{"id":328844,"date":"2026-07-03T22:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T22:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/328844\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T22:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T22:32:12","slug":"how-much-will-your-july-4th-cookout-cost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/328844\/","title":{"rendered":"How much will your July 4th cookout cost?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Shoppers are making their last-minute purchases before the Independence Day cookouts kick off, but experts say inflation is still driving prices.<\/p>\n<p>Whether it be big cuts of meat, fresh produce, or pizza dough, whatever you\u2019re serving this July 4th is likely more expensive.<\/p>\n<p>USF economics professor Chris Jones says higher fuel prices, coupled with inflation, are forcing prices for everything higher, especially food.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s not just about how much we as a household spend in terms of putting gas in our gas tank, but that also deals with diesel fuel that runs the trucks that carry our goods and services,\u201d said Jones.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>, the price of ground beef last May cost $6.02 per pound. This May, it&#8217;s $6.72.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile,, a study by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fb.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">American Farm Bureau Federation<\/a> says the average 10-person cookout will cost you more than last year, but it increased at about the same rate as inflation.<\/p>\n<p>Customers are starting to see it at some places.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOther grocery stores, I would say yes, here I would say not really. These have kind of been the standard prices here for a while, I don&#8217;t know how they do it,\u201d said Autumn Wiley, who is preparing for her cookout.<\/p>\n<p>Wiley says she has been shopping at St. Pete&#8217;s Mazarro&#8217;s Italian Market her entire life. She says she keeps coming back for the savings and the good food.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have their homemade chicken parm here again, super convenient. You can just slap it in the oven, also a pizza as well,\u201d Wiley said.<\/p>\n<p>This Independence Day is extra significant for Joseluis Ramirez. Spectrum News asked how he\u2019s celebrating.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo see the fireworks downtown, and I just became a citizen last year, so it&#8217;s special,\u201d said Ramirez.<\/p>\n<p>He has picked up his pot pie and is ready to celebrate, but Jones says food and fuel prices may have some consumers toning down their festivities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt forces consumers to shift their spending, because those are what we call inelastic essentials, which means it doesn&#8217;t really matter (if) they become more expensive or not, you still have to consume the same quantity,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Shoppers are making their last-minute purchases before the Independence Day cookouts kick off, but experts say&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4323,28,115,139,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-328844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-andy-cole","tag-florida","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}