Retailers have tried to hold down prices because retail sales are already soft, regardless of the happy, happy, sunshine talk from the administration. However, they can't do this forever. At some point the cost of food at the retail level will have to begin to reflect the wholesale cost.
Food and fuel are two things we must have. We can only cut them so far before we have to start cutting elsewhere. As the price of these commodities continues to rise they will begin to have increasingly dramatic affects on the rest of the economy.
If you can find cheap food now, buy it. Store it in your basement. You have to eat; this isn't going to change. Better to buy it while you can at a reasonable price instead of waiting until later when the costs have gone through the roof.
And don't forget, it's springtime. Get those gardens in and learn how to preserve your harvest. This could become a matter of life and death.
"Wholesale prices rose more than expected last month as food prices surged by the most in 26 years.
The Labor Department said the Producer Price Index rose by 0.7 percent in March, compared to analysts' forecasts of a 0.4 percent rise. A rise in gas prices also helped push up the index.
Still, there was little sign of budding inflation in the report, which measures price changes before they reach the consumer. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, wholesale prices rose by 0.1 percent, matching analysts' expectations.
Food prices jumped by 2.4 percent in March, the most since January 1984. Vegetable prices soared by more than 49 percent, the most in 15 years. A cold snap wiped out much of Florida's tomato and other vegetable crops at the beginning of this year.
Gasoline prices rose 2.1 percent, the department said, the fifth rise in six months.
In the past year, wholesale prices are up 6 percent, with much of that increase driven by higher oil prices. But excluding food and energy costs, they have risen only 0.9 percent."
Yahoo Finance
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