Susan Pollack, a real estate manager who was shopping at Costco in Marina del Rey, California last week, said she was surprised that the price of bulk packs of toilet paper soared from $ 17 to $ 25.
Prices were even higher at her local Kosher butcher shop. Five packs of short ribs cost over $ 200.
“I told my husband,’Kalbi will never happen again,'” she said.
Global forces such as supply chain disruptions, bad weather, energy costs and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have contributed to rising inflation, astonishing stock market investors. President Biden’s administration on defense..
However, the pressure is most directly felt as shoppers visit grocery stores every week. Grocery stores are short of what was once abundant for months, and prices for produce, meat and eggs remain stubbornly high.
At a stop-and-shop in Elizabeth, NJ, 35-year-old Instacart shopper Hagar Dale points out that a packet of powdered drink mix that once sold for 25 cents soared to 36 cents in early May. Did. Two days later, she said it was sold for 56 cents.
“If you have a big store, the Lord is forbidden,” Dale said when he left the grocery store on a customer’s order. “You are a penny pinch.”
Such price increases have led to sticker shocks, resignations, and the determination to sniff out bargains.
“We’re looking for more deals,” said Ray Duffy, a 66-year-old retired banker in an “Unapologetically American” T-shirt that recently emerged from the Lidl grocery store in Garwood, NJ.
“You go shopping,” he said. “That’s what you do.”
Shop tours and bribes using banana bread
There are many supermarkets in South Riding, Virginia, where Susana Yu lives.
However, she drove nine miles to the Center Building and shopped at H Mart, a Korean grocery store. From there, she goes to Trader Joe’s, “the price of meat is pretty good.”
Then head to Costco for a storable, non-perishable bulk item.
To save a little money, “I have to go to three different places,” Yoo said.
Alyssa Sutton, a 53-year-old home theater business owner, has left King’s Food Market in Short Hills, NJ. The grocery chain sold 13 ounces of Bonne Maman-stored jars for $ 6.49.
“This inflation problem is a real problem,” she said. She has to tell herself, “Well, do I really need to buy everything at Kings when I’m paying twice as much to fill the gas tank and twice as much for everything?” “
Sutton picked up staples at Kings and drove to cheaper markets like Trader Joe’s, where fruits and vegetables were more affordable.
“It takes time,” she said. “I need a plan.”
Lisa Tucker, 54, in Gainesville, Virginia, drives a few more miles to the Giant because food prices are cheaper than stores near her home. She buys in bulk when her price is favorable — she bought eight boxes of cereal because in recent runs it sold for $ 1.77 per piece — and she bought multiple royalties. I registered for the word program.
“It’s strategic,” she said.
Tucker also looks for significantly reduced meat as it is about to expire.
On Tuesday, Tucker soared £ 1 which is about to expire. The beef package was $ 3.74, down from $ 7.49. To draw attention from the meat department staff about such deals, she sometimes said she would bring her homemade banana bread to them.
Tucker tells them: If a discount sticker is about to be put on the boar’s head bacon, “let me know.”
Eat less meat and plan your menu on the spot
Angie Goodman, a housekeeper in Culver City, California, usually eats meat once a week.But Now that the price of steak has doubledShe said it may need to be reduced once a month.
Goodman, 54, said he earns about $ 15 an hour. This is a stagnant number due to soaring living costs.
“The basics are very expensive,” she said. “It’s crazy.”
Isabel Chambergo, a 62-year-old warehouse worker in Elizabeth, NJ, says she’s planning a meal at home while she’s shopping, so she can use her phone to scan for products and find digital coupons. Said. It saves $ 10 to $ 15 per shopping trip, she said.
“That’s the way I manage,” said Chambergo when she left Elizabeth’s Stop and Shop with her husband, Arturo, 62.
“It helps a little,” she said. “Not so many, but we are also trying to buy healthy things that will fill us up.”
In other words, as long as she can find the materials she needs.
Chambergo said he bought a mix of quinoa and rice at a stop and shop to make a hearty soup. But it hasn’t been on the shelf for at least two months.
Retired banker Duffy said he had a hard time finding the square spaghetti that was his favorite Lo mein’s reliance.
“The sauce goes well with the square spaghetti,” he said.
It’s normal for grocery stores to go from 7% to 10%, but due to events over the last two and a half years (pandemics, extreme weather, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine), that number is three to five. There is a tendency of. Katie Dennis, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Brands Association, said the points were high.
The availability of pasta and grains has been particularly limited by the war, “both Ukraine and Russia are effectively withdrawing from the market,” she said in an email.
“Last year’s European weather also shrunk durum wheat, which especially affected pasta,” Dennis said.
“I didn’t buy anything fun today.”
Shoppers also deny themselves.
Giant in Gainesville, Virginia, Kimberly Henault said She stopped in front of the coffee creamer display and noticed that it was twice as expensive as usual.
“Oh, what do you know? I don’t really need it,” she soliloquy and went on.
California real estate manager Pollack said inflation wasn’t putting a strain on the budget, but it reconsidered purchases where prices were once impulsive. For example, she bought most of the electric razors for her son, but then she saw it cost $ 90.
“I always spend a lot of money,” said 61-year-old Pollack. I didn’t buy anything fun today. “
Al Elnaggar (22) and Hamza Mojadidi (23), students at the University of California, Los Angeles, were also shopping at Costco in Marina del Rey. There, I bought several products at once, such as Clementine, water bottles, and ramen. ..
Mohadidi said he stopped buying eggs and reduced halal meat, which was already more expensive than other cuts, because animals were slaughtered according to Islam.
Mohadidi said he stopped in front of Costco’s meat market, looked at the lamb shank and left.
He said he thought he was luckier than the other students at the university. At least he said he had a car and could drive to Costco and buy food in bulk to save money.
“I’m just borrowing an additional loan to pay for my expenses,” Mohadidi said. “I have run out of credit cards.”
