Rising grocery prices, tariff confusion force tough decisions on Twin Cities shoppers

Patty Sprenger has been thinking twice lately before she buys what used to be automatic grocery store staples, such as cantaloupe and eggs.

Shopping Wednesday at a Cub Foods on the east side of St. Paul, as President Donald Trump’s start-and-stop tariff policy fueled new anxiety about already-high food prices, Sprenger wiped away tears as she worried for those who are worse off.

“It hurts [those] people, it’s wrong,” said Sprenger, 67. Besides her food selections, she’s looking for other ways to economize, like sewing cloth towels rather than relying on paper products.

Shoppers at several east metro markets talked about their growing worry and difficult choices now associated with the seemingly simple act of grocery shopping. Those interviews came before Trump’s latest pivot, as he delayed a sweeping set of planned tariffs on dozens of countries that experts said would have driven big spikes in food prices as early as next week.

That possibility still looms in three months, even as shoppers grapple now with higher prices on a range of food items driven by previous tariff hikes and other factors.

“You’ve got to choose now on how you’re going to live. It’s not the American dream anymore. It’s an American nightmare now, man. It’s rough,” Derrick Ellison said. “You’re going to the cheapest thing on the shelf, but it’s the unhealthiest thing on the shelf.”

Ellison, 62, visited both Cub Foods and a nearby Aldi on Wednesday. That’s another coping mechanism for some shoppers, one that consumes valuable time: going to more than one store in search of the best deals.

Many shoppers said they have been limiting how often they eat out. They’re thinking about ways to grow their own food sources. And they’re considering ways to supplement family income to maintain their diets.

The financial strain is hard for people like Kyle Vang, who’s raising a family of three. Vang’s family sometimes skips using eggs to save and looks for new sources of income.

Anysette Defo, 38, said it’s hard to avoid the rising grocery prices for her family of six. Defo tries to plan meals ahead by deep-freezing meats and vegetables, and stocking up on canned foods.

The rising costs also affect grocery workers like Dakota Elbaum, a 31-year-old cheese specialist at Lunds & Byerlys in Richfield. Elbaum makes $22.50 an hour but said he cannot afford groceries at the store where he works. To make ends meet, he and his girlfriend share a two-bedroom apartment with a roommate and shop at places like Trader Joe’s and Costco.

“I am struggling to buy groceries, and yet there are people working at Lunds who have been there 15 years and still make just $15.50,” Elbaum said. He and about 100 workers picketed in front of the Maple Grove Lunds & Byerlys on Tuesday, asking for higher wages.

“We don’t feel like we are asking for the moon. With the rising costs of [food] and our health care, and it’s going up every year.”

Gloria Cosper contracted COVID-19 two years ago and still struggles with the aftereffects. She is 69, and the virus has forced her to search for healthy food alternatives. But money is short, and Cosper must find different ways to get by. She lives with her brother, her son and his partner to save money.

Cosper said she has learned to cook her own broths. She now barters at farmers markets and has stocked up on canning supplies to preserve food.

It’s an old-fashioned way of thinking that Cosper feels is necessary again. She hopes that other people see relying on each other as one solution.

“We’re human beings. We are designed to take care of each other,” Cosper said. “We can’t just live in a bubble anymore ... we have to get back to taking care of each other and helping people out.”

Dee DePass of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.