The pace of food inflation in supermarkets has slowed sharply over the past year, returning to levels that were more typical before the pandemic, the Wall Street Journal wrote on April 4. But groceries are still much more expensive than in years past.
Grocery prices were up 1% in February from a year earlier, Labor Department data show. They were up 10.2% in February 2023 versus a year earlier, and were up 1.2% in February 2019 from a year earlier.
“Prices for hundreds of grocery items have increased more than 50% since 2019 as food companies raised their prices,” the Journal reported, and it included two interesting but anecdotal graphics we share with you here. One of them showing how much five common grogery cart items have increased since 2019; the other graphic showing five products that have decreased.
First, the Journal with a little help from Nielsen IQ singled out five common grocery cart items that have increased more than 50% each since 2019:
Needless to say, there's been pushback -- from inflation-weary consumers and lately even from the government. As a result of that and lower input costs, there are at least a few items that have gone down in price over the past year; two are even cheaper than they were in 2019:
See the full article here, although a subscription is required.
