Supermarket prices fall, as buying habits change

Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Supermarket prices are plunging as the global downturn drives down the cost of staples such as wheat, corn and milk and grocers fight for the wallets of penny-pinching consumers.

The heated competition is being fueled in part by the steep decline in commodity prices after a year of dramatic increases, one of the few silver linings of the deep recession that continues to transform the economy.

The price of corn, for example, is down 56 percent since July 2008 on the Chicago Board of Trade. Such drops have helped drive down the grocery consumer price index, which measures what shoppers pay at stores, about 2.5 percent since its peak in November, according to new data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While there was an upward blip in energy prices that drove the wider consumer price index up 0.4 percent in August, over the past 12 months overall consumer prices have fallen 1.5 percent.

“The declines have been so broad that even the core-needs kinds of spending have taken hits,” said Adam York, an economic analyst with Wachovia. “Consumer budgets are pretty tight right now. You’re going to do anything that you can as a retailer to keep consumers in your store.”

The renewed focus on price represents a significant shift for the grocery industry, which touted everything from olive bars to in-store sushi restaurants to lure shoppers whose palates had become increasingly discriminating during economic boom times. Supermarkets boasted about the varieties of cheese in stock and expanded their menus of prepared foods. Safeway and Giant remodeled their stores to include faux-wood flooring, soft lighting and farmer’s-market-style stands. Even the discounter Wal-Mart opened a test store in Texas that priced a bottle of wine above $500.

Then the recession hit, and gourmet grocers that were once emulated struggled to hold on to shoppers. Consumers began clipping coupons and opting for a dozen roses instead of floral bouquets, and 20 percent fat ground beef over 10 percent fat. Traditional supermarkets saw renewed interest in deals on mundane items such as toilet paper and laundry detergent that dominate the centers of their stores. Phil Lempert, a consultant known as “the Supermarket Guru,” likened the changes in shoppers to those seen during the Great Depression.

“They learned certain behaviors that they stuck with for the rest of their lives,” he said.

The drop in commodities prices has allowed retailers to lower prices for their customers, but it also can result in lower revenue: If shoppers buy the same food for less money, sales figures will decline.

That’s what happened to Safeway, where revenue during the most recent quarter dropped 6.5 percent from a year earlier, even though it is ringing up more transactions. The cost of cheese dropped 17 percent, milk plunged 27 percent, and cherries fell 42 percent.