{"id":4220,"date":"2026-07-25T20:12:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T20:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4220"},"modified":"2026-07-25T20:12:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T20:12:26","slug":"meet-the-americans-learning-to-go-without-after-the-biggest-grocery-inflation-in-50-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4220","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Americans learning to go without after the biggest grocery inflation in 50 years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jack, 50, scouts an app for deals at her local supermarket before she buys groceries. When she reaches the store, she looks in the weekly circular for coupons she might have missed. If shelf prices\u00a0look too high, she tries to find lower prices someplace else.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump administration admits it canceled $7.6 billion in clean energy projects \u2018based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient\u2019s state\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe apples went up here, the ones I eat, so now I\u2019m not going to get them here,\u201d Jack said as she pushed a cart into a\u00a0Stop & Shop\u00a0near her home in Lexington, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

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Couponing, comparison shopping and\u00a0cutting back\u00a0on favorite foods are new habits for her and millions of other Americans as they absorb the biggest jump in grocery prices in a half-century. Buying food to eat at home has gotten 33% more expensive since the beginning of 2019, according to government figures.<\/p>\n

With\u00a0a conflict\u00a0in the Middle East creating more price pressures, the cost of filling refrigerators, freezers and pantries has made affordability\u00a0a central issue\u00a0in the fall midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Residents of four urban areas where food inflation has exceeded\u00a0the national average\u00a0shared how steadily rising prices are changing the way they shop. They described\u00a0hunting for discounts, switching to store brands and feeling grateful for\u00a0food banks. Some are buying less meat and skipping nonessentials like cookies. Others are buying less food overall.<\/p>\n

Meat becomes a luxury for a family in Texas, the nation\u2019s top beef producer<\/h4>\n

Beef epitomizes\u00a0out-of-control grocery prices for many Americans. The price of a pound of ground beef reached $6.82 in June, which is 79% more than at the beginning of 2019, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.<\/p>\n

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Ada Torres, 60, who lives 45 miles northeast of Houston in Cleveland, Texas, is one of the people no longer buying it. She does the grocery shopping and cooking for the home she shares with her daughter and three grandchildren.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrices are sky-high. One hundred dollars\u2019 worth of groceries these days is nothing,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n

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Chicken and cold cuts are the family\u2019s main source of animal protein now that fresh meat is a luxury, she said. Her grandchildren, ages 12, 15 and 16, miss eating lasagna with ground beef, beef fajitas and steak with plantain chips.<\/p>\n

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Torres\u2019 daughter is the family\u2019s main provider. Her work for a mobile car-washing service dwindles during the rainy season; the family only can afford one full meal a day, Torres said.<\/p>\n

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Shopping outside Boston takes research and multiple stores<\/h4>\n

Apral Jack, a care provider and part-time Amazon worker, has fewer mouths to feed now that her three daughters are adults. But she spends more cautiously than she once did.<\/p>\n

Instead of shopping at Whole Foods, she builds her weekly menu around discounts and digital coupons.<\/p>\n

\u201cTypically, I\u2019ll try to pick the meals based on that. So like chicken fajitas: there was a three-day sale on chicken\u201d Jack said.<\/p>\n

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Nabisco Ginger Snaps and Nilla Wafers are off her shopping list. Jack won\u2019t buy store brand replacements. To her, they don\u2019t taste the same.<\/p>\n

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Three generations share food pantry eggs and produce to get by in San Francisco<\/h4>\n

San Francisco has a reputation as foodie city. Food preoccupies 33-year-old Jack Chang for other reasons. The self-employed barber has three young children and a partner who is unemployed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I have five mouths I have to feed, basically \u2014 and then sometimes my mom, too \u2014 it\u2019s a lot on me financially,\u201d Chang said.<\/p>\n

Their family is not one that goes out for boba milk teas or artisanal ice cream. They visit a Japanese entertainment center with $1 ice cream cones. Milk is the only organic product they consume.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at my credit card every month and I\u2019m like, \u2018Wow, how am I going to pay this?\u2019 So I\u2019m a little behind on bills, honestly,\u201d Chang said.<\/p>\n

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When their 4-year-old daughter\u2019s preschool has leftover meat or bread, Chang\u2019s partner, Tina Chhous, offers to take it. Chhous also receives monthly food assistance through the federal\u00a0Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout that, I don\u2019t know what I would do,\u201d Chang said.<\/p>\n

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Chang\u2019s 77-year-old mother, Lien, receives SNAP aid, too, and visits two food banks each week. She shares the canned food, eggs and produce she gets with the rest of the family.<\/p>\n

Prices in the Honolulu area keep a pastry chef from shopping and eating local<\/h4>\n

High grocery bills come with living in Hawaii. The state gets nearly all its food from cargo ships that have traveled thousands of miles, making prices vulnerable to oil market spikes.<\/p>\n

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Local products also got costlier this year. The cost of shipping goods between the Hawaiian Islands skyrocketed amid rising fuel prices tied to the Iran conflict.<\/p>\n

Amanda Tabadero, 28, a\u00a0pastry chef\u00a0on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, remembers buying Maui-grown strawberries and blueberries for $7.99 per pound in 2024. Now that they cost $11, she buys berries from California or Mexico at Costco for $5 when she bakes.<\/p>\n

Tabadero also doubts she will buy lychee again anytime soon. Kaimana lychee, the variety grown in Hawaii, mostly comes from the Big Island. Tabadero said an iced coffee and a bag of fruit she recently purchased in Honolulu\u2019s Chinatown came to $30.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes me sad,\u201d Tabadero said. \u201cI want to use local stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

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___<\/p>\n

This report is a collaboration between The Associated Press and The Lexington Observer in Massachusetts, La Esquina in Texas and Honolulu Civil Beat in Hawaii. AP Video Journalist Terry Chea contributed from San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Rockets and feathers\u2019: Economists say grocery prices shoot up like the first, fall like the second<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPrices are sky-high. 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