What's causing a spike in grocery prices now? Grocer, economist explain
Grocery shoppers have noticed an increase in prices, especially for staples like meat, fresh fruits and vegetables.
From the big-box stores to independent grocers, all are feeling the pinch because of supply chain issues. Getting people to work at the warehouses to get the food to stores has resulted in skyrocketing prices on many items.
According to economists and those on the grocery front lines, there does not seem to be any relief in sight.
Lou Santoni, owner of Santoni's Marketplace and Catering in Maryland, has made more pivots than a point guard throughout the pandemic, but recent issues with distributors have forced him to raise prices.
"It really is all over the board," Santoni said. "Without mentioning a name, I have one supplier that, for four weeks in a row, couldn't even deliver to us."
Santoni said he can't even get goods delivered. Sometimes he has to send his own trucks to warehouses to pick up perishable foods to bring back to the store, ultimately sending prices up.
"Sometimes, you'll get a little bit of a break, and you got a win for the week or two that you may be seeing some meat prices coming down, but the overall trend is that prices are going to go up and they’re going to continue to go up," Santoni said.
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Economist Anirban Basu, with the Sage Policy Group, said it all comes down to employment issues.
"It has been a lot about lack of workers to produce food and also a lack of truck drivers to drive food around, and so one of the things that we're seeing is, particularly, large price increases for those types of foods that need to be refrigerated," Basu said.
Basu said, currently, for every 83 unemployed Americans, there are 100 job openings. He said despite wages continuing to go up, inflation at multi-decade highs is keeping the value of those higher wages lower.
"There was this notion that after Sept. 6 when some of these , then all of a sudden, we would see this rush of people looking for work. That has not been the case, and that has not been the case actually for a while," Basu said.
Meanwhile, grocers like Santoni's will try to keep prices down as much as they can.
"This has been a significant jump and I think it’s going to be here to stay for a good bit of time," Santoni said.
Economists believe the situation will last at least through the summer of 2022 as getting more people back to work in the supply chain should alleviate some of the stress, but only time will tell.
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