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Monday, February 13, 2012
Total food-at-home sales climbed to $646.8 billion in 2010, up 3.5 percent from 2009. The lion's share of sales-67 percent-occurred at grocery, supermarkets, and specialty foodstores. Warehouse clubs, supercenters, and mass merchandisers came in second, accounting for 16.5 percent of food-at-home sales. Warehouse clubs, supercenters, and mass merchandisers' share has grown steadily since the mid-1990s at the expense of the grocery store category, although their pace of growth has slowed since 2003. The data for this chart come from ERS's Food Expenditure Table 14, updated July 2011. More information on U.S. food expenditures can be found in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) topic on the ERS website.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Grocery store food prices were up 4.8 percent in 2011, as food inflation picked up again for the first time since 2008. 2011's higher food-at-home price inflation reflected higher energy and commodity prices, combined with a weaker U.S. dollar that boosted international demand for U.S. foods. Specific food categories posted especially large increases: beef up 10.2 percent, fats and oils up 9.3 percent, and eggs up 9.2 percent. Beef prices were up in 2011 due to higher input costs, low inventories, and strong international demand. Drought conditions throughout the South contributed to higher 2011 egg prices, while the jump in prices for fats and oils was due in large part to surging soybean prices. More information on ERS's analysis and forecasts of food price inflation can be found in the Food Prices, Expenditures and Costs topic on the ERS website.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Food-away-from-home sales reached $594 billion in 2010, representing 48 percent of total food sales. Together, full-service restaurants and limited-service eating places, such as fast food, accounted for 76.8 percent of away-from-home sales in 2010. In 1982, these two segments had a 70.3 percent share. At that time, full-service restaurants had a slightly larger share at 41 percent, while limited-service eating places' share was just 29.3 percent. The shares of food away from home sold at schools and colleges and at stores, bars, and vending machines were lower in 2010 than in 1982. The data for this chart come from ERS's Food Expenditure Table 15, updated July, 2011. More information on U.S. food expenditures can be found in the Food Prices, Expenditures & Costs topic on the ERS website.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
In 2011, food-at-home (grocery store) prices are forecast to rise 4 to 5 percent, while food-away-from-home (restaurant) prices are projected to increase a little less-3 to 4 percent. These increases follow two years of modest price increases for food away from home and very little increase in at-home food prices. Food-at-home prices rose 0.5 percent in 2009, followed by a 0.3-percent increase in 2010. Higher energy and food commodity costs, along with strengthening global food demand, have pushed up 2011 food prices. This chart is an updated version of a chart that appeared in the December 2011 issue of Amber Waves magazine. This updated chart reflects the latest food price forecasts as of November 25, 2011. More information can be found in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) topic on the ERS website.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
During the 2007-09 recession, inflation-adjusted food spending by U.S. households fell 5 percent-the largest decrease in at least 25 years. Spending patterns differed by income level, with middle-income households curbing expenditures the most. Households in the middle quintile of income decreased their inflation-adjusted food expenditures by 12.5 percent from 2006 to 2009. Households in the lowest quintile cut spending 1.8 percent, while the highest quintile reduced food spending 5.7 percent. This chart appeared in the September 2011 issue of Amber Waves magazine.
Friday, September 2, 2011
In 2006, households in the lowest income quintile spent 32.0 percent of their income on food. The 2007-09 recession led to increases in this already high share. Food spending as a share of income for households in the lowest income quintile grew to 35.6 percent in 2009-putting further pressure on thin budgets. Over the same period, food spending as a share of income declined for middle-income households from 12.5 to 11.9 percent and remained flat for the highest income quintile at 6.8 percent. This chart is found in the September 2011 issue of Amber Waves magazine.
Friday, July 22, 2011
cAt least four organizations publish a monthly index of food commodity prices: the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Bank (WB), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS). Each organization's index is based on a slightly different set of commodities and pricing points, as well as on different weights for each individual commodity's contribution to the overall index. All four indices, however, exhibit similar patterns as prices rise and fall. The FAO's index for December 2010 was higher than its previous high point in June of 2008. None of the other three organizations' December 2010 indices surpassed their previous record, primarily because the FAO index has higher weights for sugar and vegetable oils, commodities whose prices increased the most. The IMF index uses relatively higher weights for food grains. By January 2011, all of the indices had set a new record high, surpassing their June 2008 records. This chart was published June 2011 in the ERS report, Why Have Food Commodity Prices Risen Again?, WRS-1103.
Friday, February 25, 2011
The CPI for all food increased 0.9 percent from December 2010 to January 2011, increased 0.1 percent from November to December 2010, and is now 1.8 percent above the January 2010 level. The food-at-home CPI increased 1.4 percent in January 2011 and is up 2.1 percent from last January, while the food-away-from-home index was up 0.2 percent in January 2011 and is 1.5 percent above last January. Recent food commodity price increases, along with January retail price increases, have pushed ERS's forecasts for overall food inflation upward for 2011. Increased inflation for beef and pork products is expected in the first half of 2011, as reflected in ERS's forecasts-beef prices are now projected to increase 3.5 to 4.5 percent and pork prices 5.5 to 6.5 percent in 2011. Dairy prices were up 0.1 percent in January and are 1.7 percent above the January 2010 level. Egg prices decreased 1 percent in January 2011 (following two months of sharp increases in November and December 2010), and egg prices are now 4.5 percent above the January 2010 level. This table is from the ERS briefing room, Food CPI and Expenditures: Analysis and Forecasts of the CPI for Food, published February 24, 2011.
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Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Historically, grocery store food prices have generally risen each year. However, in 2016, retail food prices actually fell 1.3 percent and fell again in 2017 (0.2 percent). These back-to-back years of food price deflation helped lower the 20-year moving average for grocery store price inflation from 3.6 percent in 1999 to 2.0 percent in 2018. Beginning in 2015, increased U.S. production of agricultural commodities, such as beef cattle and eggs, and lower energy prices contributed to the 2016 and 2017 decreases in retail food prices. In addition, a strong U.S. dollar since 2014 made imported foods (i.e., many fruits and vegetables, fish, and sugar) less expensive. Another contributing factor to low retail food price inflation in recent years may be stepped up competition on the basis of price for U.S. consumers’ food dollars. This chart appears in the article, “Retail Food Price Inflation Has Slowed Over Time,” from the July 2019 edition of ERS’s Amber Waves magazine.