Every day, shoppers walk into a store to find that the price of a favorite item has gone up.  These price increases drove dollar growth for retail sales within food, drug and mass merchandisers to 3.6 percent in the 52-week period ending 1/24/2009, although sales slowed in the last quarter.  Much of that growth, however, was driven by inflationary pricing as both retailers and manufacturers raised prices due to rapidly escalating commodity costs.  Every department – except general merchandise – showed dollar …

More than half of U.S. consumers (58%) are “very concerned” about rising food prices, according to a survey of more than 48,000 households conducted by Nielsen in October.
So are consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers and retailers, who have struggled in recent months to balance consumer demand for low prices and high value with abnormally high raw materials and transportation costs.
Rather than raising prices, some food manufacturers have reduced the size of their products.  Such strategies may minimize sticker shock at the grocery store, but are unpopular with U.S. consumers.
Instead, according …

Despite high food costs, sales of favorite cook-out foods are expected to soar in preparation for Americans’ July 4 celebrations, The Nielsen Company reported Wednesday. 
U.S. consumers are expected to purchase more than 110 million pounds or $215 million worth of hot dogs and 25 million pounds or $117 million of fresh ground beef for the July 4 holiday, according to Nielsen.  Meanwhile, carbonated beverage sales are expected to reach a whopping $1.5 billion – or more than 240 million cases, while at least 23 million cases of beer are expected …