The Price of This Everyday Commodity Is Plunging

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published May 17, 1:00PM EDT

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The Price of This Everyday Commodity Is Plunging — © 97 / E+ via Getty Images

The hopes that inflation might soon moderate were dashed when the consumer price index for April rose 8.3% compared to last year. The producer price index for April confirmed this further. It rose 11% compared to the same month last year. The PPI measures input costs, or wholesale prices, from the point of view of producers.

The prices of a very few items in the CPI have actually fallen over the past several months. At the top of this list – the price of food service at schools is plunging (down 43% in April compared with last year), as did the price of food service at businesses (down 30%). In each case, the fact that so many Americans work or attend school from home is likely the cause.

The American consumer is caught in a vice. To a large extent, inflation has been caused by upward pressure on oil prices due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The war also affects wheat supplies. COVID-19 infections, which have raced through China’s two largest cities and shuttered factories, have exacerbated global supply chain problems. (These are the metros where families pay the least for food.)

The Federal Reserve has been called upon, for decades, to help steer the economy between inflation and recession. The Fed does so by setting interest rates and buying bonds. Recently, it has been credited with helping drag the U.S. out of The Great Recession and the COVID-19-driven economic downturn. To accomplish these things, the Fed has kept interest rates near historic lows. This, in turn, has helped consumers with major purchases like homes.

The need for Fed action has changed course, almost overnight, however. Rampant inflation has forced the Fed to raise rates, and it may further raise rates by as much as half a percentage four or five times this year. There is even talk about the possibility of a 0.75 point bump. And if rates are raised too aggressively, the economy could fall into a recession. (This is the city with the cheapest groceries in every state.)

To determine the consumer activity that is plunging in price, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data on the consumer price index for all urban consumers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Click here to see the price of this everyday commodity that is plunging

15. Toys
> Price increase, April 2021 to April 2022: -0.3%

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14. Watches
> Price increase, April 2021 to April 2022: -0.3%

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13. Tenants’ and household insurance
> Price increase, April 2021 to April 2022: -0.4%

12. Video discs and other media
> Price increase, April 2021 to April 2022: -0.5%

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11. Cosmetics, perfume, bath, nail preparations and implements
> Price increase, April 2021 to April 2022: -0.5%

10. Wireless telephone services
> Price increase, April 2021 to April 2022: -0.7%

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9. Audio equipment
> Price increase, April 2021 to April 2022: -2.6%

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8. Ship fare
> Price increase, April 2021 to April 2022: -3.7%

7. Education and communication commodities
> Price increase, April 2021 to April 2022: -4.0%

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6. Computer software and accessories
> Price increase, April 2021 to April 2022: -4.2%

5. Televisions
> Price increase, April 2021 to April 2022: -5.8%

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4. Telephone hardware, calculators, and other consumer information items
> Price increase, April 2021 to April 2022: -11.4%

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3. Smartphones
> Price increase, April 2021 to April 2022: -16.1%

2. Food at employee sites and schools
> Price increase, April 2021 to April 2022: -30.0%

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1. Food at elementary and secondary schools
> Price increase, April 2021 to April 2022: -42.9%

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.