SAN ANTONIO – Inflation may be easing, but grocery receipts aren’t showing it. A price check of the same items shows a significant price jump from last year.
Week after week, shoppers see groceries devour more of their money.
“We used to be able to get a basket of groceries and spend maybe $200,” said shopper Priscilla Miller. “Now, we don’t even fill up a basket and we’re almost sitting at that price, and it’s scary.”
How scary? A price check of the same groceries that cost $206.14 in mid-December of 2020 and $226.35 one year ago, now cost $259.56. That’s about $34 dollars or 14.7% more in just the past year. The prices were for curbside pickup from the same store.
Why the pronounced increase?
“We had a lot of things that create turmoil in the marketplace all happen at once,” said Dr. David Anderson, an agriculture economist with Texas A&M University.
Drought, bird flu, diesel costs, worker shortages and more drove prices way up, he said.
Just the cost of feeding the family breakfast is eye-opening.
Take eggs. One year ago, $2.82 would get you a dozen extra-large AA eggs. Now, that same amount of money will buy only six eggs. The price of eggs is up a whopping 89 percent over last year.
If you want toast with that breakfast, it will cost more. The loaf of bread on the list costs 50% more.
Quaker Oats are up 58%, orange juice is 21% higher, and that cup of morning coffee is 22% more expensive compared to one year ago.
On the sunny side, however, bacon dropped in price by about three percent.
Foodflation hit every aisle. Pink lady apples are up 20%, russet potatoes are up 44%, and ice cream is up, too — by 34%.
Some of the beefiest price jumps have eased up. A pound of ground sirloin costs a fraction less, and a prime ribeye steak costs about four percent less.
“I tend to think there is still room for beef prices to decline,” Anderson said.
He said beef production will be at a record high this year because the drought forced ranchers to cull their herds.
While avian influenza hit turkeys and egg-laying hens hard, it did not affect broiler chickens that much. Chicken prices, he said, have begun to decline at the retail level.
Finally, there is good news for guacamole lovers. Avocado prices are down, too.
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San Antonio Grocery Prices End of 2022 by Julie Moreno on Scribd