Americans have felt inflation at the hair salon and in the frozen food aisle. They have seen it while buying pet food, pantry staples and diapers. Yes, gas is pinching them. But so is the price of bacon.
Nearly nine in 10 Americans say they have noticed prices rising around them, according to a survey conducted mid-February for The Upshot by Morning Consult. And, when asked which of the price increases have caught their attention, many mentioned necessities like gas, milk, ground beef and bread — a notably different universe of products than the narrower set of items, like used cars and raw lumber, that were soaring in price last spring.
The survey results make clear why consumers remain glum, even at a time of rapid job and economic growth. Inflation is now inescapable. And what it’s touching is deeply personal: a specific brand of baby formula, “the sausages my husband buys,” “my usual Alaskan salmon dinner at Captain D’s.”
“This is not just a used car phenomenon,” said John Leer, the chief economist at Morning Consult. “When it was used cars, you could have the option essentially of opting out of inflation,” he added. “You could say ‘I don’t want to buy a used car, so this doesn’t affect me, life goes on.’”
As opting out has become less and less possible, Americans now rate inflation among their top concerns for the first time in nearly four decades. In Washington, the topic looms over President Biden’s legislative agenda and Democrats’ prospects in midterm elections. The monthly release of government inflation figures — which on Thursday showed inflation reaching a 40-year high, driven by the steep prices of gas and food — has become an anxious political event. And the sanctions on Russia that are rattling the global economy now threaten to push energy and food prices higher still.
In this moment of growing alarm over inflation, the survey asked 2,200 people to name specific products and services whose higher prices have stood out to them over the past year. The open-ended responses show how closely people are paying attention.
They can quote what a three-pound bag of ground coffee cost at Costco last year. They have noticed that some costlier products have shrunk in size, too. Even before fuel prices hit a record high this week, nearly one in four people cited the rising cost of gas. Eight people pointed to the fact that the Dollar Tree chain of stores now charges $1.25 per item. Sixty-three people have apparently been tracking the cost of toilet paper. One-hundred-twenty-seven mentioned a haircut.
