Why Are Grocery Store Prices So High

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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Instagram Teen Accounts default teens into automatic protections for who can contact them and the content they can see. Explore teen accounts and all of our ongoing work to protect teens online at instagram.com/teenaccounts.

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If you know your party's extension, you may dial it now. To speak to someone in customer service, press 12 Bakery, 13
Deli or hot foods, 14

**SPEAKER_4** (0:31)
Meat or seafood, 15

**Natalie Kitroeff** (0:35)
From the New York Times, I'm Natalie Kitroeff.

**SPEAKER_6** (0:38)
This is The Daily.

**Natalie Kitroeff** (0:40)
For a while now, my colleague, Daily producer Jessica Cheung, has been reporting on, or trying to report on, grocery prices.

**Jessica Cheung** (0:47)
I was wondering if you had a moment right now to talk about the kind of nature of shopping right now and why everything is so expensive.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:54)
That you would have to contact our corporate office for any information like that.

**Natalie Kitroeff** (0:59)
It started after COVID, when inflation and supply shortages sent prices soaring. Then came Ukraine, tariffs, and now the Strait of Hormuz, which has pushed prices even higher.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:11)
Sir, Mr. President, about the latest inflation number, which we have no, I love the numbers.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:16)
You know what I really love?

**SPEAKER_8** (1:18)
I love the inflation.

**Natalie Kitroeff** (1:19)
So she's been calling stores to talk about that, trying to find a grocery store manager who could talk about how they and the people who shop in their store are dealing with round after round of rising food prices, and how high those prices could possibly go.

**Jessica Cheung** (1:34)
And who would you recommend that I talk to at the corporate level?

**SPEAKER_3** (1:38)
Brad, talk to Brad.

**Jessica Cheung** (1:39)
I was told that this is a number for Brad.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:42)
He has been in a meeting in the moment. I could take a message and when he gets out, he could call you back.

**Natalie Kitroeff** (1:52)
Okay, but a lot of the grocery stores she had reached out to never got back to her. And the big grocery chains referred her to people far removed from the shelves. And it seemed like their job was to not answer her questions.

**Tyler Kulp** (2:04)
I would love to, but unfortunately I'm not allowed to.

**SPEAKER_10** (2:07)
I'm not really allowed to say anything.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:09)
You should be able to just e-mail media at wholesuits.com.

**Natalie Kitroeff** (2:12)
You can always call 1-800-CROGERS. Your call is being transferred.
But then, she reached a small store, and this one manager picked up the phone.

**Jessica Cheung** (2:27)
I wonder if you'd be open to a conversation about that.

**Tyler Kulp** (2:30)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I would love to.

**Natalie Kitroeff** (2:32)
Today, we go to his grocery store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to finally get some answers. It's Monday, July 13th.

**Jessica Cheung** (2:46)
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a part of town called East End, sits the aptly named East End Food Co-op, stuck away in a street without a lot of foot traffic. Its storefront is lined with grocery carts. There's a display of leafy potted herbs and organic seedless watermelons going for $18.99. Like most food cooperatives, there is no CEO. There are no shareholders. It's owned by the very people who shopped there, 17,000 members.
Though anyone off the street can buy their groceries here.
On a Monday morning in the middle of June, I walked into the produce section. I'm talking to shoppers about grocery prices.

**SPEAKER_8** (3:29)
Okay, go ahead.

**Jessica Cheung** (3:30)
It was not hard to get people to talk about prices and how high they are. You notice grocery prices go up?

**SPEAKER_8** (3:35)
Almost definitely.

**SPEAKER_6** (3:36)
To the extreme?

**SPEAKER_4** (3:37)
Oh, indeed. It's meteoric in a way.
Nasty.

**SPEAKER_6** (3:42)
It's so kind of sad walking into the store sometimes.

**SPEAKER_8** (3:45)
I've heard from everybody in my family that they're going up.

**SPEAKER_12** (3:48)
And when I bring Seth home, it's like, this is outrageous.

**Jessica Cheung** (3:51)
It's not just at this co-op. It's everywhere. Prices are soaring at unusually high rates.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, since 2020, grocery prices have climbed by nearly 30 percent, at a rate way faster than before the pandemic.

**SPEAKER_13** (4:06)
This lettuce is $4. That seems like a lot. I would have expected like $2.99.
Today, the price of watermelons is $18.99.

**Jessica Cheung** (4:18)
I saw that out front. I was surprised that was the advertised thing out front.

**SPEAKER_8** (4:21)
I thought that was like a misprint. I just was shocked.

**Jessica Cheung** (4:24)
Red peppers. Red peppers? Oh, my God. They're like almost $10 this morning.