We’re being told that inflation numbers are going down, but when it comes to food inflation, that’s a whole different story. More than half of US food retailers are still raising prices this year, a nine percentage point jump from last year, according to BDO’s 2023 Retail CFO Outlook Survey. With major food makers, including Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, Unilever, and Coca-Cola signaling their intent to continue to push prices up despite falling sales volumes, retailers are having to pass these higher costs on to shoppers – plus a little extra. At this point, many people argue that big brands are, in fact, price-gouging their customers. Some of these companies are actually facing lawsuits over allegations of abusive price increases over the past year. Unfortunately, big names like Sam’s Club, Kroger, and even discount grocers say that the cost of essential products is about to go up even further in the second half of 2023.
According to GOBankingRates, over the past year, Walmart grocery prices climbed by 22%, and earlier this month, the world’s biggest retailer warned that it might still have to increase prices to deal with higher costs. During an investor’s meeting, Walmart CFO John David Rainey said that the company is still facing significant challenges with its supply chain. “We’re assuming that this year is going to be somewhat anomalous. Still feeling the effects of higher prices,” Rainey said. Consequently, Walmart shoppers’ grocery bills are likely to go up by at least another 10% before the end of the year. That’s quite worrying considering that prices at Walmart stores have risen by 50% since 2020, according to consumers reports. On TikTok, one content creator decided to buy and compare the same items she did in 2020 Her shopping cart included corn mix, flour, 12-gallon nondairy milk, six eggs, two bananas, a small bundle of green Scallion, two potatoes, pinto beans, frozen mixed vegetables, and grain. According to the user, she purchased all of these items for $10.09 in 2020. She claims she made a “week’s worth of meals for one person,” sharing her receipt. As of January 2023, the shopper claims she went back to Walmart to purchase the items yet again and the total came out to $15.10, “a 50%” increase from a couple of years ago. “We need to start calling it what it is: price gouging,” one viewer stressed. “I wish they’d just stop lying to us by calling this inflation, this is 100% price gouging and I am sick of it,” a second agreed. “The ‘cheap’ butter we used to buy a year-ish ago, was 99 cents, now it’s 3 bucks,” another one shared. “I just got hamburger from Walmart for almost $6/lb. I remember it being like $3.50/lb,” another person said. Reports like that are getting increasingly more common as more and more Americans complain about soaring grocery costs at the retailer’s stores.
Food inflation will persist for many months, and that will have a huge effect on our monthly budgets and our purchasing power. We must organize ourselves and always remember to shop consciously. If you haven’t stocked up yet, we advise you to start preparing for these price hikes right now. The rest of the year is going to be very turbulent for those who didn’t get ready for these major changes, so make sure you got your needs covered because prices will only get higher from here on. For that reason, today, we decided to list which grocery stores are reporting another wave of price hikes right now.