We’re all sick of high prices at the grocery store, but one Fed official says he uses the price of Stouffer’s frozen, party-sized meat lasagna as an inflation gauge.
“That’s my own little measuring stick of how inflation is going,” said Neel Kashkari, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
Kashkari told his hometown paper, the Star Tribune, that after the pandemic hit, he started doing weekly grocery runs for his family. He said ongoing sticker shock has been a constant reminder of just how expensive things are.
“I pay attention to grocery prices,” Kashkari told CNN. “There’s this large tray of [Stouffer’s] lasagna that I used to buy that used to cost $16.00, now it’s around $21.00.”
Sure, it may seem like a small increase, but it signifies the increasing prices we’ve seen for months.
The prices of most American household staples like dairy products, fresh produce, meats, and more have risen.
The cost of eggs jumped nearly 60% in 2022.
“Similar to gas, food prices can fluctuate more than other goods and services,” the Star Tribune pointed out.
Kashkari is one of the Fed officials that will have to vote on how high interest rates go this year. So, he said his views on whether price increases are cooling off fast enough will be closely watched as the future of our economy hangs in the balance.
Yet, with the Fed expecting “ongoing rate hikes in 2023,” Kashkari warned that higher prices may stick around for a while.
“A lot of the prices that we’re seeing now are probably going to be with us. Hopefully, they come back down, but more likely, they’re going to stop climbing.”
He said while his family has been able to adapt and adjust to increasing prices, he understands that’s not the case for all Americans. He said it’s a fight he’s keeping in mind.
“My ability to adjust my shopping in the face of high inflation is a luxury I have that many people don’t,” he said.
He noted that many families are already buying in bulk or purchasing store brands, so they don’t have many other options to switch.
“So now what do you do,” he asked.
While families battle rising prices, they also have to deal with “shrinkflation,” the phenomenon when prices increase but product amounts decrease.
In the end, the dollar amount ticks up and up at the register, and Americans are forced to fork over the cash to feed their families, all while waiting for inflation to let up.
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