About this episode
Grocery prices have gone up 27 percent since before the pandemic. And high prices are especially painful for lower income households, who have less wiggle room to adjust their spending. But their experience isn't always reflected in broad measures of inflation. Today on the show, we look at a different way of measuring price increases that's designed to capture the pain that many households feel daily, including at the supermarket. Read more about the ALICE Essentials Index . Related Episodes: A food fight over free school lunch Feeling inflation in the grocery store For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org . Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez . Music by Drop Electric . Find us: TikTok , Instagram , Facebook , Newsletter . Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy