While the closely watched consumer price index (CPI) has remained unchanged for months, there are a number of important consumer items that have recently seen significant price hikes.
The CPI which gets a great deal of attention from the Federal Reserve, came in at 2.2 percent last month -- its third straight month at that level. But American consumers are already feeling the pinch of more expensive items that are necessary.
Recent news of Whole Foods Market raising its prices on hundreds of items, less than two years after e-commerce giant Amazon acquired the grocer, sent shockwaves to customers who have been enjoying deep discounts since the partnership.
While The Wall Street Journal was first to report the news regarding increases, a Whole Foods spokesperson later confirmed the decision, citing higher labor and transportation costs, among the reasons.
But Whole Foods is just one of many big companies to have been forced to either raise their prices or are planning to do so this year.
Here is a list of category items that have already gone up in price this year.
FOOD PRICES
Major food giants Mondelez, Hershey Co, Nestle, Unilever and Cola-Cola have all announced plans to hike prices in 2019 to offset higher frieght and ingredient costs.
HOUSEHOLD STAPLES
Big manufactuers including Church & Dwight, Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and Cloroz have either raised their prices or plan to on certain households items this year, according to The Wall Street Journal. Customers are now being asked to pay more for items, such as Pampers diapers, Bounty and Viva paper towels, Charmin and Scott toilet papers and Arm & Hammer baking soda, among other items.
COSMETICS, TOILETRIES, AND PET CARE
According to an analysis from Sanford C. Bernstein using data from Nielsen, everything from pet care items to makeup have seen a bump in price this year. Pet care, for example, have gone up 3.4 percent, cosmetics up 2.5 percent and toiletries are up 2 percent.
STAMPS
The Postal Service announced in January that it has raised the price of its "forever" stamp by 5 cents to 55 cents, a 10 percent increase and record nominal price adjustment.
PRESCRIPTION DRUGS
Prescription drug rates are expected to increase 4.92 percent in 2019, according to researchers from health care improvement company Vizient. Dan Kistner, senior vice president of Pharmacy Solutions for Vizient, said in a statement that the two key themes they saw “were the continued growth of specialty pharmacy products as a share of total spending and the critical importance of ongoing, robust generic and biosimilar competition on restraining overall price growth.”
TRAVEL
Travel prices are expected to rise sharply in 2019, with hotels going up 3.7 percent and flights 2.6 percent, driven by both the growing global economy and rising oil prices, according to the Global Travel Forecast.
NETFLIX
In January, Netflix announced it will raise its U.S. prices by 13 percent to 18 percent, in its biggest price increase since launching its streaming service more than a decade ago.
