Word: nonfood
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...rise in nonfood prices suggests that many manufacturers are betting that a period of vicious inflation leading to mandatory price controls lies ahead, and are kicking up prices before the controls are imposed. Feeding these inflationary expectations are the gloomy forecasts of a number of alarmist economists who have been blowing taps for President Carter's voluntary Stage Two wage-price restraints almost from the moment they were announced last fall...
Unfortunately, the extra-slow pace of August price boosts is no more likely to continue than was the earlier super-rapid rate; both were distorted by the erratic timing of food-price movements. Nonfood portions of the CPI are still rising at an annual rate of 6% to 7%, indicating that the underlying rate of inflation has not changed much. In September the index as a whole is likely to rise more than in August, though scarcely back to the double-digit range. At the least, though, the August figures give weight to the Ford Administration's argument that...
...building 80 big supermarkets in this year's first half. A. & P. also continues to limit brand variety on its shelves, in part because of its heavy commitment to its own private house labels. This deficiency is most obvious in A. & P.'s relatively skimpy line of nonfood items-everything from film to beauty aids-which are likely to provide the biggest future sales growth for supermarkets...
...historic August surge in prices was not wholly a food phenomenon. Nonfood prices rose at the uncomfortably high rate of .5%, reflecting higher consumer charges for apparel, heating fuel, mortgages, medical care and telephone service, among other economic necessities. The ineluctable result of the across-the-board rise in living costs was to drive down the real spendable income -earnings that have been discounted for inflation-of U.S. workers. Thus, despite a slight increase in wage levels for the month, the real income of factory workers declined...
Meanwhile, consumers are confronted with the prospects of more expense in nonfood areas. The Cost of Living Council last week lifted the freeze on clothing manufacturers, a move that will soon be reflected in the price tags of the new fall lines. Uncontrolled interest rates keep soaring; major banks last week raised their prime lending rate to businessmen from 8¼% to 8½% and let it be known that they will soon lift it again to 8¾%-equaling the record set just before the money crunch of 1969. This is helping pull mortgage rates...