Eye-popping price increases for staples like milk and eggs leave some in the U.S. with few options

To get a sense of what a 40-year-high inflation rate looks like south of the border, stroll down Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in D.C.'s historic Anacostia neighbourhood and ask the locals about the price of groceries.

From bread to milk to a pack of chicken wings, most can rattle off the recent price fluctuations down to the penny. 

"It used to be like $125 US, and now, it's $170," Benito Co, 34, said of the cost of a 40-pound case of chicken wings he used to buy for his small eatery, 6Co. "I'm, like, this is crazy. I'm just not selling [them] for now."

The price of chicken has risen 19 per cent in the past year, according to the latest U.S. consumer price index, which tracks prices for tens of thousands of goods and services.

It's just one of the eye-popping price increases that pushed the overall inflation rate in the U.S. to 9.1 per cent last month, 1.4 percentage points above Canada's a month earlier. In an average year, prior to the pandemic, inflation was closer to two per cent.

For Americans, like Canadians, it's been most noticeable at the gas pump, where prices have gone up a whopping 60 per cent since last June. But the jump in the cost of staples such as milk (16 per cent), butter (26 per cent), eggs (33 per cent) and flour (19 per cent) is also hitting consumers and small businesses hard.

Fatma Nayir, 61, runs Mama's Pizza Kitchen down the street from Co's eatery and is paying $26.99 for the 50-pound bag of flour that used to cost $18.

"Ground beef, flour, every single item that I use [has gone up]," she said. 

Price increases have been compounded by supply shortages that started in the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to plague businesses. When the cardboard pizza boxes essential to her business began getting expensive and hard to find, Nayir debated using trays. Plastic forks that used to be out front for customers are now given out sparingly from behind the counter. 

Two months ago, facing a rise in D.C.'s minimum wage that kicked in July 1, she finally upped her prices 10 per cent. It's not a move she made lightly in an area where 60 per cent of residents earn less than $50,000 a year and median household income is $37,963.

"It's really across the board, from top to bottom," Laila Winborne, 35, said of the impact of inflation as she waited to pick up a pizza.

The married mother of three works at Nationals Park stadium. The cutting back on family outings and other extras that many people find they're having to do has meant fewer ballpark visitors and fewer shifts for Winborne.

At home, Winborne struggles to maintain her own already costly vegan diet and stretch her family's grocery budget. A carton of 60 eggs used to cost her about $10 at the local Safeway, she said, but is now closer to $19.

"At least if I go to Walmart, it's $9, but because it's Walmart, they're always out of stock," she said. "People who didn't used to shop there, now, they're shopping at these lower [priced stores]. It's like, come on, this is our store!"