Inflation Upon Us

Over the last couple of days, I’ve been seeing an increasing number of articles—from sources like the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Sun-Times and Reuters, to name just a few—on corporate reactions to rising food costs in the wake of some commodity shortages and record prices. Even the beer industry is feeling the pinch, as noted in a recent San Jose Mercury News piece.

The short story? Consumers can expect to pay more for some foods in the coming months.

The long story has yet to be told. We’ll hear that one about a year from now when we find out if this price crunch will affect overall corporate bottom lines. Things often have a way of equaling themselves out in the food industry (trading down from premium to more-average goods, etc.), but not without the occasional casualty or two.

Such a climate has a lot of people watching the horizon with no small measure of trepidation.