Grocery prices are headed higher later this year, according the U.S.’s largest supermarket by sales.
 
Cincinnati-based Kroger Co., which had $132 billion in sales last year, says inflation is running hotter than management previously anticipated and that expectations are now for prices to rise 2% to 3% over the second half of this year.

Kroger is "passing along higher cost to the customer where it makes sense to do so," said CFO Gary Millerchip on the company’s second-quarter earnings call on Friday.
Management at Kroger rival Albertsons Companies Inc. earlier this summer expressed similar concerns that inflation would pick up in the second half of the year and that they too would pass some of those increased costs along to consumers.

Further increases at the checkout counter would put further pressure on consumers who are already dealing with the biggest annual increase in consumer prices since August 2008.
 
Within the consumer price index, the component for food at home has risen six months in a row and is up 2.6% this year.
 
Half of the basket’s price increase is due to soaring prices for beef, pork and poultry. Beef prices have risen 14% this year while pork prices have jumped 12.1%, and poultry prices are higher by 6.6%.
 
Prices were up in five of the six major grocery store food groups in July, falling only for fruits and vegetables. The category saw prices dip 0.9% after rising 0.7% in June.
 
The Federal Reserve has said the price increases that have occurred in the wake of COVID-19 are "transitory" and that those pressures will subside as the supply-chain disruptions are resolved.

The Biden administration, however, says issues the supply-chain issues caused by COVID-19 and increased demand are only partly to blame.

Instead the administration blames what they say is a lack of competition in meat processing.

"Just four large conglomerates control the majority of the market for each of these three products [beef, pork and poultry], and the data show that these companies have been raising prices while generating record profits during the pandemic," said National Economic Council Director Brian Deese at a press briefing on Wednesday.
 
The administration is "taking bold action to enforce the antitrust laws, boost competition in meat-processing, and push back on pandemic profiteering that is hurting consumers, farmers and ranchers across the country," Deese said.

Whether or not the administration’s efforts will rein in price gains remains to be seen.

In the meantime, customers looking for savings at the grocery store could opt for private label brands.

"If you go back to prior times when you had inflation, the customer, a lot of times, would trade over to our brands as part of their structuring their budget," Kroger CEO William McMullen said. "We're not seeing budget changes on our brands happening at this point, but I'm sure if inflation continued."

I work for Kroger and I can attest that grocery prices are indeed going up. I put up the weekly price changes for my department, and I've noticed that about 30% of the products have increased in price in the last two months. Some have only increased about 10%, but some have increased as much as 20%. It makes sense, considering how the government has given away a lot of money due to the fake Covid crisis. Inflation was and is inevitable. 

The famous "bake your own" pizza place, Papa Murphy's, just upped their prices a full 10%. $10 Tuesdays are now $10.99 Tuesdays.
That's not simply a $1 increase, that's a 10% increase!

Our local butcher raised the price of a pound of hamburger from $3.99 to $4.39. Again, that's exactly 10%. BOOM just like that.

Talk about inflation!

I'm afraid we haven't seen anything yet, though.

Do you think it's going to get a lot worse? If so, everyone needs to start a veggie garden right away. And find a source of inexpensive meat, if possible. Or raise chickens. 

I stopped buying from Kroger cause they are LGBTQIAHIVSTDS+ supporters

Not only that, their quality is terrible. And I’m from Cincy!

The famous "bake your own" pizza place, Papa Murphy's, just upped their prices a full 10%. $10 Tuesdays are now $10.99 Tuesdays.
That's not simply a $1 increase, that's a 10% increase!

You have "bake your own" pizza places?  I just can't believe that. Here we call that HOME. Incredible!!! 

You have "bake your own" pizza places? I just can't believe that. Here we call that HOME. Incredible!!!

Sorry but that is too funny. 

I have begun getting many of my staple grocery items at Aldi.  You can save a lot of money that way.

ALDI has been going up 15-20% also ... and their package sizes are shrinking.  They also made a mistake by remodeling their stores.  They used to save a lot of money by being no frills and just stacking boxes onto oversized shelves.  Now they're trying to make their stores cool, and so there's room for only about 50% of what they had before, and half the time they can't keep up with restocking stuff.  Nobody who's interested in the cool factor shopped at ALDI anyway, so that was a big mistake and did not draw extra customers.  They also started taking credit cards, which they didn't do before to save the merchant fees.  Consequently, their prices have gone up to the point that simply buying offbrand at a regular supermarket costs about the same.  They largely ruined what had been a great business model.  Quality on some of their stuff which used to be good has gone down the toilet.

It's very important for everybody -- Catholic or not, just the everyday consumer -- to stop paying these exorbitant prices.  I don't know if they have Grocery Outlets everywhere; they have them in my state, and they include huge bargains on meats and fish of all kinds, and you don't have to buy in bulk, although that's also possible for larger families or people with good freezers.  I will also go to Walmart for some items that Grocery Outlets do not carry.

I have almost abandoned supermarkets and even produce stores because of the prices.  $4 for a few ounces of blueberries when they were even at the height of the season and abundant?  I don't think so.  I don't believe any of the hype about shipping, etc.  This is about "making up" for so much lost profit during 2020.  Shipping obstacles then, not now, resulted in low supply, which affected the bottom line of the stores; they simply had not the merchandise to meet their usual profit margin.

Silently boycott any store that is price gouging, which includes Target, by the way.  They're gouging for many kinds of items.  Even beauty supply places are charging 10+% more than the brand charges when you buy directly from the brand the same item.