‘Good Morning America’ Segment on the Explosion of Prices at Grocery Stores Doesn’t Mention Biden

STRAHAN: “And now to sticker shock at the grocery store. According to new data that first appeared in The Wall Street Journal and obtained by ABC News, prices for hundreds of food items have jumped more than 50 percent since 2019. Rebecca, you have more, including how you can turn back time on your grocery bill, which is very important. So let’s take a look at what $100 got you in 2019, and what it gets you now.”
JARVIS: “And the visual is what really creates the contrast. So this is 2019, Michael, this is what you got in 2019 for $100. Come over here. This is the current day, what you get. And you see, there’s an entire section over here that’s missing because you’re getting about 30 percent less these days for your money. So back then, you could have done some frozen food, some meat, some hot dogs, some steaks, some strawberries. You see that’s missing from over here, because $100 then will now cost you about $130. So you wanted to buy all of that then, today it would cost you 130. If your budget is 100, then you’re sticking to 100 and getting less.”
STRAHAN: “All right, we’re going to turn back a little bit, as much as we can, we’re gonna turn back time on your food bill. And you say you could do that by starting with apps.”
JARVIS: “Yes. So, apps are really, really helpful, Michael, in putting the whole thing together. They’re also helpful in making sure you stick to that budget. So cash-back apps like Ibotta will help you save, all the stores now have apps, and what we found is this particular can of mayonnaise, we could save $3 if we shopped at Walmart using the Ibotta app.”
STRAHAN: “Wow.”
JARVIS: “Once you make that for all the items in your shopping cart, you’re going to really add up.”
STRAHAN: “Now how about buying in bulk? How do you make that work for you?”
JARVIS: “Okay, so one of the things about buying in bulk is it can work, as long as you’re not overbuying, because if you end up buying too much in bulk, you actually end up spending more, so you want to think about how much you’re going to burn through, really play it out over the week, and then make sure that you shop at the right places. If you’re trying to shop at some of the discount stores, it’s important to remember, these warehouse clubs, if you buy it for delivery, sometimes you don’t have to pay their fee, their membership fee, so always check into that, and you can save yourself some money.”
STRAHAN: “Oh. I may ask you to help me shopping.”
JARVIS: “Oh yeah, I’m happy to do it.”
STRAHAN: “Loyalty clubs, we always ask — I always get asked, ‘Do you want to sign up?’ and I usually say no, because — I just say no.”
JARVIS: “You don’t want the nuisance of it, right?”
STRAHAN: “Yeah.”
JARVIS: “But here’s the deal: they’re free, you give them your phone number, your email address — I like to have an email address that’s only for loyalty clubs, that way I’m not getting a bunch of spam in my inbox — you sign up for that and then you save on everything. And we figured out, there are some things the same here, and you can also, by the way, do the social media thing, you follow a brand on social media, oftentimes they’ll have things on sale. When they go on sale, you find out about it and you save yourself some money.”
STRAHAN: “We can save some money on a lot of different stuff: laundry detergent, food, everything.”
JARVIS: “Everything.”
STRAHAN: “ I’m a little surprised by how much you don’t get now you got, what, four, five years ago. Really amazing.”
JARVIS: “It is such a contrast. And that’s how people are feeling it. Inflation has come down. That means that prices aren’t going up as fast, but it is a big difference for a few years back.”
STRAHAN: “Yeah, for family, it’s hard to feed a family nowadays, but hopefully your tips will help people.”
JARVIS: “I really hope so.”
STRAHAN: “Thank you so much for that.”