If you’ve recently visited your local grocery store and left with a hefty dose of sticker shock, you’re not alone.
The price of nearly everything, especially food and beverages, has increased over the past year.
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The December Consumer Price Index was released earlier this month, indicating that the cost of key consumer goods, materials and services was up by 0.4%. This means the 12-month inflation rate was 2.9% — the higher end of what analysts had foreseen. Most anticipated the number between 0.3% to 2.9%.
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Here’s a look at how the cost of some key consumer goods changed in December compared to the previous month:
Food: up 0.3%Energy: up 2.6%Gasoline: up 4.4%New cars: up 0.5%Used cars: up 1.2%Apparel: up 0.1%Shelter: up 0.3%Transportation: up 0.5%Medical care: up 0.2%Medical Care Commodities: 0.0%
“Four of the six major grocery store food group indexes increased in December,” the CPI found.
“The index for cereals and bakery products rose 1.2 percent over the month after falling 1.1 percent in November. The meats, poultry, fish, and eggs index increased 0.6 percent in December, as the eggs index rose 3.2 percent. The index for other food at home rose 0.3 percent over the month, and the index for dairy and related products increased 0.2 percent.”
The price of food is up across the country and stores are increasingly turning to private labeling as a way to bring costs down.
Some food costs more now
Thanks to some unforeseen geopolitical events, some foods cost way more than they did just a few months ago.
For example, the rise of bird flu has cause the price of eggs to skyrocket. Many farmers have been forced to cull the number of hens they raise to stop the spread of the contagious virus. Fewer hens means fewer eggs, and a slower output of production. But the demand for eggs hasn’t changed drastically; if anything, it was up during the holiday season as folks baked and cooked more at home.
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To that end, the price of eggs has doubled since the summer of 2023.
The average price for a dozen eggs in the U.S. stands at $4.15 now.
And compared to five years ago (before COVID-19) groceries are, on average, 28% costlier now.
Giant makes a price adjustment
Customers are increasingly sensitive to price adjustments now, in part because they see them in almost everything they purchase.
So Giant Food, which operates over 160 grocery stores clustered mostly around the mid-Atlantic area of the U.S., is working to bring prices down for shoppers.
The company is running a new “Fresh Low Prices” campaign, which is an effort to bring down the cost of everyday food essentials, such as produce, meat, dairy and other boxed goods.
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It says it has lowered the cost of hundreds of items across their private labels, which include:
Giant brandNature’s PromiseTaste of InspirationsSmart LivingAlways My BabyCompanionCareOne
Items that are a part of the promotion will have blue labels with the phrase “Fresh Low Price,” and list the original price, plus the new markdown price of the product.
Giant isn’t the only store turning to its private labels for savings. Other stores, like Walmart, Dollar General, and Kroger, have leaned into the tactic, with Walmart launching Bettergoods, a discount in-store brand, in 2024.
And the move is working. A recent report by Circana shows that sales of private label brands increased by 4% to $271 billion in 2024. Brand name sales were up by just 1%, comparatively.
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