Grocery Prices

[James48843]

US grocery prices have never been more expensive:

The average cost of groceries for a family of 4 is now up to a record $1,030/month.

This marks a +$280 increase since January 2017, when the average family spent $750 a month.

In 2021-2022 alone, grocery costs surged by +$150.

To put this differently, a family of 4 now spends over $12,360/year on groceries, compared to $9,000 in 2017.

 

[Boghie]

Another way of thinking about the stat presents:

• Look at the slope. There was that one AbbyNormal timeframe.
• Take the $150 out and prices have increased $130 over 8 years - ie. averaging $16/year, or a 2.2% increase.

Gotta love even a couple of years of big inflation.

BTW, you DON'T want to see general DEFLATION. You DON'T want to see month after month of price deflation. In terms of difficulty for an economy to resolve:

1. Mild Inflation - just tighten credit a little
2. Mild Deflation - just loosen credit a little, this might be good now.
3. Moderate Inflation - Sharper credit tightening
4. Higher Inflation - Hard credit tightening
5. Stagflation - Hard credit tightening, likely moderate recession
6. Heavy Inflation - Big time credit, likely long and tough recession
7. Deflation - Let's just say no. People will delay purchases for cheaper pricing. Rinse and Repeat.

 

[JTH]

US grocery prices have never been more expensive:

Remember the days when we use to blame high food prices on high gas prices?

Funny, when I visit my home state, I'm reminded just how frugal some of us are, while they floor-it straight to the next red light in a $60K unscratched, (never seen a job site in its life) truck... Setting aside cheap gas, DJT lifted tarrifs on 200+ agricultural products today. Regardless, we all know we an't going back down anywhere close to pre-pandemic levels. We all got a free mask, a free vaccine and a free tax.

Here's a tariff-free dancing banana