These independent grocers are also struggling with high food prices

Oct 17, 2024
In the five years that Sam Newell and her husband have run Fruit Fair in Chicopee, Massachusetts, they haven't had a profitable year.
Sam Newell and her husband bought Fruit Fair grocery store in Chicopee, Massachusetts, in 2019.
Courtesy Sam Newell

When will prices go back down?

Oct 6, 2023
The answer might disappoint you.
Inflation is slowing, but when will prices go back down? Above: Shoppers walk through a grocery store in Washington, DC.
Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Labor costs are a key ingredient in food inflation

Aug 11, 2023
And consumers of all income levels are adopting creative strategies to make their dollars stretch farther.
Generally, only 15% of the price of something like peanut butter goes to the farmer who produced the raw ingredients, says Chris Barrett, aprofessor of agricultural and development economics at Cornell. More goes to the production and transporting of the final product.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Will inflation continue to come down?

Jul 13, 2023
Inflation has eased in many areas that had temporary spikes, from airfares to used cars. Persistent, underlying inflation is harder to tackle.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Turkey's soaring food prices take center stage in presidential election

May 10, 2023
Voters will head to the polls on Sunday for the most crucial election in a generation as households continue to deal with inflation.
People shop at a local street market in Istanbul on May 3. Annual inflation in Turkey reached a whopping 85.5% last year.
Burak Kara/Getty Images

How fast-food chains are buffeted and buoyed by inflation

Feb 2, 2023
Many have higher expenses and are raising prices, but more consumers now have a taste for their relatively inexpensive meals.
Sales at fast-food chain Subway surged last year. But it’s by no means boom times for the industry.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

What will inflation look like one year from now?

Dec 9, 2021
Inflation is the highest it's been since the Reagan years — and still climbing. If it's this high now, what what will December 2022 will be like?
Economists think inflation is likely to persist in 2022. To what extent? That's harder to say. Above, traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 8.
Spencer Platt via Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Pandemic or not, consumers have an appetite for sweet snacks

May 17, 2021
The snack industry is seeing inflation, so you may have to pay a higher price for those cupcakes.
A stack of boxes of Twinkies, Hostess' most popular product, sits on a grocery store shelf. Hostess went public today, after years of financial strife and transformation.
ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

What it's like to live on an average wage in Shanghai

Jul 18, 2019
China's official inflation is still under 3%, but residents complain that the cost of living in the financial hub of Shanghai just keeps getting higher.
Workers on a lunch break in Shanghai. According to the job site, Zhaopin, the average worker spends 20 yuan ($2.90) or less per lunch. Convenience stores like this one are one of the few places that offer cheap meals in office areas.
Charles Zhang/Marketplace

The price of smoked salmon hasn't swum upstream

Sep 12, 2014
Not everything has gotten more expensive over time. Case in point: smoked salmon.