NIXA, Mo. — The average price for a Fourth of July cookout has risen but it’s not stopping many shoppers for the holiday weekend.
“I’d say it’s like our second busiest holiday except for like Thanksgiving or so. It’s like peak of summer, you know?” said Jonathan Crosby, a manager at Harter House in Nixa.
Workers at the supermarket have been prepping all week for the Independence Day weekend.
“A lot of meats, a lot of steaks are selling, of course, hamburgers and hot dogs. That’s a hot item,” Crosby said. “A lot of produce. Watermelon and corn.”
Employees tell me the supermarket prepared over 600 pounds of bratwursts alone and could possibly sell over 1,000 pounds of meat during this weekend.
Experts said the average cost for a Fourth of July cookout has gone up 17% since 2021 due to inflation, supply chain issues and the war in Ukraine.
That means families could spend an average of $10 more this year on food.
Crosby said while inflation has affected their prices, things are inching closer to normal.
One shopper said she had been to several stores Saturday looking for a specific item: pork steaks.
“That’s what dad always made on the 4th of July,” Rella Halcomb said. “I was looking for that, but it was hard to find them because they were out of stock. Today they had a couple packs in, so I grabbed them,” Halcomb added.
She said the rising prices have caught her eye.
“Mostly I’ve noticed that in meats, you know, they were a lot,” Halcomb said. “Even the price of hot dogs is up from that.”
Halcomb’s said the high prices won’t affect her celebrations.
“We’re just going to grill and then let kids play around outside around the pool and shoot fireworks,” she said.