Since 2019, consumer prices have risen about by 20 percent, Labor Department data shows.
The price trends for these luxuries is already looking grim, and food prices have become downright bleak.
Grocery prices have risen even more during that same amount of time.
Some foodstuffs — including beef, mayonnaise, and cooking oil — have seen their prices rise by more than 50 percent since 2019, according to Nielsen IQ data reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
Politicians have accused Big Food of “greedflation.” President Joe Biden has even accused candy companies of “shrinkflation,” the practice exemplified by the 14 oz. cartons replacing the 16 oz. cartons for the same amount of money.
Food executives have pointed to the higher costs for labor, transportation, and raw commodities. Snack manufacturers have defended shrinkflation by emphasizing the demand for different portion sizes at different price points.
While the powerful are bickering amongst themselves, consumers are scrambling.
Granted, the U.S. remains one of the most food-secure nations in the world, and grocery prices increased only 1 percent between February 2023 and February of this year.
Still, the prices remain elevated, if stable, from the prior two years of inflation.
American shoppers are facing consistent, high prices, and have altered their consumption habits — perhaps permanently.
One retiree, 74-year-old Sharon Faelten of Vermont, told the Wall Street Journal that, instead of making a big haul, she challenges herself to keep her grocery bills to prepandemic levels. “Chicken is always on sale somewhere,” she told the paper.
She may be keeping her bill down, but — like too many Americans — she’s paying with her labor.
Many consumers have reacted like Stuart Dryden, a commercial underwriter at a bank who lives in Arlington, Virginia. On a recent trip to his regular grocery store, Dryden, 37, pointed out big price disparities between Kraft Heinz-branded products and their store-label competitors, which he now favors.
Dryden, for example, loves cream cheese and bagels. A 12-ounce tub of Kraft’s Philadelphia cream cheese costs $6.69. The store brand, he noted, is just $3.19.
A 24-pack of Kraft single cheese slices is $7.69; the store label, $2.99. And a 32-ounce Heinz ketchup bottle is $6.29, while the alternative is just $1.69. Similar gaps existed with mac-and-cheese and shredded cheese products.
“Just those five products together already cost nearly $30,” Dryden told the Associated Press. The alternatives were less than half that, he calculated, at about $13.
“I’ve been trying private-label options, and the quality is the same and it’s almost a no-brainer to switch from the products I used to buy a ton of to just the private label,” Dryden said.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article.