Americans are concerned about several economic issues: 72 percent claim the role of money in politics is a very big problem, 67 percent say the same about healthcare affordability, and 63 percent believe inflation is also a major issue.
The latter can feel particularly threatening when you see that your favorite food products are becoming more expensive, stretching your budget to a point where you have to make concessions to afford the basics.
Sparked by frustration, one TikToker filmed the prices at a local store and asked if his followers agreed with him that things were getting out of hand.
Americans are starting to notice that certain food prices are going up
Image credits: Franki Chamaki (not the actual photo)
Some, like TikToker ‘Knightfall Vader,’ even fear that it will lead to great civil unrest
He filmed the tags on local store shelves
Image credits: @knightfall__vader
Image credits: @knightfall__vader
Image credits: @knightfall__vader
His video immediately went viral
@knightfall__vader Will people just start taking stuff when they inevitably can’t afford anything anymore !? This is crazy ! #foodprices #grocery #shopping #prices #inflation #2025 #walmart ♬ Suspicious, slow and simple song – Kohrogi
So, the guy made another one with even more examples
Image credits: @knightfall__vader
Which also received a lot of attention
@knightfall__vader Part 2, are these prices crazy? I feel like this is getting out of hand 🤦♂️ #grocery #groceryprices #prices #shopping #inflation #fyp #foryoupage ♬ Occult/Mystery/Horror Suspense(844669) – ｍｍ
But is the situation that concerning?
Image credits: Getty Images (not the actual photo)
‘Knightfall Vader’ is really trying to sound the alarm bell. However, if you strip his videos of intimidating soundtracks and police siren emojis, the prices of those items alone don’t mean much—we need to look at more numbers to paint ourselves a more accurate picture.
According to data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the all-items Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of economy-wide inflation, increased 0.7 percent from December 2024 to January 2025 and was up 3.0 percent from January 2024.
The CPI for all food increased 0.6 percent from December 2024 to January 2025, and food prices were 2.5 percent higher than they were in January 2024.
If we take a step back at look at a longer timeframe, the change is more dramatic. Food prices are up 31% since 2019, and according to experts, there’s no single factor to blame for that. Things like rising operating costs, supply-chain disruptions, corporate profits, and political instability all play a part.
But different sectors have different challenges, and not all of them are hurting in the same way. While the price of eggs has gone up about 53% in the last year (and 15% in the last month), it shot up largely because of a highly contagious and fatal bird flu that hit the U.S. in 2022 and has been wreaking havoc ever since. The price of fresh fruits, on the other hand, went up by just 1.4% since twelve months ago (and 0.5% in the last month).
The USDA speculates that in 2025, prices for all food should increase by about 3.4 percent, with a prediction interval of 1.1 to 5.9 percent. Food-at-home prices are expected to grow by 3.3 percent (with a prediction interval of -0.2 to 7.0 percent), while food-away-from-home prices are anticipated to increase by 3.4 percent (or between 2.1 to 4.7 percent).
However, there’s also politics. New import tariffs could raise costs for households and farmers even more. Plans to impose duties on American agriculture imports might boost the price of vegetables, sugar, and coffee. Meat is also at risk — with the lowest cattle herd in over seventy years, the U.S. imported a record $11.7 billion in beef and derived products last year.
“Any way you slice it, this is a tax on American citizens and will have a real impact on our economy,” said Matt Campbell, a risk management consultant at futures and options brokerage StoneX in West Des Moines, Iowa. “Ultimately, this has inflationary impacts.”
A few days ago, the current White House administration said the U.S. is thinking of imposing tariffs on “external” agricultural products starting on April 2. The move comes just as the country’s food imports balloon, driving its agriculture trade deficit to a record $49 billion this year.
Many of the TikToker’s viewers are pretty alarmed and uneasy over what’s to come
