Factors Impacting Grocery Store Deflation: A Closer Look at Prices in 2016 and 2017

Understanding the underlying factors affecting retail food prices allows farmers, food manufacturers, businesses, and consumers to better understand the future of food prices Recent retail food price deflation (2016 and 2017) has left consumers and industry, as well as academics, asking what factors have been placing downward pressure on prices and how might this pressure impact future food-at-home price inflation This report provides an indepth analysis of recent price trends, including discussion of how price changes are transmitted through the supply chain The authors build on the ERS Food Price Outlook by providing an informative supplement to the summary of retail food prices on the agency’s website.