While one can put off a vacation or opt for the bus, food inflation is difficult to avoid given that there's only so much you can cut back while still meeting your daily needs.
One food that has been in the news a lot lately is eggs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that, at $2.94, a dozen of eggs is now 47% more expensive than in August 2021.
Butter and margarine are now 26% more expensive while lunch meats and bread are up a respective 23.6% and 15.4%.
Which Food Prices Rose (Or Fell) At Walmart?
While these reflect averages across the country, exact prices will vary both by geographic location and the exact store you go to. Some retailers have tried hard to absorb the prices and win over customers by remaining the cheapest options, while most others have gradually upped prices in response to rising costs.
Brian McColl, a financial analyst at TradingPedia, crunched the numbers for the most common food sold at Walmart (WMT).
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While the retail giant charged $11.44 for a package of chicken breasts, it now charges $15.02 for the same package -- a 31.29% increase.
A package of 18 eggs are 126.27% more expensive at $2.67 (still lower than the national average for a dozen) while a gallon of milk soared in price by 150.72% from $1.38 to $3.46.
Sweet onions also saw a dramatic increase of 165.15% while an eight-pack of Pepsi (PEP) soared in price from $8.34 in 2019 to $13.98 in 2022. For the soda guzzlers, a price hike of $67.63% will be far from insignificant.
The good news is that not everything increased in price. A 96 fluid ounce jug of apple juice is 12.10% less expensive at $2.18 while avocados, which saw dramatic spikes in prices earlier in the year after some imports from Mexico were suspended, are 30.61% less expensive at Walmart.
Green peppers were one of the rare items to cost exactly the same as they did in 2019 at $0.68 each.
On average, the price of Walmart's meat and seafood rose by 22% while vegetables rose by 29%. Dairy and eggs saw the biggest increase at 70%.
How Can Shoppers Cope With These Prices?
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So what's a person who has to feed a family to do? A study from Nembraska insurance company Breeze found that inflation already pushed a respective 73% and 62% of U.S. households to cut back on restaurant spending and groceries.
Buying cheaper is also not much of a solution since no-name or budget food items have been seeing some of the most drastic price hikes. Research from data company Numerator found that grocery prices at dollar stores rose by 14.3% from 2021 and 22.5% from 2020.
At the same time, foot traffic rose by 20.4% at Family Dollar, 28.2% at Dollar General (DG), 34.1% at Five Below FIVE, 3% at Big Lots BIG and 13.7% at Dollar Tree from 2019.
"Here's hoping that we don't return to the 1970s and early 1980s inflation eras," Jonathan Heller wrote for TheStreet's Real Money in August 2021. "As a kid in the 70s, it meant shortages. We re-used paper lunch bags, switched to powdered milk for a while, and waited in gas lines."
