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Ms Ellis works full-time as a nurse’s assistant and has a second part-time job.
But she needs to economise. She has switched stores, cut out brand-name items like Dove soap and Stroehmann bread, and all but said goodbye to her favourite Chick-fil-A sandwich.
Still, Ms Ellis has sometimes turned to risky payday loans (short-term borrowing with high interest rates) as she grapples with grocery prices that have surged 25% since Mr Biden entered office in January 2021.
“Prior to inflation,” she says, “I didn’t have any debt, I didn’t have any credit cards, never applied for like a payday loan or any of those things. But since inflation, I needed to do all those things…I’ve had to downgrade my life completely.”
The leap in grocery prices has outpaced the historic 20% rise in living costs that followed the pandemic, squeezing households around the country and fuelling widespread economic and political discontent.
For me they are higher than a year or two ago and has been somewhat steady this year. Still you can sorta tell its rocky. Ironically I find nicer stuff is actually sorta a bargain now vs the lower quality stuff. The difference in the price is not as much. Basically there is more competition for the rock bottom and not as much for the somewhat decent. You really see this in restaurants where fast food is just kinda slightly less than getting a real meal now.