At the start of the pandemic, Mary and her husband had their groceries delivered weekly by Whole Foods, paying about $35 for each delivery to their Streeterville home. The couple are well-off — both are doctors — and have a newborn and toddler, making shopping in person an even more arduous task.
They stopped splurging as supermarket grocery prices rose at the worst rate in more than 40 years in 2022. They could have afforded to keep ordering from Instacart, but the food costs “got to the point where it just seemed ridiculous,” Mary said. “It wasn’t a good use of money.”
In Chicagoland and elsewhere in the country, consumers are pushing back against rising grocery prices and increasingly looking for ways to save money at the checkout. According to the latest Harris Poll, two-thirds of American adults say a standard grocery cart costs more now than it did a year ago, and about half of consumers have changed their shopping habits to save money.
Surveys show that nearly three-quarters of today’s budget-conscious shoppers have adopted new habits of shopping for products on sale or with coupons, making it the most popular way to save money we surveyed. A similar percentage choose lower-priced private label products over name brands. The majority of those with new shopping habits also comparison shop, buy different sizes of less expensive products, forego organic foods, and buy only essentials. Nearly half now shop at a variety of stores.
The survey results are remarkably similar across income levels: For example, among adults who are taking actions to reduce their grocery spending, 71% of those in households earning less than $50,000 a year say they are buying discounted items, compared with 74% of those in households earning more than $100,000 a year.
It may seem surprising that so many people are changing the way they shop, given that household food costs rose just 0.1% from June to July and just 1.1% year-over-year, according to the most recent government data. Inflation may peak at 11.4% in 2022, but it remains a top concern for many Americans because its effects will linger even after price pressures subside. After all, what was $100 at the end of 2019 is now almost $130.
Rising food prices aren’t just straining the budgets of middle-class and wealthy families: The number of people food banks and pantries fed last spring increased 28% from the previous year, according to the Greater Chicago Food Depository, a figure that was likely due to inflation and shrinking pandemic relief programs. As a result, the nonprofit estimated that one in five Chicago metropolitan households with children were food insecure in the second quarter, a rate last recorded in the first few months of the pandemic in 2020.
It’s also a lesson for Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose City Council colleagues are considering 16 tax increases to pay for expanded social services. Yes, more people are struggling, but a grocery sales tax (one of the options under consideration) would disproportionately affect low-income families, who spend a large part of their budget on food, so it might be wise to forgo it.
The repeated hits to the wallet also go a long way to explaining why both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have recently focused on food costs.
By now, Americans have had time to largely recalibrate their price expectations. Still, grocers are occasionally spiking prices and stepping up efforts to keep them in check.
Angela, a hairstylist who lives near Lincoln Square with her art-director husband and teenage daughter, was surprised to see a two-pack of chicken breasts for $15 at a Jewel-Osco store recently. “I can’t believe it,” she said. But it was a buy-one-get-one-free sale, so she ended up buying two.
To save for retirement, Angela, 50, plans and shops for meals three weeks in advance. She buys fresh fruit only when it’s in season and cheap. She avoids red meat. She grows and cans her own vegetables. And she comparison shops online, switching between four stores — Jewel, Mariano’s, Aldi, and Costco — to get the best deals.
Still, she admitted there were times when she couldn’t meet her monthly savings goal. “Everything’s more expensive now,” Angela said.
Mary, 35, has also noticed she’s become more frugal. Though she’s a Whole Foods Market regular, she’s increasingly choosing conventionally grown fruits and vegetables over pricier organics, buying less meat, and stocking up on sales. “I don’t know if I’m always doing it to save money, but I’m more careful about what I buy,” she says.
The good news for consumers is that inflation is subsiding. The bad news is that a weakening job market may lead employers to hold back on giving raises needed to keep up with rising prices. For an increasing number of families, frugality looks set to continue.
Will Johnson is the Chicago-based CEO of The Harris Poll, one of the world’s leading public opinion research companies.
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