Spending $100 on groceries won’t fill up the shopping cart as much as it did five years ago.
Inflation-battered shoppers now need to spend $137 for the same basket of staples that they were able to buy for $100 in 2019, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.
Soaring prices have become a central issue in the upcoming election, with Bidenomics being blamed by Republicans for sapping Americans’ paychecks.
In 2019, during Donald Trump’s presidency, the average price of a dozen eggs was $2.36 — or $1.48 cheaper than the $3.84 average cost today under Joe Biden.
Laundry detergent, meanwhile, has seen one of the largest price jumps today compared to five years ago.
In 2019, a bottle of detergent cost on average $7.83. Today, it costs $10.66 — an increase of $2.83.
Other vital items like milk, butter, cereal and toilet paper have also soared.
A gallon of milk cost $2.73 in 2019, but is $0.52 more expensive today, at $3.25.
Butter, which sold for $3.78 on average five years ago, is nearly $1 more expensive today — as are a bag of potato chips, which have spiked to $3.26, compared with $2.26 in 2019.
Cereal, which cost $3.36 on average in 2019, is now $1.14 more expensive — pricing out at $4.50.
Toilet paper, which was cost $7.08 five years ago, now costs $9.75 — an increase of $2.67.
Frozen pizza, which cost $3.77 on average in 2019, would now set you back $5.15 — or $1.38 more.
Strawberry jam and peanut butter saw their prices rise by more than $1 compared to 2019.
Inflation remains stubbornly high, though well off the 40-year rate of 9.1%s hit in 2022.
February’s Consumer Price Index — which tracks changes in the costs of everyday goods and services — came in at 3.2%, a tick higher than the 3.1% headline inflation figure economists surveyed by FactSet expected.
Last week, the core Personal Consumption Expenditures Index — the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge which excludes volatile food and energy prices — rose 0.3% in February and 2.8% year-over-year — highlighting the difficulty in getting prices under control.
The most recent inflation report found that grocery prices increased by 1% in February compared to a year prior.
In February 2023, grocery prices shot up by 10.2% compared to a year prior.
In the pre-pandemic period, the rate of price increases was much smaller. In February 2019, grocery prices rose 1.2% year-over-year.
In the last three years, grocery prices have risen 21%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that the central bank remains committed to its strategy of cutting interest rates later this year.
Mets owner Steve Cohen, who made his fortune as a hedge fund manager, told CNBC on Wednesday that he foresees a tough road ahead for the Fed in its effort to bring inflation closer to its 2% goal.
