First gas, now food. The household budget in Southern California is getting no relief these days.
Southland residents already pay among the highest grocery prices in the nation, and the forecast is for even higher costs. Federal statistics released Tuesday for April show that food prices in Southern California rose 5.7% from a year earlier.
Prices are going up for much of what gets dumped into the grocery cart including cereals, bread, bacon, pork roasts, chicken, eggs, cookies, hot dogs, oranges, soda pop and dried beans.
Nationally, food prices rose 3.9% in April compared with the same month in 2006, and the outlook is equally chilling wherever you shop. It is happening for many reasons: inflation, drought, freezing weather, even the rising cost of corn -- highly sought after not only as ingredients for thousands of food products but also to make ethanol.
Food prices in 2007 are increasing at their highest rate in years.
"We are going to see grocery store prices show one of the most rapid increases in the last 15 years or so," said Patrick Jackman, an economist at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That's no surprise in Southern California, where high gas prices, real estate expenses and labor costs give grocery prices an extra -- and painful -- boost. Just ask Wendy Diamond, a Long Beach mother of three, who lives it.
After Diamond loaded her children into a minivan recently, she pulled out a box of Ralphs Chocolate Marshmallow Cosmos breakfast cereal from her shopping bag.
"I would have bought Lucky Charms, but it was $4.59," she said. "This was $2.50." Diamond said that nearly every product she purchases at that Ralphs or at a nearby Pavilions has gone up at least 20 to 30 cents in the last year.
This year, food prices in Southern California have been rising faster than other major cities, including such high-cost metropolitan regions as New York, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Grocery store food bills rose by an average of 4.9% during the first four months of this year in Southern California. That contrasts with increases of 1.1% in each of the last two full years.
A year ago shoppers saw decreases for some items, including breakfast cereals, beef roasts, pork, chicken, cheese and olives, but about the only foods showing any drops in price this year are butter, bananas and frozen vegetables.
