Making Daily Headlines · Page 7
Grocery Basket Refuses to Move as One Coordinated Economic Unit
· New York time
Prices for everyday groceries are moving in different directions, with ground beef, eggs and chocolate chip cookies among the items examined by NPR. The practical result is familiar to shoppers: one favorable price does not necessarily make the whole basket feel cheaper. A grocery bill is an accumulation of individual purchases, not a single product with a single explanation. Looking at particular foods can therefore offer a more useful household assessment than assuming every shelf is following the same economic story. It also explains the emotional whiplash of shopping. A customer can feel briefly victorious in one aisle and begin renegotiating dessert two aisles later. The basket remains a remarkably efficient device for collecting conflicting economic impressions. Household experience depends on what people actually buy, even when broad measures give a useful view of overall prices. Different shopping lists can produce different impressions during the same trip to the same store. A family budget does not purchase the statistical average at checkout. No individual item has agreed to represent the entire economy, although eggs are regularly volunteered for the assignment. Cookies continue their traditional role as the purchase most likely to survive a stern budget discussion through the persuasive power of being cookies.
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