Food prices spike in grocery stores as inflation surges

BRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — As prices rise in grocery stores, many people are feeling the pinch. The U.S. is seeing the biggest monthly jump in U.S. inflation in 30 years.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released numbers that say food prices are up by 5.3 %, using numbers from last month in comparison to October last year. Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs seeing the highest uptick, at nearly 12%.

One local resident said he is disturbed by the high prices of food in grocery stores.

“It’s really going way out of sight, as far as I think. Since the last six months it’s been unbelievable, and really it’s been hard on everybody right now, and if nobody wants to talk about it, that’s the bad part. It just keeps on going, there has to be a freeze somewhere along the line,” said John Mercolini, resident.

Mouhcine Guettabi, an associate professor of economics at UNCW said these prices can be attributed to supply chain issues, and more people buy certain food products.

“There is considerably lower supply, stuff is not getting to companies when it’s supposed to, and its coupled with more of us buying more things. So, you have much higher demand and issues when it comes to supply, and its resulting in these prices increasing quite substantially,” said Mouhcine Guettabi, associate professor of economics at UNCW.

Stephen Fuher is a butcher at a grocery store in Leland, and says meat prices at his store have significantly increased within the past 3 months.

“The inflation is horrible right now with meat. Meat has gone up $2 a pound for every single steak that I cut, so ribeye strip, and everything like that. Roasts have gone up $2 a pound, everything’s gone up in the meat department at least $3-$4,” said Stephen Fuher, butcher.

Fuher said many of these meat companies took a hit during the pandemic, and are now trying to cover the loss.

“Right now they have to bump the prices up because their supplies got hit so bad during that first part of the pandemic. they had to kill, I think over 60,000 pigs, they had to put them down, couldn’t use them, they got too old, they had to put down over 60,000 cattle, because it got too old, and once that happens that really hurts these businesses,” said Fuher.

Guettabi says economic forecasters are anticipating these surges in food prices will be temporary, but are not sure when they will come to a halt.