The top headline tonight is breathtaking rise of inflation. Consumer prices were up seven percent in December, compared to a year ago. That means the cost for virtually everything is on the rise, food, gas, rent, utilities and cars. Unfortunately, economists predict it won’t be over any time soon with inflation remaining high throughout the year. But higher prices aren’t the only problems facing consumers. Bare shelves are another problem. Supply chain shortages are hitting grocery stores on even the most basic items.
This is the sharpest rising of consumer prices in nearly forty years creating two problems for grocery shoppers, rising prices emptying their wallets and store shelves emptying too. D.S. is a military veteran and retired with fixed income and years of experience bargain hunting. He says he’s made new cutbacks to keep refrigerator full. Today’s report on inflation shows ground beef prices up thirteen percent, double digits jumps in the price of eggs, crackers and bread, breakfast cereal up six percent and the milk you pour in it up more than four percent. The White House argued today President B’s build back batter plan which is still stalled in Congress would help, but acknowledged the pain isn’t going away any time soon. Amid the Omicron wave of the pandemic, the problem isn’t just the price of items on the shelves. It’s finding and stocking them. Supply chain disruptions have starved stores of staples, from the produce aisle to the paper products. At his grocery store in Washington D.C. R.R. says it’s never been so difficult. Food shipments have also hit a pothole. The nation’s trucks tell CBSN they’re operating with eighty thousand fewer drivers than needed. Even a shortage in packaging items from cardboard box adhesives to ink for products labels, could snarl production. A survey by the association of the nation grocery stores finds eighty percent of them are having trouble recruiting or retaining workers and that will cause disruption in the weeks ahead.
:::tip staple
- : a chief commodity or production of a place. 主要的；大宗商品
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:::tip ebb and flow
- : used to describe something that changes in a regular and repeated way. 起起伏伏
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