The household supply, from detergent to diapers, is about to hit consumers with a shock of stickers this fall, even as the United States is slowly getting rid of its pandemic problems.
Procter & Gamble, maker of Tide detergent, Pampers diapers and Gillette razors, said Tuesday it plans to raise the prices of a number of products in September, citing rising raw material costs and shipping.
The announcement comes weeks after rival Kimberly-Clark, which manufactures Scott toilet paper and Huggies diapers, announced single-digit price hikes from medium to high in June.
Procter & Gamble blamed its price increases on the “impact of rising commodity prices,” including higher raw material costs such as wood pulp and resin.
Prices are also rising in the food aisle, with shortages causing strange demand for products such as grape cereals, which began selling on the black market for up to $ 100 a box during the dark days of the pandemic. .
Post, the Minnesota company that makes crunchy, fiber-rich grains, said in March it was back at full capacity and cited technical production issues related to the growing pandemic demand for the product.
General Mills, a Cheerios maker, is raising prices for major brands, as is Hormel Foods Corp., which makes Jennie-O turkey and Skippy peanut butter. JM Smucker Co. has already raised the price of Jif peanut butter and is considering raising its pet products, according to reports.
Paper products are on the rise due to the shortage of pulp resins and polymers, while other products are becoming more expensive due to rising shipping and transportation costs due to the pandemic, manufacturers said.
The last time paper product prices rose significantly was in 2018, when a similar production of pulp pulp occurred, experts said.
The consumer price index, which measures what consumers pay for most goods, rose 2.6 percent in the year ending March, the biggest twelve-month increase since August of 2018, according to government data.
“It’s a different situation, as countries around the world are in very different places as they emerge from the pandemic,” Jon Moeller, Procter & Gamble’s chief operating officer, told The Wall Street Journal. . “There is very strong consumption at all levels.”