Unexpected, unprecedented event

If you’ve stood in the checkout line at a grocery store over the last year, watching the tally grow and grow with each item scanned, and walked away thinking your wallet feels strangely light, it’s not your imagination.

“I, myself, go to the grocery store and feel like I don’t get as much as I normally get for the money I spent,” said Tammy Gore, an assistant business professor at Alvernia University. “That’s probably what the average consumer is feeling. And it’s not just in people’s minds, it’s true — you’re not getting as much for your money.”

COVID-19 has impacted just about every corner of people’s lives. That includes trips to their local grocery stores.

The pandemic has wreaked havoc on the grocery industry. It caused frantic buying rushes, severed supply lines and, in the end, led to higher prices for consumers.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, grocery prices rose 3.5 percent in 2020. That number is 75 percent higher than the 20-year annual average of 2 percent.

And, according to the USDA, prices are expected to keep going up in 2021, likely between 1 percent and 2 percent.

“I know a lot of people were hoping 2021 was the finish line,” said Anthony S. Gigliotti, executive vice president of sales, marketing and procurement for Boyer’s Food Markets. “I don’t see that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel yet. Probably not until the fourth quarter of 2021 or the first quarter of 2022.”

Nobody was prepared for 2020.

No one knew that a pandemic would sweep across the

Cashier Kathryn Laudermilch scans a customer’s groceries at the Boyer’s Food Markets in Womelsdorf. Consumers are paying more for groceries because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ben Lehman, a night manager at Boyer’s Food Markets in Womelsdorf, stocks dairy items.