Prices hikes get far more attention than cuts
The fall in grocery prices in 2016 is one of the great underreported stories of the year.
I would wager there are 20 stories about price hikes for every one about falling costs. Today, Bloomberg writes about how US grocery prices have fallen for 9 straight months. That's the longest streak of declines since 1960 (excluding 2009).
"The severity of what we're seeing is completely unprecedented," said Scott Mushkin, an analyst at Wolfe Research who has studied grocery prices around the country for more than ten years. "We've never seen deflation this sharp."
In the Bloomberg report, they quoted Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen who touched on the paradox of consumers believing prices are rising when they're actually down.
"The other thing that's always hard is getting your message out, because it's fascinating - in our research, most people are saying their basket of goods costs more money," McMullen said on a call with analysts this month.
