DETROIT (WXYZ) — Rising gas prices have been raising hopes that inflation is slowing. But a consumer price index report released Tuesday showed a higher-than-expected reading of inflation, sending stocks into a tumble.
A big pain point for many of us remains prices at the grocery store.
Essentials items like eggs, bread and milk are seeing the biggest increases in grocery stores and sadly, the sticker shock could be here for a while.
The slowdown in prices at the pump has not translated into what you pay at the grocery store.
“The prices are ridiculous,” one person out shopping told 7 Action News.
Nearly a year from when inflation first began ticking up, there hasn’t been much relief for metro Detroiters. A new labor report confirms what our wallet already know: food prices are soaring, an 11% rise over the past year, the largest annual increase since 1979.
Breaking down the essentials, the biggest pain point starts with your morning breakfast.
Eggs have seen the biggest spike at 40%, along with flour, which is now up more than 20%. Milk is up 17% and bread rose by 16%.
Meat prices are no different.
While out at the grocery store, we saw chicken prices averaging 16% higher.
Ameera: how have the prices really changed the way you approach grocery shopping?
“The way I approach it is buy what I need, not what I want, and that’s honest,” said Kim Colvin, adding that she doesn’t just shop at one store. “I find myself going to different grocery stores to get a bargain.”
Lathrup Village’s Oliver Wilson says he’s been pulling out the scissors.
I only buy from the marked down areas, and I only use coupons,” Wilson said.
Shoppers are wondering when prices will go down.
“I think we’ll start to see some prices come down over the next six months, but it’ll take years for some prices to come down?” Erik Gordon with the University of Michigan Ross School of Business said.
It begs the question: why such a quick rise, but slow decline?
“Part of it is to fatten up the profits and part of it is that sellers don’t like their prices to jump around,” Gordon said.
Investors are worried that it means the federal government will have to take more drastic action lifting interest rates to combat the high inflation.
