Grocery Store Sticker Shock

Every time I go to the grocery store these days I get a serious case of sticker shock. I first noticed prices going up at the end of last summer when my grocery bill seemed to jump overnight by about $20. I was mystified because I hadn’t suddenly started forgetting my coupons and it wasn’t like I’d switched to shopping at Whole Foods, which I affectionately call “Whole Paycheck”.  

A closer examination of my receipts revealed what we all now know to be true: Trickle-down economics is back in the worst way. It’s one thing to read the stories about the realities of skyrocketing food prices in the news, but it’s a whole other ballgame to actually go to the store and see price inflation in action. Beyond a doubt the farmers and corporations that produce our food are passing the cost of rising gas prices off to us, and now we also have to deal with the exploding cost of wheat, flour, and rice. Rice, oil, and flour shortages are so severe that in some parts of the country, Costco and Wal-Mart are limiting the amount a customer can purchase.

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve noticed prices creeping up even more. At the chain grocery store by my house, the brand of healthy whole wheat bread I usually buy has suddenly shot up to $4.29, almost a dollar increase. The price of my favorite cereal has also bounced up a whole dollar in the past month. As for the vitamin filled, anti-oxidant packed blueberries I like to sprinkle on my cereal, well, a six-ounce container of those is now $3.99.

Remember when watermelon used to be an inexpensive summer treat? A small watermelon, and I do mean small since it was the size of a pregnant cantaloupe, was a whopping $7.99. I don’t know about you, but I have a complete mental block against spending that much for a watermelon. My sons were disappointed to see me come home with boring apples ($1.99 a pound) and bananas ($ .79 cents a pound), but I explained to them that spending $7.99 on a watermelon just isn’t in our budget these days. Who’d have thought watermelon would become a splurge?  

For some people being able to afford a $7.99 watermelon is just a matter of making different choices, of reprioritizing needs instead of wants. I’ll keep it real and fess up to the fact that it wouldn’t be unheard of for me to spend $7.99 for something like a tube of lipstick. But the big difference is that I’m not buying a new tube of lipstick every week, even if I would 100 percent love to do so. Nope, one tube of lipstick will last me for months, making the price more cost-efficient. On the other hand, the watermelon will be decimated by my family in a mere ten minutes.