KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Here at KSHB 41 News, the I-Team is working to help people in the metro better understand inflation and how it affects them.
To better break that down, the I-Team is monitoring the prices of milk, bread, cereal, eggs and ground beef at five different metro grocery stores.
The locations include Hy-Vee in the Northland, a Walmart in Olathe, an Aldi in Waldo, the Westport Sun Fresh and a Price Chopper in Leawood.
And, just three weeks into the effort, the team has noticed a pattern.
Although the sample of data is still somewhat small, the I-Team noticed the bigger the chain, the less change is seen in prices, at least on these select items.
For example, here are some of the larger price changes seen this week compared to when the tracking started:
- Hy-Vee — the brand of cereal being monitored increased by $1.99
- Sun Fresh — the price for a dozen eggs increased by 60 cents
- Price Chopper — cereal increased in price by $1.30
But decreases were seen at various stores, too. At Price Chopper, the price of ground beef went down $1.60 per pound.
Also, a loaf of white bread was $1.40 cheaper at Hy-Vee this week.
While there were a lot of ups and downs, there was one store that stayed steady on all items, the Olathe Walmart.
That's one reason shopper Mary Rodriguez says she typically buys her basic goods at Walmart.
"It's the things that I buy. Like the meats and the milk, eggs especially," Rodriquez said.
This week's data wasn't an anomaly. For the past three weeks, although that location hasn't always had the lowest prices on every item, they have had the most consistent prices, at least on the products KSHB is tracking.
The I-Team took initial data to Larry Wigger, University of Missouri-Kansas City economics professor, and he wasn't surprised by the findings.
He explains overall, larger organizations like Walmart and other major chains can buy items in larger quantities further in advance, locking in those prices. Plus, he says larger deliveries allow savings on packaging, fuel, labor and accounting costs.
But smaller retailers and mom and pop shops have to make smaller purchases more often, typically from other smaller, local suppliers.
"And so their costs are higher. They are not able to make as big of a commitment," Wigger said. "And because they are having to buy more frequently, they are more exposed to the ups and downs of inflation."
Of course, plenty of people believe in shopping local, even if it means spending a little more.
"I think it comes down to, we intentionally chose to stay in the Brookside area and we try to support local as much as we can, so we will try to stay at the Cosentino's of the world," said local shopper Katie Zeeck.
Coming up next week, the I-Team will explain why some groceries seem to be more susceptible to inflation compared to others.
Here are the price changes from this week:
- Hy-Vee
- A loaf of white bread is $1.59 — $1.40 cheaper
- Cereal is $4.98 — $1.99 more expensive
- Beef is $6.69 a pound — 30 cents more expensive
- Aldi
- Milk is $2.98 — two cents more expensive
- A dozen eggs are $1.27 — two cents more expensive
- Sun Fresh
- A loaf of white bread is $3.39 — 20 cents more expensive
- Cereal is $2.99 — $2.16 cheaper
- A dozen eggs are $2.35 — 60 cents more expensive
- Price Chopper
- Cereal is $5.99 — $1.30 more expensive
- Beef is $5.29 a pound — $1.60 cheaper
- A dozen eggs are $2.19 — 41 cents more expensive
- Walmart
- All prices remained the same
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