Food prices slowly coming down, store brands expanding
Gas prices in the Tampa Bay area are down a stunning 60 percent over the past five months.
So where’s the trickle down?
As gas prices peaked in the summer, the nearly $150 tab for a barrel of oil was the prime suspect in everything from spiking airfares and surging food costs to announcements of much higher electric bills in 2009.
As oil prices have receded, however, the impact has been decidedly muted. Airfares have ticked down only slightly, and most local electric bills will still climb steeply in January.
The most glaring disconnect may be at the supermarket. Prices for staples like eggs and milk are down by just single digits even though markets for commodities such as wheat, soybeans and corn have fallen as much as 40 percent.
Grocery stores — and their customers — have noticed.
Linda Severin, a Kroger vice president, has spent the last two years dreaming up new products to sell under the chain’s store-brand labels. Her creations, while inexpensive compared to national brands, are often fancier than the store brands of old. They include Mediterranean-style pizzas and cake mix with edible images of princesses.
Among the store-brand products developed by Linda Severin, a Kroger vice president, is cake mix containing edible images.
Her timing could not have been better.
As the economy plunges into a deep recession, grocery stores are one of the few sectors doing well. That is because cash-short consumers are eating out less and stocking up at the supermarket. And store brand products, which tend to be cheaper than national brands and more profitable for grocers, are doing especially well.
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