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On January 19th, President Joe Biden’s final day, I went to a nearby supermarket and priced 28 items, including milk, eggs, bacon, potatoes and more.
Six weeks after the second President Donald Trump, I returned to the same store and priced the same items.
why?
This is because in the last presidential election, voters repeatedly complained about the economy and picked up the high costs of food.
There is a good reason.
Steve Lopez
Steve Lopez is a California native who has been a columnist for the Los Angeles Times since 2001. He has won over 12 National Journalism Awards and is a four-time Pulitzer finalist.
Inflation is a murderer, and anyone who has been shopping in recent years knows well that in supermarkets your money isn’t going to do the same as it used to be. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all more expensive than before.
Trump wisely beat that reality as a candidate.
“Voting for Trump means your groceries will be cheaper,” he said in the campaign trajectory.
And how long did he say it would take to get things to turn around?
“When I win, I’ll immediately lower the price and start on the first day,” Trump promised.
I didn’t need a PhD in Economics to know that it was unlikely to happen. The market is more complicated than that, and prices can be swayed by multiple factors beyond the control of elected officials.
However, it was not uncommon to hear voters cite groceries prices as an issue of crucial importance to them. And among those who said inflation is generally the most important issue, one survey found that two-thirds voted for Trump.
Trump began to retreat as soon as he won the election. He said in December that he believes that he will solve supply chain issues and cut food prices to reduce energy costs by drilling in American soil. But he pulled the first day’s promise and pointed his fingers, saying that Biden had driven the price higher, “It’s hard to beat once things get up… so difficult.”
If you feel the sense of Deja Vu, it’s after Trump promised in his first term that, despite Republican Congressional control, he said, “no one knew that health care was so complicated.”
“The best thing to do is increase consumer revenue,” says Professor Daniel A. Sumner of UC Davis. The question is “not food prices, but food prices compared to people’s income.”
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
In terms of grocery prices, Trump’s view was almost as simple as Democrat enemy Kamala Harris, who promised to crack down on price gouging. Generally speaking, supermarkets operate at a slim profit margin, and pricing is byzantine calculus, says Daniel A. Sumner, Professor UC Davis.
If stores are forced to raise egg prices due to wholesale costs, they said they might lower the prices of other items in the theory that shoppers only have money to spend. The store keeps the price of the egg at $5 per dozen and, even if it suffers a loss, it could raise the prices of other items to make up for the difference. However, whenever possible, they prefer to keep prices locked on most items.
“The best thing to do is increase consumer revenue,” Sumner said. The problem is “it’s not because of food prices, but because of food prices compared to people’s income.”
I would like to acknowledge that despite Trump’s promise of low prices on day one, some of his policies could play a role in lowering prices in the coming months and years.
Or raise them.
Therefore, check it regularly.
Michigan food economist David L. Ortega, professor of Michigan state, said the US president has not directly controlled food prices “especially in the short term.”
“The reason for the extremely rapid rise over the past four years is that the convergence of factors, such as Covid, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, serious droughts and the outbreak of avian flu, has affected supply and demand,” Ortega said, adding that climate change also has a major impact on food production.
One way a president can influence prices is to create more stability, Ortega said.
But opposition is arising as Trump rolls out tariffs, deportation and reductions on federal agencies that monitor food safety and spreading the virus.
“Even some of the threats to these policies could be inflation rates, Ortega said, “Because businesses are scrambling, they are trying to come up with contingency plans that could potentially generate or find workforce.”
So let’s go back to my shopping with Vons at Eagle Rock. On the campaign trail last August, Trump used groceries as props to make his claims about inflation. Items included Cheerios, Lando-Olake butter, gold medal flour, eggs, bacon, bagels, bread, sausages and fruit.
I priced many of those products, and many other products. My list includes Thomas bagels, Dave’s 21 grains of bread, Farmer John Bacon, Blayers Ice Cream, Campbell’s Chicken Soup, Mott Apple Juice, Triscuit, Triscuit, Cheese Its, Oreo Cookies, Gold Medal Flour, C&H Sugar, Skippy Peanut Butter, Classico Pasta Sauce, Barilla Pasta, Benpas Chips, Layered Milk, Layered Milk, Luchelna Chips Navel Orange, Banana, Iceberg Lettuce, and Russet Potatoes.
Of the 28 items, 24 items were priced the same as Penny on January 19th and March 3rd (and each time I visited, I recorded the regular price, not the discounted membership price. The prices for the four items were different.
Michigan food economist David L. Ortega, professor of Michigan state, said the US president has not directly controlled food prices “especially in the short term.” Ortega said one way the president could affect prices is to create more stability.
(David Zalubowski/Applications)
Thomas bagels in bags went from $5.79 to $5.89.
A dozen large Lucerne grade AA eggs went from $7.49 to $9.99.
Cheerios’ 8.9-ounce box went from $5.99 to $5.29.
And the navel oranges went from $1.29 a pound to $.99.
Total tab when Biden was president – $146.03.
Trump Total – $147.63.
It makes me want to throw eggs, but it’s too expensive.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
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