There have been multiple complaints about price gouging in the county. Although the prices of various items have gone up, it is not the result of price gouging.
“Its simple supply and demand,” explained Piggly Wiggly assistant manager Bo Fletcher. “When you’ve exhausted all of your supply, the demand goes up. It’s like that across the board right now. Everyone has had to add employees and overtime hours. It even goes all the way back to manufacturing. Manufacturers have to add shifts to get caught up because the whole country has bought out all the food warehouses.”
All of the grocery stores in the county have similar prices for all of their items. They are not raising the prices unreasonably for profit. In fact, they have either maintained or lowered their margin with everything that is going on.
“Our stores have kept—no matter who we bought from—our margins the same,” stated Bo. “Everything is still the same margin-wise.”
Cash Savers has even taken a slight loss on income to try and help with the rising costs.
“We are actually breaking even on our eggs out the door to try and keep cost down,” explained Eddy Parker, manager at Cash Savers. “Our gross margins are lower than ever right now.”
Another thing to keep in mind is the vendors the grocery stores now have to purchase supplies from. The supply has changed drastically for all the retailers, and the cost of the different items has a major effect on the prices.
“Things like eggs and red meat are commodities. They are costing us much more at this time,” stated Eddy. “Red meat is super hard to come by in any form right now.”
In order to keep up with the high demand for specific items, manufacturers are cutting SKUs, or some of the items produced. Cutting the SKUs has also helped contribute to the spike in prices since the supply for those items is no longer readily available.
It is important for everyone to realize that prices will drop down to normal prices when the shopping habits of people around the country stabilize again. As long as people continue to hoard items or purchase more than necessary, the prices will continue to be higher.
Once the supply is greater than the demand again, shoppers can enjoy more reasonably priced items.
