ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 7, 1996 TAG: 9608070024
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOYCE M. ROSENBERG ASSOCIATED PRESS
A nickel here, a dime there. Sometimes a whole dollar.
Americans are watching their food bills creep upward as storms and drought have cut into the nation's food supply.
Savvy consumers will be able to hold down the damage by taking advantage of sales and specials on the very items that have been increasing in price. Moreover, supermarkets say the increases are being offset by falling prices on other products.
A spot check by The Associated Press in several big U.S. cities found prices inching upward between late June and early August on bread, pasta and meat. These increases come on top of a surge over the past year.
But the survey also found stores putting meat, cereal and bread products on sale, cutting their profits on those items in the expectation of making up the discounts from regular-priced food and household items.
The government and many economists are warning that food prices will continue to rise into next year. The failure of the winter wheat crop in parts of the Midwest is expected to push prices for bread and pasta higher by as much as 8 percent, according to some estimates.
So far prices for bread seem to be ticking up by small amounts - 6 cents, 10 cents a loaf - while meat and poultry prices also showed signs of rising, although supermarkets are continually putting a variety of cuts on sale, as they traditionally do.
For the time being, a shopper's total food bill may not rise that much because prices of other products are coming down, said Paul Bernish, a spokesman for Kroger Co., one of the country's biggest supermarket operators.
Bernish noted that coffee prices, which shot higher last year because Brazil's crop was reduced by about half, have come back down. And prices for paper goods such as bathroom tissue have fallen because companies like Kimberly-Clark Corp. and Procter & Gamble Co. have cut the prices they charge.
Mike Rourke, a spokesman for A&P, said food prices are only modestly higher. ``What does hold it tight is competitive activity'' among rival food retailers, he said.
Cereal makers, as expected, don't seem to be passing their higher costs on to shoppers despite the rising cost of wheat. In recent months, the big cereal makers - Kellogg's, Post, General Mills and Quaker Oats - all announced they were cutting prices to try to increase their market share.
Consumers are coping with the increases by adjusting their shopping lists.
``I always look at the ads before I go to to the store. I find out what is on sale and tune my menu to what's on sale. If chicken is on sale, I'll cook chicken,'' said Celeste Nip, a shopper in Honolulu.
In South Portland, Maine, shopper Theresa Kent thought food prices in general were higher, particularly for canned goods. She's been buying more store brand items.
Some shoppers are considering options besides traditional supermarkets in hopes of saving money.
At a SunFresh store in Kansas City, Elena Velasquez said she was looking into joining a wholesale club with her sister and sister-in-law ``to see if we can buy enough stuff at once to save.''
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: chart - Farm prices and Consumer prices color APby CNB