Poll: Rising food prices impacting Maricopans

Inflation has been rising during the past several months, putting a dent in the budgets of Maricopans. In addition to spiking gas prices, the cost of food also is rising rapidly.

Our reader poll this week asked just how much those rising food costs are impacting local residents. This week’s question was: “The cost of food rose 15.6% since January 2021 according to statistics released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. How hard has the rising cost of food hit you?”

More than half, 51.7%, said, “Really hard, I’ve had to cut other spending in order to buy groceries.”

The second-most popular response, with 33.2% of the votes, was, “Not all that hard yet, but I’m right at the limit.”

Just 15.5 percent said it was, “Not even blip on the radar for me.”

The annual U.S. inflation rate was 8.2% in September, compared with August’s 8.3%, the highest rates in 40 years according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A Bloomberg News analysis sheds some light on the true impact of that inflation rate. It found that this year, inflation will cost the typical U.S. household an additional $5,200 to afford the same goods as last year. That’s a $433 per month hit to the average family’s budget.