May 29, 2008 6:37 pm US/Eastern
Shoppers Bracing For 'Grocery Gloom'
The ever-rising cost of oil continues to have a wide-ranging financial impact as two of the nation's largest chemical companies, including Delaware-based DuPont, will be raising their prices.
Beginning next week, Dow Chemical Co. said they will be raising prices as much as 20 percent for all their products due to rising material costs.
The price increase is expected to create a 'grocery gloom' at supermarket cash registers.
Melody Hidlebird said the bill to feed her four children has already grown by more than $50 every two weeks.
"It makes you want to rethink about certain things you really want to buy," she said.
Chemicals made by companies like Dow go into everything from the packaging for food products, to the materials that make up the pages for magazines and even the foam that can be found in furniture cushions.
"None of us really realizes how much of what we consume everyday is based on oil," said economics expert Bill Dunkelberg of Temple University.
Essentially, any plastic item or anything wrapped in plastic is affected.
Dunkelberg said the price increase will vary based on how much of a given chemical is in a product, but shoppers can expect to see some price increases in as soon as a week or two.
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