Riverdale, Kingsbridge shoppers feel the pinch

By Matt Townsend

Compare prices at six local markets [ pdf ]

Barbara Darby stopped her shopping cart and stared at the price for a gallon of milk.

$4.79

"Milk is almost $5?" Ms, Darby, a senior citizen from Riverdale, asked incredulously.

Ms. Darby then picked up a can of Campbell's chicken soup from her cart at the Key Foods grocery store on Johnson Avenue and West 235th Street.

This used to be 89 cents not too long ago," she said of the can, which had a price of $1.17.

Soaring oil and corn prices and abnormal weather have caused food prices to increase more than usual across the country, and Riverdale residents haven't been spared.

"It feels like you go to the grocery store and spend $100 and you come out with two bags," said Morgan Baron, a Riverdale resident who owns and runs The Place, a diner on Johnson Avenue.

Consumer food prices rose 4 percent in the New York area over the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the same period in 2005-06, prices went up 2.8 percent. If the trend continues, this calendar year will mark the second-largest increase in food prices in the past 10 years.

"A number of events have affected food prices," said Marin Kohli, an economist for the Bureau of Labor Statistics' New York office. "Gas prices, corn [prices], a sudden sharp frost in California that wiped out crops."

Corn prices have gone up because of the increased demand for corn to produce ethanol. Many farmers feed corn to their animals and the ripple effect has been that dairy product prices soared 13.1 percent nationwide in the past year.

New habits

Riverdale resident Ray DeAngelis noticed a 30-cent increase in some products and has changed his shopping habits.

"I think I buy a lot more generics," said Mr. DeAngelis, as he dropped a gallon of orange juice into his cart at Key Foods.

Mr. Baron bought The Place a year ago and raised prices a bit when he printed new menus. He's held the line on another price increase, even though rising costs for food have continued to eat into his profits.

"They fluctuate up and down, so I'm not ready to raise them," said Mr. Baron as he worked behind the counter.

Price sensitive