{"id":155405,"date":"2025-09-14T04:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T04:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/155405\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T04:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T04:16:10","slug":"california-shoppers-see-surging-grocery-inflation-once-again-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/155405\/","title":{"rendered":"California shoppers see surging grocery inflation once again \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has not been a pretty summer for consumers at California\u2019s supermarkets.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what my trusty spreadsheet found when averaging slices of Consumer Price Indexes for three Golden State metro areas: the Los Angeles\/Orange County combo<\/a>, San Francisco<\/a> and San Diego<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This summer\u2019s pricing \u2013 June through August\u2019s reports \u2013 shows that prices in the \u201cfood at home\u201d category across those three metros grew at an average 3.3% annual rate this summer. So, grocery inflation more than doubled from 1.5% in 2024.<\/p>\n

Yes, food at home inflation is nowhere near the pandemic era\u2019s inflation surge that saw grocery prices balloon at a 6.4% average annual rate in 2021-23. Nevertheless, mid-year 2025\u2019s California grocery inflation is running faster than the overall cost of living.<\/p>\n

The overall Consumer Price Index for the three big markets averaged 3.1% gains this summer, the same as a year ago. During the 2021-23 inflation surge, this price yardstick grew at a 5% annual rate.<\/p>\n

These recent cost-of-living gyrations, however, don\u2019t mitigate the financial pain of the worst bout of inflation in four decades<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Take a longer-term view, as measured by the CPI: California groceries are 26% costlier over five years, as the overall cost of living rose 23%.<\/p>\n

By the aisle<\/p>\n

A chunk of this summer\u2019s revived food inflation can be attributed to the higher costs of production and distribution<\/a>. The new administration\u2019s tariffs are making certain imported food more expensive.<\/p>\n

Ponder the grocery categories tracked by local CPIs to see which California supermarket aisles are most troublesome to your household\u2019s food budget. These are ranked by one-year increases \u2026<\/p>\n

Meats, poultry, fish and eggs: Up 4.3% annually this summer vs. 3% last year but off the 4.8%-a-year pace of 2021-23. Yes, the high-profile egg inflation has moderated. But beef prices soared \u2014 up 24% over five years \u2014 as drought has thinned herds and production costs have soared.<\/p>\n

Fruits and vegetables: Up 4.1% annually this summer vs. 0.2% last year and 4.8% a year in 2021-23. Labor shortages have shrunk harvests while tariffs have upped import prices. These costs have increased by 20% over the past five years.<\/p>\n

Nonalcoholic beverages: Up 3.4% this summer vs. 1.3% last year and 4.7% a year in 2021-23. Tariffs hit coffee. Costs for ingredients such as fruit and sugar have increased sharply. Prices are up 20% over five years.<\/p>\n

Sweets, fats and oils: Up 2.9% this summer vs. 2% last year and 8.8% a year in 2021-23. Costlier sugar and cattle outweigh certain savings on grains. Yet these prices are up 35% over five years.<\/p>\n

Alcoholic beverages: 2.7% this summer vs. 1.1% last year and the 3.6% average in 2021-23. Falling consumption keeps price hike modest \u2013 up only 15% over five years.<\/p>\n

Dairy: Up 2% this summer vs. 0.7% last year and the 6.2% average in 2021-23. Prices are back on the upswing due to smaller herds and rising production costs. Prices are up 21% over five years.<\/p>\n

Cereals\/baked goods: Up 1.9% this summer, the same as last year, and nowhere near the 8.2% annually in 2021-23. Grain prices have returned to normalcy after the pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia war upset supply chains. Prices are up 31% over five years.<\/p>\n

Dining out?<\/p>\n

If a Californian thinks a meal on the town won\u2019t hurt the budget, think again.<\/p>\n

Yes, inflation in the \u201cfood away from home\u201d category in the three big metros dramatically cooled this year. The industry is adjusting to increased ingredient costs and higher labor expenses.<\/p>\n

This summer\u2019s 3.6% one-year gain in dining out prices is down from a 6.3% surge last year and a 5.1% per year pace of 2021-23.<\/p>\n

But dining out has seen quicker price growth than groceries or the overall California economy. Having somebody else cook is 28% costlier than it was five years ago.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has not been a pretty summer for consumers at California\u2019s supermarkets. That\u2019s what my trusty spreadsheet found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,2356,101,2402,7600,452],"class_list":["post-155405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-california","tag-economy","tag-inflation","tag-retail","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}