Food prices are soaring

Photo by Claudio Papapietro John Flanagan, of Kingsbridge, picks up a half gallon of milk at Garden Gourmet on Broadway on Tuesday afternoon. At $2.49, the price was slightly above the average at six local grocery stores.

Riverdale, Kingsbridge shoppers feel the pinch

By Matt Townsend

Compare prices at six local markets [ pdf ]

Barbara Darby stopped her shopping cart and stared at the price for a gallon of milk.

$4.79

"Milk is almost $5?" Ms, Darby, a senior citizen from Riverdale, asked incredulously.

Ms. Darby then picked up a can of Campbell's chicken soup from her cart at the Key Foods grocery store on Johnson Avenue and West 235th Street.

This used to be 89 cents not too long ago," she said of the can, which had a price of $1.17.

Soaring oil and corn prices and abnormal weather have caused food prices to increase more than usual across the country, and Riverdale residents haven't been spared.

"It feels like you go to the grocery store and spend $100 and you come out with two bags," said Morgan Baron, a Riverdale resident who owns and runs The Place, a diner on Johnson Avenue.

Consumer food prices rose 4 percent in the New York area over the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the same period in 2005-06, prices went up 2.8 percent. If the trend continues, this calendar year will mark the second-largest increase in food prices in the past 10 years.

"A number of events have affected food prices," said Marin Kohli, an economist for the Bureau of Labor Statistics' New York office. "Gas prices, corn [prices], a sudden sharp frost in California that wiped out crops."

Corn prices have gone up because of the increased demand for corn to produce ethanol. Many farmers feed corn to their animals and the ripple effect has been that dairy product prices soared 13.1 percent nationwide in the past year.

New habits

Riverdale resident Ray DeAngelis noticed a 30-cent increase in some products and has changed his shopping habits.

"I think I buy a lot more generics," said Mr. DeAngelis, as he dropped a gallon of orange juice into his cart at Key Foods.

Mr. Baron bought The Place a year ago and raised prices a bit when he printed new menus. He's held the line on another price increase, even though rising costs for food have continued to eat into his profits.

"They fluctuate up and down, so I'm not ready to raise them," said Mr. Baron as he worked behind the counter.

Price sensitive

The store owner's decision not to pass the cost on to his customers is in line with national statistics that show wholesale food prices have jumped 7.2 percent over the past year while menu prices have only gone up 4.1 percent.

"You can only absorb so much of it before you pass it on," said Rick Sampson, president of the New York State Restaurant Association. "We're very sensitive because [consumers] have an alternative. They can eat at home."

Sandra Passick has noticed increased prices at the restaurants she frequents in Manhattan, but that won't curb her dining.

'Not that traumatic'

"I think people just like to complain about things," said Ms. Passick, a Riverdale resident. "It's not that traumatic. But I have noticed a difference."

Mr. Baron buys some of the food for his diner at the Restaurant Depot in Mount Vernon, where executive Richard Kirschner said they've held back passing on all the costs of rising food prices to their customers. But they still deal with complaints.

"Every once in a while a guy comes in and says that 'I can't believe this has doubled,'" Mr. Kirschner said. "We'll take him back and show him the invoice if he doesn't believe us."

Unless there's an unlikely dramatic drop in wholesale prices before the end of the year, 2007 will record the greatest food price increase in 27 years, despite moderate inflation overall.

This is part of the November 29, 2007 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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