Prepare to spend more at register

Associated Press

CINCINNATI

Households reeling from gasoline near $4 also face bigger bills for everything from changing their babies’ diapers to wiping their noses to treating themselves to ice cream.

Major makers of everyday consumer products and groceries say they have to raise prices to offset soaring costs for their fuel and the materials and ingredients that go into their products.

Retailers are trying to pass that along at the cash register, adding pressure to a sluggish U.S. economic recovery.

The list of companies saying this week that they are raising prices is long: Kimberly-Clark Corp. (Huggies diapers, Kleenex facial tissue); Procter & Gamble Co. (Pampers diapers, Gillette shavers); Unilever PLC (Dove soap, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream); Colgate-Palmolive (toothpaste, soap); and PepsiCo Inc. (soft drinks, Frito-Lay snacks).

Even as corporate results were being analyzed on Wall Street, the news about Main Street wasn’t encouraging. The U.S. Commerce Department reported that economic growth slowed in the first three months of the year, while unemployment- benefit requests climbed again last week.

So although companies have seen better results in the past year after battling for frugal shoppers with price cuts and discounts during the recession, it might be tough to find much slack in many homes’ budgets.

“There’s a fine line that these companies are going to have to work around,” said Jack Russo, an Edward Jones analyst. “You’ve got to be real sensitive to consumers and their ability to afford higher-priced products.”