NPR price-checks 114 items at Walmart

"AILSA CHANG, HOST: So how much have the prices in your shopping cart changed in the past year? Well, NPR has been doing a reality check on this. In fact, for several years now, we have tracked the cost of dozens of items at the same Walmart in Georgia. We do this every single December. NPR's Alina Selyukh is here now fresh from this huge shopping trip."

"SELYUKH: The big takeaway is that about half of the items got more expensive in the past year. CHANG: Surprise, surprise. SELYUKH: That's more than double the share of items from the year before. And the average price increase was about 5%. CHANG: Wow. OK, so what do we know about why prices went up? SELYUKH: Some of the biggest culprits had to do with climate events, like droughts and floods."

114 items at a Walmart in Georgia were price-checked, covering products from Kleenex and Band-Aids to Coca-Cola and Campbell's soup. About half of the items increased in price over the past year, more than double the share from the prior year, and the average price rise was about 5%. Climate events such as droughts and floods contributed to shortages affecting coffee, beef and chocolate. Tariffs raised import costs and many imported items, especially from China and Vietnam, saw large jumps; one example was paper folders from China, up about 46%. It is difficult to attribute any single cause to price increases, and many companies did not respond to inquiries about reasons.

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