced people to eat at home, producers catering to restaurants lost a key customer base, while grocery stores faced a massive increase in demand. Many food producers struggled in those early months to convert their operations to serve grocery consumers.” Many people relied on going to the grocery store to stock up and then “shelter in place,” but the prices are still outrageous, even with food stamp assistance.
Another thing that causes the price of groceries to go up is the packaging and the processing of food products, which is even more pricey because the more the item costs the more packing and processing the item must be. As we come to a new year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that in 2024 food prices could start falling, but the price in many grocery stores will still increase.
A final piece of the puzzle is labor costs. The labor cost was increased to 4% in 2023 because of the war in Ukraine. Also, since everything has been going up, people are turning to social media, both to complain AND to see if they can make food shopping more affordable for their families. Even more people are shopping paycheck to paycheck, and they still might not have enough for all the food they need. A recent USA Today article explains “With grocery prices up nearly 17% over the past two years,” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “people are turning to social media to share how much money it takes to feed a family.” This has been going on since COVID-19 started spreading throughout the U.S. in 2020.