North Carolina dealing with historic gas price surge

HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) — People are seeing prices spike for just about everything, from gas to groceries. According to the Labor Department, prices jumped over 5% from 2020 to 2021, the highest yearly increase since January of 1991.

“I’m feeling bad because everything is going up, it’s crazy,” said Ariel Garcia, a Walmart shopper.

Garcia and many others aren’t getting as much bang for their buck these days.

“I’ve definitely seen a rise in gas prices which makes it hard when you’re a mom and you have a lot of running around to do during the day,” Sarah Kocher said.

According to the Labor Department, gas is up 42% compared to this time last year.

“At the beginning of the year, I wasn’t really shopping around, I would just go wherever was most convenient, but now I see myself going to different gas stations and checking before I go out,” Kocher said.

The pandemic is still to blame for volatile price spikes.

“We don’t have a lot of inventory that’s been built up in the system, so any kind of disruption to the supply chain will, in turn, knock everything out,” said Dr. Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi, Accounting, Economics, and Finance department chair at Winston-Salem State University.

Supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and even weather are leaving a short supply, which drives up the price on everything.

Experts say if you can avoid items in short supply, and go for ones fully stocked, your wallet will thank you.

“Maybe you look at a different cut of meat, or things that are locally produced and sourced, you might have a lot more options and a lot better situation,” Madjd-Sadjadi said.

Madjd-Sadjadi wants people to remember that prices fluctuate all the time.

“We fixate on certain price points and we think that when prices go up, they’ll always go up and we keep forgetting that they do tend to come back down at points,” Madjd-Sadjadi said.

Experts believe prices will settle at a new normal in the next six to nine months.