It's Sure Not Getting Any Cheaper to Live

On Thursday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the Consumer Price Index increased .4 percent in January with recent trends in gas, oil and food prices continuing to rise. However, most Branford business patrons, who went about their daily routine on Friday didn’t need statistics to tell them that the price of things has been going up. 

At the BP gas station in the West Rotary, George Hall of East Haven, who said he always looks for the lowest gas prices, was filling up his gas tank and feeling the pain both in rising gasoline prices and home heating oil.  “I’ve been around long enough to see that basically when you get right down to it, politics takes care of everything. If it wasn’t for politics, we probably wouldn’t have this problem, but that’s the way it is. You have to get the gas to get where you are going.” 

Taking his receipt after filling his tank, Hall said the rising price of oil has also been frustrating. “You keep calling up looking for oil and every time they deliver it, it’s higher than it was last time.” 

His sentiment coincides with January data, which shows the overall energy price is continuing its string of increases at 2.1 percent. The gasoline index alone rose 3.5 percent and has increased for seven months in a row according the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Even starker, there was a 6.8 percent increase in the index for fuel oil; however, the report concludes that the rise was offset by a 1.2 percent decrease in the natural gas index and a .5 percent decline in the electricity index. 

Heather Firn, a university student who lives in Milford, was commuting to Westbrook on Friday to meet a professor. Stopping for gas, she said she’s really feeling the pinch with having to fill her Jeep every three days at $50 a fill. She is paid through her university, but said she had to get a second job just to survive.

Both Firn and Hall think milk is the most expensive purchase at the grocery store so Branford Patch headed down to Big Y to talk with some customers as they finished mid-morning shopping.  

Short Beach resident Craig Johnson was putting his groceries away as his wife waited in the car. He said he knows people have been talking about the rise in grocery costs but he wasn’t quick to complain. “They’ve gone up a little but you’ve got to sacrifice a little.”  

In fact the index for food at home has posted its largest increase in more than two years with all six major grocery store food group indexes rising.  The cost of meats, poultry, fish and eggs, which has increased .9 percent, was the first thing Kess Bailey mentioned as he loaded his grocery bags into the trunk of his car. To offset the cost for his wife Maryann Bailey and the child they had waiting patiently for naptime in the car, Kess said he comes to Big Y and looks for two-for-one deals and sales in order to purchase meat. Maryann said she finds vegetable cost to be high in grocery stores and looks forward to the farmers’ markets when the season comes.

Maryann was not alone in her idea for purchasing local vegetables. Branford resident Roberta McColl said she is looking forward to summer when she can grow her own vegetables and is a proponent of the co-op garden at the Branford Early Years Center on Birch Road. When she does have to purchase vegetables, she said she has a rule: “I don’t buy asparagus unless it’s under $2.99 a pound.” If the price of those good-for-you food items seems high, it’s because the index posted a 2.1 percent increase for fresh vegetables. Walking to car, pushing her shopping cart, McColl said, “I don’t have time to shop around. I’m not blaming anybody. They must have to charge.” 

In addition to the consumer price index rise, the Bureau reported the export prices for cotton increased 107 percent in 2010. “Devastating floods in Pakistan, the world’s fourth-largest cotton supplier, along with export restrictions in India, and strong demand in China that outstripped domestic production, all contributed to the historic rise in cotton prices.”The New York Times reported in November of 2010 that the cotton price may continue to rise based on supply and demand.

Across the parking lot from Big Y, Nelson Averill was heading into to return some items. He explained that after being unemployed, he finally got a sales job with Comcast and he had to outfit himself for the new job. He frequents Kohl’s for the sales, which usually include the offer of Kohl’s cash (now through Sunday, if you spend $50, you get $10 in Kohl’s cash). “I don’t see the dramatic drop in prices after Christmas and so forth as I’ve seen in the past,” said Averill. “Retail is staying at pretty much what they want for it.”

Before heading into the store, he added, “You’re working with a low budget and obviously being unemployed, you can’t break the bank buying new clothes to start a new job.”