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Americans rewire their grocery shopping routines while digesting the biggest price jump in 50 years - AP News
From Associated Press via USVI News: Living through the biggest jump in grocery prices in a half-century has many Americans changing their eating and food shopping habits. The price of food purchased for home use has increased 33% since the beginning of 2019. In the 7 1/2 before thatThe war in Ir.
Americans rewire their grocery shopping routines while digesting the biggest price jump in 50 years
Many Americans are changing their eating and shopping habits after the biggest jump in grocery prices in 50 years. (AP video: Terry Chea and Mike Householder)
Lien Chang feeds her 2-year-old grandson Cairo Miu a bowl of rice next to his dad Jack Chang in her home on Monday, July 13, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Juliana Yamada)
Jack Chang cuts Isaac Obamehinti’s hair while holding his 2-year-old son Cairo Miu at his studio on Monday, July 13, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Juliana Yamada)
Apral Jack orders deli meat at Stop&Shop in Lexington, Mass., Monday, July 6, 2026. (Maggie Scales/The Lexington Observer via AP)
Ada Torres holds tomatoes while shopping for produce, Thursday, July 2, 2026, in Cleveland, Texas, about 45 miles northeast of Houston. (Sandy Guatibonza/La Esquina TX via AP)
Pastry chef Amanda Tabadero pours milk into a plastic container while preparing ingredients for maritozzi at Creature Coffeeshop in Kaneʻohe, Hawaii, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (Hikari Mae Hida/Honolulu Civil Beat via AP)
What’s for dinner? Lately, at Apral Jack’s house, it’s whatever is on sale.
Jack scouts an app for deals at her local supermarket before she buys groceries. When she reaches the store, she grabs the weekly circular to look for coupons she might have missed. If the shelf prices look too high, she scratches items off her list or tries to find lower prices someplace else.
“The apples went up here, the ones I eat, so now I’m not going to get them here. I’ll go to Market Basket, where I can get them cheaper,” Jack, 50, said as she pushed a cart into a Stop & Shop near her home in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Couponing, comparison shopping and cutting back on favorite foods are new habits for her and millions of other Americans as they absorb the biggest jump in grocery prices in a half-century. Buying food to eat at home has gotten 33% more expensive in U.S. cities since the beginning of 2019, according to government figures. In the 7 1/2 years before that, prices rose 6.4%.
The historic increase happened for numerous reasons. The coronavirus pandemic snarled supply chains and raised labor and transportation costs. Droughts, hurricanes and diseases like bird flu drove down production. Tariffs raised prices on foreign products like coffee, tomatoes and chocolate. Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine disrupted oil and fertilizer supplies.
With a fresh conflict in the Middle East accelerating food price inflation again this year, the cost of filling their refrigerators, freezers and pantries has become a frustration for Americans and made affordability a central issue in the fall midterm elections.
By some measures, Americans are better equipped to handle the higher prices, if only slightly. The average weekly earnings of people with full-time jobs job have gone up a bit faster than the cost of groceries since 2019, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This article is republished through the USVI News affiliate desk. Reporting, analysis, and viewpoints are those of the original publisher and do not necessarily reflect USVI News.