SAN ANTONIO – Wilson and Rosa Maria Plaza walked out of the supermarket with three small bags of groceries.
“This was $30,” Wilson Plaza said. “I have to work overtime to do basic grocery shopping.”
Inflation overall is easing, but families are still dealing with high food prices.
A price check shows that the same cart of groceries that cost $257 just six months ago now costs $267, $10 more.
There is a welcome relief in the dairy aisle. A gallon of milk costs 9% less than it did last December.
And eggs? After months of sticker shock, they’re down 44 percent.
But while the price of eggs has cracked, that glass of morning orange juice is squeezing budgets.
The price of a large jug of OJ jumped 15 percent, while a can of frozen concentrate skyrocketed by 44 percent.
That’s attributed to a poor Florida citrus crop, hurt by hurricanes and disease.
Overall, it continues to cost more to put dinner on the table.
Since the end of last year, ground sirloin is up 11 percent.
According to Dr. David Anderson, an agriculture economist at Texas A&M University, you can blame the drought.
“We are producing less beef, three to four percent less than a year ago,” he said. “And those tighter supplies show up in higher prices.”
And don’t expect a break on your burgers any time soon.
“I think beef prices will struggle,” Anderson said. “The pressure is on for them to go up.”
So, it looks like more chicken is in shopper Erlinda Gomez’s future.
“We’ve been buying chicken because that’s the cheaper,” she said. “I told my grandkids, ‘Grandma is going to have feathers pretty soon.'”
But even chicken thighs are up 7 percent in the past six months.
Aisle after aisle, many prices continue to inch up. Take carbs.
A pound of russet potatoes is up 18 percent. A bag of frozen corn is up 26 percent, And rice, long considered an affordable global staple, is up 20 percent.
Anderson said many factors are pushing prices.
“The packaging, the transportation, labor, electricity, keeping lights on — those underlying costs of production are higher.”
So what can shoppers do? Economists say to continue to shop for store brands, take advantage of sales and plan meals to avoid waste.
And for now, there are always eggs.
This price chart reflects the prices for curbside, which tend to be higher than in-store.