It is awful news for customers at a time when they are already battling with record-high costs of food since it is getting more difficult to find discounts at grocery stores. As food manufacturers and retailers struggle to compete with growing costs, deals such as buy one get one complimentary are becoming increasingly uncommon.

Processors would often provide merchants discounts of 16 to 20 percent on certain products, which the retailers would then be able to pass along to customers. This practice has been in place for a long time and has been highlighted in this Wall Street Journal by an industry expert. However, in the present day, food producers are facing challenges in the form of higher manufacturing and labor costs in addition to problems with the supply chain. As a result, they are being forced to raise their prices while also experiencing a reduction in their ability to provide discounts of the type they did in the past.

As the marketing budgets of food businesses tend to struggle, grocery shops are being forced to shoulder the weight of whatever discounts they choose to give or use their own finances to promote and support such offers. This is because food firms continue to cut their marketing expenditures. However, due to the fact that shops have already increased the amount of money they pay producers for goods, they are unable to provide reductions to their consumers.

The Wall Street Journal reports that, apart from meat, promotional levels for all categories of food products are now lower than they were in 2019. The research company Information Resources Inc. estimates that during the 3rd quarter of 2019, the last full quarter well before the pandemic took hold, 25.7 percent of goods and beverages were marketed with price reductions; the same number for this year’s third quarter is barely 20.6 percent.

There are no indications that food prices will decrease in the near future.

Recent figures from the government indicate that food inflation had its greatest price spike in more than forty years, and this trend is expected to continue as inflation begins to take its impact on grocery store pricing. The costs of food, in general, are now 12.4 percent more than they were this time last year, while prices in the supermarket are currently 13.5 percent higher.

In comparison to the same month a year ago, the cost of essentials like a dozen eggs has increased by 82.3 percent this August, while the cost of the whole chicken has increased by 27.6 percent, the cost of ground beef has increased by 10.5 percent, and also the price of white bread per pound has increased by 19.7 percent.

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