With prices in grocery stores and gas stations on the rise, many North Texans say they have been forced to adjust their spending habits for the time being.
Kyky Lacy of Fort Worth is a mother of two and said she typically goes grocery shopping once every two weeks. Lately, she has noticed her grocery bill increase by at least double.
“It’s a bit much,” Lacy said. “The prices are like skyrocketing. It’s crazy. For a loaf of bread, it used to be a dollar.”
It’s not just a matter of how much groceries cost, she said. Oftentimes, there are also some items she cannot find.
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“Mainly now I do online. Amazon, they have a lot more available than here at the stores where everyone goes. It has changed drastically for me,” she said. “Now there’s like a whole grocery list I’m getting delivered to my door because the stores are completely out.”
According to a report released this week by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the consumer price index for February increased 7.9% from one year ago. This is the highest increase since January 1982, according to Dean Stansel with the SMU Cox School of Business’ Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom.
“For a lot of people out there listening, maybe they weren’t even alive then. We’re in kind of unchartered territory for a lot of people. It’s been a long time since we’ve had inflation anywhere near this high,” Stansel said Thursday.
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The consumer price index measures a wide-ranging basket of goods and services. Stansel said there are a number of reasons why it has increased significantly. He pointed to “poorly targeted [COVID-19] relief dollars” as one example.
“One of the things that’s happened since March 2020, so the last two years, basically… is the federal government flew across the country in a helicopter and threw money out along the way,” he said. “So, you had all this new money that people had in their pockets chasing fewer goods because production had shut down. Factories had shut down. So, that’s inevitable that’s going to lead to inflation.”
Continued inflation will likely result in higher interest rates, he added.
“One of the things we’ve seen over the long history of inflation, once we get started, it’s a lot harder to stop than to prevent it from starting,” he said. “If past history has any guide, we’re likely to see a recession out of this.”
In the meantime, Fort Worth residents like Donna Ritchie said they’re trying to limit how much they’re shopping for groceries and make what they have last longer.
“You feel like your money is just not going very far these days,” Ritchie said. “I think you just have to be patient and maybe it’s something we’re going through from COVID. I’m just trying to wait it out and hope things get better.”
