Are more grocery store woes on the way?

I am beginning to feel a bit like Debbie Downer when I post stories like these, but I also believe they contain information that is pertinent to our Members. Yesterday Jenny clued me in to another report saying that shoppers can expect shortages and even higher prices in grocery stores just as the holiday cooking and baking season begins.

This news segment cited a few products that were especially hard hit: corn, tomatoes, olive oil, beer, and turkeys. Weather is the culprit for lower yields on the first three items as the global heatwave and regional droughts combined to reduce the harvestable amount of these commodities. Beer producers in the US* blame supply chain issues and higher labor costs for their inability to keep pace with demand. Finally, a bird flu epidemic raced across the Midwest this summer, leading to the lowest supply of turkeys since 2006. One item not mentioned but which seems to be skyrocketing in price is butter, which in my area is up nearly 50% from last year.

Store shelves may not be bare of these items, but consumers can expect to pay 30%+ more for them – and this is on top of general inflation that has hit our grocery bills over the last year. Since corn is one of the scarce items, and so much of our food contains or uses corn products, expect the inflationary pressure to extend beyond cornmeal, affecting everything from soft drinks to meat.

There are strategies you can employ to help cushion the blow of high prices: buying in bulk if you can, shopping locally (I found a free-range turkey producer near me that has a plentiful supply of humanely-raised birds at nearly the same cost as supermarket turkeys), and making changes to your menu. This might be a good year to make a new family tradition. Since eggs are still reasonably affordable, I plan to switch from baking traditional butter cakes to chiffon cakes for upcoming special occasions. I’ll just be trading one sort of delicious for another (less expensive) one.

*If one considers what most Americans drink as being beer.