Scenes from inside Bay Area grocery stores are quite different in the coronavirus age: face coverings, fewer shoppers, plexiglass separators. You can add rising price tags on meat and dairy products to the list.
According to Consumer Price Index data released Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, meat prices in the Bay Area last month were 10.4 percent higher than they were in February and 14.5 percent higher than in April 2019.
Dairy prices rose 9.6 percent over last April, and prices on food at home (bought in stores) jumped 6.7 percent over that time frame, the majority of which has come since February.
On the plus side for consumers, gas prices have totally plummeted in the region, as many have already noted. With fewer people driving to work, the cost of motor fuel has dropped 27.6 percent in the region since April 2019. The starkest drop is in unleaded regular gasoline, which has seen a 28.4 percent decrease. But both of those drops are less than the 32 percent decrease in gas prices nationwide.
One item that has stayed relatively steady is alcohol. The cost has dropped 0.6 percent since last April, but it’s up just over one percent since February. In Los Angeles, the price of alcohol has jumped 6.1 percent, the biggest leap in more than 12 years.
Bay Area shoppers also paid significantly less for clothing (12%) and transportation (7.8%) than they did in April 2019.
It’s important to note that the BLS does not include San Jose in its San Francisco metro region, sticking to Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo counties. While common sense may lead to the belief that San Jose’s fluctuations would be in line with those measured in the Bay Area, a BLS spokesperson declined to say whether the numbers can be extrapolated to the South Bay.
The overall U.S. Consumer Price Index for all goods and services dropped 0.8 percent in April compared to March, but it has increased 0.3 percent over the last 12 months. The Bay Area’s CPI, measured every two months, was down just 0.5 percent over since February and up 1.1 percent compared to April 2019.
Click here to check out the CPI statistics yourself.
