It’s happening at big box chain stores and locally owned markets. After the rush of panic buying a year ago, a few empty shelves still haunt grocery stores, and food costs continue to climb.

The U.S. Department of Labor reports that in the past 12 months since July 2020, the consumer price index has increased 5.4%, including a 2.6% in food at home prices. Meat, poultry, fish and eggs cost 5.9% more than they did last July, and meals prepared outside of the home are 4.6% more expensive.

In a world still battling COVID-19, higher energy and labor prices are behind the jump in grocery bills.

“We’ve never gotten beyond the labor issues. There are still a lot of people out of work, and businesses are scrambling to find workers,” said Rodney Holcomb, Oklahoma State University Extension specialist in food economics.

The nationwide workforce shortage, which includes truck drivers and warehouse workers, as well as employees at restaurants and retail supermarkets, “slows down the movement of products through the marketing chain,” Holcomb said. “If we’re pinching down on supply, then prices are going to go up.”

It’s the textbook definition of supply and demand. When supplies are low and few workers are available to ship the product, consumers can expect higher costs. Holcomb said fuel is a good example: Supply levels dropped, and oil companies downsized their personnel departments in 2020. A year later, motorists are paying $1 more per gallon.

Holcomb also busted the theory that locally grown or manufactured products are sold at lower prices because fewer miles to transport equates to lower fuel costs.

“That’s not true. It costs a whole lot less money per pound to move 40,000 pounds of fresh produce 500 miles than it does to move 40 pounds of produce 50 miles to a farmers market … and with less waste too,” he said.

The economies of size and scale in both production and distribution are major factors in Holcomb’s price comparison. Although the cost of driving a semitruck one mile is higher than the cost of driving a farm truck one mile, the semi carries much more product. Therefore, the perpound cost of transporting 40,000 pounds of food one mile by semi is much smaller than the per-pound cost of transporting 40 pounds or even 400 pounds one mile by farm truck. As a result, large quantities of food in refrigerated semis are moved much more efficiently over longer distances than small quantities of food transported short distances using cars or pickups.