-Eldica Stuart-

Cousins!

Amidst an increase of gas prices and utilities, food prices are also on the list of necessities that are continuously sky rocketing with an end nowhere in sight!

Inflation is on the rise; food suppliers and restaurant chains are increasing as a result. “Inflation is real. And it is not going to get any better any time soon” states Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti at a conference held on Tuesday.

According to CBS News,  Average American has been forced to spend an extra $460 per month on food. There has been a spike of 11.9% increase in May over the last years. This increase marks the biggest increase in more than four decades. Food chains expressed that they know the pressure that us consumers are feeling.

Although, as a buyer we are on the receiving end, and they are on the other end of the spectrum there is a commonality with the high food prices we are experiencing. Thus far, fast food places like McDonald’s, Shake Shack, and Cracker Barrel commented on the excessive price change. We are likely to receive smaller packaging of foods at an even higher price.

Beef prices have risen to a surprisingly 24% over the last three months. Chicken was once a food you could purchase at a cheaper price, and has now risen to 34%. This increase shows how it will affect the nation.

The increase is allegedly to be owed to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which led to expensive fuel prices. Weather changes deteriorating the crops and shortage of staffing.

Food Companies like Tyson, Campbell’s canned Soups, and Hormel Foods have chimed in about the soaring prices and the changes they have experienced due to inflation. In a report conducted by BofA Securities, analyst Alexander Lin, states that Americans are eating more now than they did in the past, which contains retail inventories.

Even the cost of agricultural chemicals to fertilize the crops has increased fifty percent. While there is a war, Russia is a main contributor to export nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus to help fertilize the crops here in the United States.

Cousins, out of all the different areas of price increases, which one has hit your pockets the hardest?