Alejandro Vasquez was filling up his Toyota Prius Thursday morning at one of the priciest gas stations in Chicago.
The Shell station at 130 W. North Ave. in Old Town was selling regular gas at $5.80 a gallon, one of the highest prices for a gallon of gas in the city, according to data from the price-tracker GasBuddy.
But after months of climbing gas prices, Vasquez, who makes extra cash delivering groceries, and other drivers interviewed Thursday said they are now resigned to the steep prices.
“My friend and I talked about this,” said Vasquez, 29. “We treat it kind of like a phone bill, though. I don’t even look at it. What else am I gonna do?”
As summer begins, Chicagoans are finding no relief from climbing gas and food prices. Just a few months ago, the average price for a gallon of regular gas in the Chicago area was around $4, according to GasBuddy. On Thursday, it was $4.52. The Chicago area’s record-high gas price was in 2022, when it reached $6.07, largely due to the war in Ukraine.
Vasquez said he stopped at the station because he was “literally out of gas.”
A nearby BP station, at 1647 N. LaSalle Drive, also had a gallon of regular gas priced at $5.80. The two stations in Old Town are right off DuSable Lake Shore Drive.
GasBuddy data showed only one station in Chicago had a higher price — a Marathon near Fulton Market, where the price this week hit $6.
“Oh, Lord, there’s nothing else to say about gas prices,” Reggie Russell, 40, said at the BP station.
Russell, an Uber driver, normally heads to Indiana to find cheaper gas. Prices there Thursday were an average of $3.38, according to GasBuddy.
“It doesn’t matter where in Indiana you go,” he said. “As long as you go to Indiana, it’s good.”
It used to take about $20 to fill up his Dodge Caravan, but now it’s double that, he said.
Fueling up isn’t going to make Lia Montelongo lose any sleep.
“I really don’t care about the gas prices,” said Montelongo, 51, an actor and fitness instructor for Equinox, as she filled the tank of her 2020 Jeep . “I notice the higher prices, but I don’t care. I have to drive so it’s like I’ve got to just suit up and show up.
“The only reason why I do stop here is because it’s on my way to get home,” said Montelongo, who lives in Mokena and fills up a couple times a week. “It’s like I know I’m safe. I’m gonna jump on the Lake Shore Drive and go home.”
Lia Montelongo stops at a Shell gas station in Old Town, whose price is one of the highest in Chicago at $5.79 a gallon for regular gas.
Rising gas prices pushed inflation to its highest level in three years last month. The consumer price index rose 4.2% in May compared to a year earlier, up from 3.8% in April and the third straight increase, the U.S. Labor Department said Wednesday. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.5% last month, compared to 0.6% in April and 0.9% in March.
Gas prices rose in May because of Iran’s closing of the Strait of Hormuz, which has choked off about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Nationally, prices are at $4.08, up 96 cents from last year’s average of $3.12. But they’ve fallen about 42 cents from last month’s average of $4.50, according to GasBuddy.
With more expensive diesel fuel pushing up shipping costs, companies like UPS and FedEx have added fuel surcharges in the past couple of months. That is likely to lead to higher grocery prices, which jumped 0.7% in April and are 2.9% higher than a year ago.
In Chicago, a check of 35 common grocery items last week at four stores found prices ticking up everywhere, especially at Walmart, which previously had held the line on many of the items the Chicago Sun-Times has been tracking for more than a year.
Between Feb. 3 — about three weeks before the United States and Israel’s attack on Iran — and June 2, the price of 15 items rose at Walmart. This included milk, butter, vegetables, meats, including ground beef, bacon, hot dogs and chicken nuggets, as well as coffee, orange juice, Oreo cookies and peanut M&M’s. Only two of the items, an avocado and Garnier Fructis shampoo, dropped in price.
At Target, the prices for 11 items were up, and five were down. Those up in price included milk, butter, onions, avocado, romaine lettuce, bacon and hot dogs.
The prices of six items increased at Jewel while one, Degree men’s antiperspirant, dropped. At Mariano’s, seven items were up in price and seven down.
A shopper buys frozen vegetables in a grocery store in Wicker Park.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file
Across the four stores, milk, romaine lettuce and chicken nuggets saw the most widespread increases, with each rising in price at three stores in the past three months. Most increases were around 50 cents.
Ground beef, bacon, hot dogs, butter, ice cream, avocado, onions, peanut M&Ms, Kraft macaroni and cheese and Cascade dish detergent each were up at two stores, with increases varying by store and product. Many price jumps were around 50 cents or 60 cents, which for a package of Nathan’s Famous bun-length hot dogs amounted to a 10% increase.
Previously, some of the biggest price jumps seen at Chicago-area stores were for ground beef and coffee, both which remain high this month.
The increases in food prices are on top of price hikes that have occurred since the November 2024 election and can be attributed to a number of factors, including sweeping tariffs, drought, and more recently, the Iran war.
Prices surged after the Iran war made oil and gas more expensive, affecting everything from the cost of fertilizer to transportation.
Illinois gas prices are often higher than the national average because it has the second-highest taxes on gas in the country, according to Illinois Policy. Five states, including Illinois, have a motor fuel tax. Revenue from that tax helps maintain and build Illinois roads .
The annual gas tax hike that would have taken effect July 1 will be suspended for six months, due to families facing “higher costs driven by economic uncertainty and rising energy prices,” Gov. JB Pritzker’s office said June 1.
Gas stations, which are often independently owned, typically price fuel based on how much it would cost to replace it or how much the next shipment of fuel will cost, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores. And within reason, retailers can set fuel prices themselves, but Chicago drivers can report suspected price gouging to the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.
Contributing: AP