Why are groceries still so expensive?
We’re several months into the pandemic. Shocks to the food supply chain have largely subsided. So why are groceries still so damn expensive? The short answer is that there’s really no short answer. In a new examination of retail price changes over the last few months, NBC calls the phenomenon “up like a rocket, down like a feather”—though experts can’t quite agree why prices have been so slow to return to baseline. Some blame it on a “complex algorithm” that factors in added labor costs, supply restrictions, and short-term losses. Others say the grocery industry is just making more money.
