For a brief moment over the weekend, west suburban Hinsdale became the center of an internet viral moment involving inflation, burritos, wealth and privilege.
The scorn of social media users was focused on the lead anecdote of a Friday New York Times article about food inflation: A Hinsdale stock options trader voiced his annoyance with an increase in Chipotle’s burrito price. He walked out of the eatery after learning the price of a burrito was more than $9, when it previously hovered around $8.50.
The example was used to illustrate the choices Americans are making about their food consumption in light of widespread food inflation, but social media users pointed out that Hinsdale, with a per capita income of more than $101,000 and a poverty rate of less than 3%, is one of the wealthiest suburbs in the Chicago area. CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy, for example, tweeted “not parody” with a screenshot of the anecdote. Another user wrote: “Using a Hinsdale options trader to show the effects of the pandemic caused food price increases is quite the choice.”
The internet furor that briefly caused the tony suburb to trend on Twitter underscores the disparity in how Americans are experiencing widespread inflation.
Though people are entitled to decline to purchase a $9 burrito, and the moment eventually faded into the constant churn of online content, the anecdote and its passionate reaction highlight who bears the brunt of rising food costs.
Like in other sectors, consumer prices for food products have substantially increased since last year. Rising food prices affect everyone, but the phenomenon has been particularly harmful for those who already struggled with food insecurity, experts say.
“If you’re already starting behind the starting line … you are going to continue to fall behind when everyone is feeling the impact of food increases,” said Kellie O’Connell, CEO of Lakeview Pantry.
‘We are seeing something different’
Year-over-year costs of consumer goods have soared 7% nationwide — the biggest jump in 40 years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in recent days. Inflation in the Midwest, including Illinois, clocked in at 7.5% while the Chicago, Elgin and Naperville region saw prices soar at 6.6%.
That’s a big jump when you consider the industry standard for year-over-year price increases is pegged at 2%.
While experts say fuel and food prices tend to fluctuate widely, they also acknowledge that means very little to those shopping, as an example, for groceries on a tight budget. Meats, poultry and fish jumped more than 12.6% from December 2020 to December 2021, labor department data shows. Meat prices at grocery stores saw the biggest price increases at nearly 15% overall.
Experts say rising prices are squeezing already struggling low-income earners and could effectively erase wage hikes employers have turned to as they try to find staffing in a tight labor market.
Food prices in November were up more than 6% over November of 2020, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Food purchased from grocery stores increased slightly more than that purchased from restaurants, with a 6.4% increase over the previous November, compared with 5.8% for restaurant food.
Kevin Sylwester, a professor of economics at Southern Illinois University, noted that for the previous 10 years, the grocery store increase was less than 2% each year.
“We are seeing something different than we’ve seen in the last decade,” he said.
Sylwester said global supply chain issues and labor shortages are contributing to inflation, which in particular is hitting food products at the moment.
“One of the consequences of these disruptions is less availability, so that raises the price of food,” Sylwester said.
He also noted that energy costs are rising, meaning the fuel to get food on the shelves is more expensive, and some of that cost is passed on to the consumer.
“When the supply disruptions are overcome, I think we will see a return to normal and we might even see price decreases as more food gets to shelves,” he said. “The million-dollar question is when will the supply disruptions dissipate.”
Increased need
Stratten Moore has been out of work since May. He used to work at a bar that went through a series of closings and reopenings during the pandemic. He was officially let go in May.
Moore turned to food stamps and accepted some help from his parents. In October, he started going to a food pantry.
“Everything has gone up like eggs, milk, and even a small box of cereal,” Moore told a reporter during a weekday afternoon at Lakeview Pantry. “It’s tough not knowing when you can go grocery shopping or if you can afford that thing that you want to get.”
Moore is among hundreds of thousands of Cook County residents who are experiencing food insecurity — a problem that has only grown during the pandemic, experts said.
In 2019, nearly 10% of people in Cook County had inconsistent or inadequate access to enough food, according to a study conducted by Feeding America, a nonprofit organization that focuses on food access.
But lack of reliable food access has likely increased in the last two years, experts said.
At Lakeview Pantry, visits to the organization’s sites are up 52% since before the pandemic. As food prices rise, the nonprofit’s own food costs have also increased, O’Connell said.
“Inflation is really just one more challenge for the people we serve,” she said.
Michael Weber, a professor of finance at University of Chicago Booth School of Business, found in a recent study of U.S. households that the impact of food inflation is substantially higher for low-income people who don’t generally have the option to seek out less expensive alternatives.
Wealthier people may respond to rising food costs by trading Whole Foods for a less expensive grocery store, he said, while middle-class people may begin clipping coupons when they didn’t before. But people who were already using those options more acutely feel the pain of inflation.
“Relatively speaking, we do see low-income households have higher realized inflation,” Weber said.
That’s the case for Marcelo Fuel and his family. Fuel, 53, and his wife, Jasmin, have noticed the skyrocketing prices. To make ends meet, the family of four has turned to Lakeview Pantry since the beginning of the pandemic.
“Generally, we’d be at the store, but because of the pandemic, there’s no work and that’s why we come here to get help,” Fuel said. “For the past two months, the prices have been going up and up and up and no one is controlling them.”
