Household supplies, from cleaning supplies to diapers, are set to hit consumers with squatter shock this fall, though the U.S. is slowly shaking off its pandemic problems.
Procter & Gamble – the maker of Tide cleaners, Pampers cloths and Gillette razors – said on Tuesday it plans to increase prices on a range of products by September, citing rising raw material costs and shipping.
The announcement comes weeks after rival Kimberly-Clark, which makes Scott toilet paper and Huggies cloths, announced price increases from medium to high single figures by June.
Procter & Gamble blamed the price increases for the ‘impact of rising commodity prices’, including rising costs for raw materials such as wood pulp and resin.
Prices are also rising in the food path, with shortages triggering a bizarre demand for products such as grape-nut-grain products, which began selling on the black market for as much as $ 100 per box during the dark days of the pandemic.
Post, the Minnesota company that manufactures the fibrous, crunchy grain products, said in March that it was back at full capacity and cited production errors related to rising pandemic demand for the product.
Cheerios manufacturer General Mills records prices on major brands, as well as Hormel Foods Corp., which makes Jennie-O ground turkey and Skippy peanut butter. JM Smucker Co. has already boosted the price of Jif peanut butter and reportedly is considering raising increases on its pet products.
Paper products are on the rise due to a shortage of pulp and polymer resin, while other products are becoming more expensive due to increased shipping and transportation costs due to the pandemic, manufacturers said.
The experts did the last time prices of paper products rose significantly in 2018 when there was a similar amount of pulp.
The consumer price index, which measures what consumers pay for most goods, jumped 2.6 percent in the year ended March – or the biggest 12-month rise since August 2018, according to government data.
“This is a different situation because all over the world, countries are in different places as far as they get from the pandemic,” Jon Moeller, chief operating officer of Procter & Gamble, told The Wall Street Journal. “There is very strong consumption across the board.”