{"id":223905,"date":"2025-09-13T15:41:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T15:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/223905\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T15:41:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T15:41:08","slug":"california-shoppers-see-surging-grocery-inflation-once-again-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/223905\/","title":{"rendered":"California shoppers see surging grocery inflation once again \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has not been a pretty summer for consumers at California\u2019s supermarkets.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what my trusty spreadsheet found when averaging slices of Consumer Price Indexes for three Golden State metro areas: the Los Angeles\/Orange County combo<\/a>, San Francisco<\/a> and San Diego<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This summer\u2019s pricing \u2013 June through August\u2019s reports \u2013 shows that prices in the \u201cfood at home\u201d category across those three metros grew at an average 3.3% annual rate this summer. So, grocery inflation more than doubled from 1.5% in 2024.<\/p>\n

Yes, food at home inflation is nowhere near the pandemic era\u2019s inflation surge that saw grocery prices balloon at a 6.4% average annual rate in 2021-23. Nevertheless, mid-year 2025\u2019s California grocery inflation is running faster than the overall cost of living.<\/p>\n

The overall Consumer Price Index for the three big markets averaged 3.1% gains this summer, the same as a year ago. During the 2021-23 inflation surge, this price yardstick grew at a 5% annual rate.<\/p>\n

These recent cost-of-living gyrations, however, don\u2019t mitigate the financial pain of the worst bout of inflation in four decades<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Take a longer-term view, as measured by the CPI: California groceries are 26% costlier over five years, as the overall cost of living rose 23%.<\/p>\n

By the aisle<\/p>\n

A chunk of this summer\u2019s revived food inflation can be attributed to the higher costs of production and distribution<\/a>. The new administration\u2019s tariffs are making certain imported food more expensive.<\/p>\n

Ponder the grocery categories tracked by local CPIs to see which California supermarket aisles are most troublesome to your household\u2019s food budget. These are ranked by one-year increases \u2026<\/p>\n

Meats, poultry, fish and eggs:<\/strong> Up 4.3% annually this summer vs. 3% last year but off the 4.8%-a-year pace of 2021-23. Yes, the high-profile egg inflation has moderated. But beef prices soared \u2014 up 24% over five years \u2014 as drought has thinned herds and production costs have soared.<\/p>\n

Fruits and vegetables:<\/strong> Up 4.1% annually this summer vs. 0.2% last year and 4.8% a year in 2021-23. Labor shortages have shrunk harvests while tariffs have upped import prices. These costs have increased by 20% over the past five years.<\/p>\n

Nonalcoholic beverages:<\/strong> Up 3.4% this summer vs. 1.3% last year and 4.7% a year in 2021-23. Tariffs hit coffee. Costs for ingredients such as fruit and sugar have increased sharply. Prices are up 20% over five years.<\/p>\n

Sweets, fats and oils: <\/strong>Up 2.9% this summer vs. 2% last year and 8.8% a year in 2021-23. Costlier sugar and cattle outweigh certain savings on grains. Yet these prices are up 35% over five years.<\/p>\n

Alcoholic beverages:<\/strong> 2.7% this summer vs. 1.1% last year and the 3.6% average in 2021-23. Falling consumption keeps price hike modest \u2013 up only 15% over five years.<\/p>\n

Dairy:<\/strong> Up 2% this summer vs. 0.7% last year and the 6.2% average in 2021-23. Prices are back on the upswing due to smaller herds and rising production costs. Prices are up 21% over five years.<\/p>\n

Cereals\/baked goods:<\/strong> Up 1.9% this summer, the same as last year, and nowhere near the 8.2% annually in 2021-23. Grain prices have returned to normalcy after the pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia war upset supply chains. Prices are up 31% over five years.<\/p>\n

Dining out?<\/p>\n

If a Californian thinks a meal on the town won\u2019t hurt the budget, think again.<\/p>\n

Yes, inflation in the \u201cfood away from home\u201d category in the three big metros dramatically cooled this year. The industry is adjusting to increased ingredient costs and higher labor expenses.<\/p>\n

This summer\u2019s 3.6% one-year gain in dining out prices is down from a 6.3% surge last year and a 5.1% per year pace of 2021-23.<\/p>\n

But dining out has seen quicker price growth than groceries or the overall California economy. Having somebody else cook is 28% costlier than it was five years ago.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has not been a pretty summer for consumers at California\u2019s supermarkets. That\u2019s what my trusty spreadsheet found…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":223906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,64,1582,276,79,6270,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-223905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-retail","14":"tag-san-diego","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115197751145268286","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}