August 30, 2001 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

New price indexes for food stores

In its first year of publication, the Producer Price Index for grocery stores increased 4.7 percent. This increase from December 1999 to December 2000 mostly reflected the influence of higher margins among supermarkets.

[Chart data—TXT]

In addition to the index for grocery stores, price indexes for several other types of food stores have been introduced. Each of these price indexes rose in 2000. Producer prices rose 1 percent in retail bakeries, 5 percent in candy, nut, and confectionery stores, 5.2 percent in fruit and vegetable markets, 6.9 percent in meat and fish (seafood) markets, and 10 percent in miscellaneous food stores.

These data are a product of the BLS Producer Price Index program. Miscellaneous food stores include establishments such as coffee stores, health food stores, and vitamin food stores. Learn more in "Producer prices in 2000: energy goods continue to climb," by William F. Snyders, Monthly Labor Review, July 2001.