MISSOULA - The current inflation rate of 8.6% marks the largest annual increase since December 1981 and shoppers have been feeling it at the grocery store.
Even if you are bringing home the bacon, chances are buying staple items, like meat, dairy, and fresh produce, are making you take a second look at some of those grocery store prices.
“Store prices are getting really close to what ours is and in comparison, ours is the same or even a little bit less than any of the rest of us local producers that we have,” said Jon Turner of Turner Farms.
Turner has been balancing running his farm while trying to not raise his prices but it’s getting harder, “our input costs, the hay for our animals, the feed for animals, is going up.”
Local farmers aren’t the only ones feeling the compounding effect that high prices have.
Jim Edwards, who owns Burnt Fork Market in Stevensville, says he’s seen prices fluctuate, “last year prices started going up when the gas prices started, started going up.”
That has shoppers paying more at check out for things like eggs and meat.
Edwards says that he's seen egg prices jump from $1.29 to $1.99 and sometimes even $2.99. But local Montana farms have their eggs sold here for upwards of $7.
“I think everybody I mean everybody is trying to hold stable,” Edwards told MTN News.
Meanwhile, Turner says he’s doing what he can to keep prices for meat, eggs and fresh produce at a low -- despite production costs.
He also hopes that some relief will be coming soon. “Try not to raise the prices like everybody else has, but we can only hold out so long.”
