Linda DiPaola reels from sticker shock at the grocery store.<\/p>\n
The Franklin Square retiree and her husband, who works full-time, are empty nesters feeling the pinch of high grocery prices\u00a0while trying to maintain a nutritious diet.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the thing is, we\u2019re used to eating well, so when you eat well all your life, it\u2019s challenging. But you do cut back on certain things,\u201d she said inside a Holiday Farms supermarket in Franklin Square on Wednesday last week.<\/p>\n
She misses the prices that were in grocery stores a few years ago, she said.<\/p>\n
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUNDGrocery prices in the metropolitan area, including Long Island, have surged due to factors like the war in Iran affecting fuel shipping and extreme weather impacting crop production, leading to significant inflation in food costs.Consumers are adapting by shopping more at discount stores and opting for cheaper store brands, while grocery stores face rising operational costs and increased competition, impacting their profitability.Despite higher grocery prices, farmers are not seeing increased profits due to rising expenses, with only a small fraction of grocery spending reaching them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wish things would settle down and come back to normal. You know, what\u2019s normal? What\u2019s today\u2019s normal,\u201d said DiPaola, 66.<\/p>\n
Long Islanders have been feeling the sting of rising grocery prices since annual average grocery inflation in the metropolitan area, including Long Island,\u00a0hit a 48-year high of 10.2% in 2022. Price growth slowed afterward, but grocery inflation has recently accelerated to levels\u00a0not seen in years.<\/p>\n
From March to April, inflation for groceries, or “food at home,”\u00a0in the metropolitan area was 1.5%, the biggest monthly increase since July 2022, when it was 2.5%, according to data published Tuesday by the\u00a0U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/p>\n
Grocery inflation in April compared to the same month last year was\u00a05.9%, the biggest annual increase since April 2023, when it was 6.1%.<\/p>\n
The war in Iran, which began Feb. 28 and has disrupted fuel shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, is the biggest factor in\u00a0recent grocery price hikes, said Adam Kamins, senior regional economist at Moody\u2019s Analytics, an economic research provider\u00a0in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
Diesel fuels the trucks that transport food and the machinery used on farms, while petroleum\u00a0byproducts are used\u00a0to produce fertilizer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect that what we\u2019re seeing now, it may not be the new normal [in terms of prices], but it\u2019s pretty close at least for the rest of this year,\u201d Kamins said.<\/p>\n
Among the different food categories, fruits and vegetables had the biggest year-over-year price growth in April, 11.8%, in the metropolitan area.<\/p>\n
That is partly due to extreme cold weather in Florida and other parts of the United States this past winter into spring, which reduced crop production, said Tom Jackson, economics manager at S&P Global Market Intelligence, a market information provider based in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
Higher labor costs and fewer workers\u00a0at farms\u00a0due to heightened immigration enforcement were other factors, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Point of no return?<\/p>\n
Overall grocery prices in the metropolitan area are now 26% higher than they were in April 2020, the month after the COVID-19 pandemic began leading\u00a0to temporary business shutdowns and home quarantines.<\/p>\n
Some consumers are hoping for a return to pre-pandemic prices.\u00a0Not only is that very unlikely to happen, but also it would\u00a0be a bad sign for the economy because overall price declines, or deflation, generally correspond to a recession, said Chris Barrett, a professor of agricultural economics at Cornell University.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very natural for people to want prices to go back where they were,” he said.\u00a0“That\u2019s a very, very rare occurrence for the entirety of a grocery cart. \u2026 But food price inflation is like a ratchet. It really moves one way only.\u201d<\/p>\n
One reason is that the prices consumers pay at the register\u00a0directly reflect\u00a0the cost of doing business, Barrett\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
For example, about half of\u00a0a customer\u2019s grocery bill goes toward labor expenses, such as store employees\u2019 wages, truckers who bring commodities and workers in manufacturing facilities, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, if we wanted to return to pre-pandemic food prices, you have to ask yourself, whose paycheck is going to get cut?\u201d<\/p>\n
New Hyde Park resident Lee Anne Pallisco and her husband, both retired, are\u00a0finding that grocery shopping is increasingly taking a larger share of their budget.<\/p>\n
The Palliscos, who are empty nesters, have cut back on expensive cuts of meat and are trying to waste less food to\u00a0stretch their grocery dollars, said Pallisco, 67, while at\u00a0the Holiday Farms supermarket in Franklin Square last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s challenging,” she said. “When we were raising our family, we did without a lot. And you know, you hope that once you get to a certain age, things can become more comfortable. And it\u2019s not really happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the past several years, consumers have responded to higher grocery prices by shopping more often at discount stores<\/a> and\u00a0increasingly replacing brand-name products with cheaper store brands, grocers said.<\/p>\n
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