LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — During the past year, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn't been affected by inflation, and if you were to take a look at downtown Little Rock, that can easily be seen.
Luke Angelo, Assistant Manager at Stratton's Market explained that things have been somewhat difficult.
"Rock and a hard place," Angelo said. "But what are you gonna do?"
Angelo has continually seen prices get higher and higher.
"They don't like having to pay a little bit more, but, I understand that too, I absolutely get that," he said. "It sucks, it's really awful to have to constantly change prices to not just be competitive, but to, I mean, and not to over dramatize it, but to stay open."
Over the last year, common grocery store items such as milk, bread, and eggs have gone up by double digits.
"Grocery prices are up over 13%, which is more than we've seen, you know, in most people's lifetimes," Dr. Jeremy Horpedahl, an economist at UCA, said.
He also explained that we haven't seen increases that big since the 1970s.
Dr. Horpedahl has kept a close eye on inflation and commented that if you were looking for some relief, you'll most likely be looking for a while.
"There's not a whole lot of silver linings in the data," Dr. Horpedahl said.
He's not the only one that has been keeping an eye on things.
Steve Goode, President of the Arkansas Grocers and Retail Merchants Association has also been keeping a close eye.
"I think the amount shocked me," he said. "I just talked about consumers having fatigue, and as retailers, we do too, you know. we don't want to pay any more for it than we paid a year ago."
Angelo explained that they have also felt those things at Stratton's Market, and they've just continued doing what they can – even if that were to mean they can't make everyone happy.
"This isn't Stratton's Market raising prices because we want to make more money, this is Stratton's Market raising prices to stay competitive and to make it where we can make money and make a profit," Angelo said. "So we can stay open and keep offering the service that we offer."