Reprieve at the grocery store, and the gas pump, couldn’t be coming at a better time.
Extended inflation concerns remain, but according to e-commerce data from Pattern, some of the most popular seasonal food items do cost lower than this time last year.
On average, milk is down 9.58%, potatoes are down 9.12%, green beans are down 6.13%, apples are down 5.69%, onions are down 5.1% and turkey breast has trimmed 4.17%.
Certain items — such as olive oil, eggs, chicken broth, cranberries, brown sugar, baking pans, sheet pans and casserole dishes — have seen 5-to-10% increases in the same span, but the average basket of groceries is down nearly half a percent.
Petroleum, meanwhile, continues to flat line and/or decline across the United States — and especially in Kentucky.
As of Wednesday and according to gasprices.aaa.com, marks in the Pennyrile were:
— $2.79 in Todd County;
— $2.84 in Christian County;
— $3.03 in Trigg County;
— $2.87 in Caldwell County;
— $2.88 in Hopkins County;
— $3.03 in Crittenden County;
— $3.12 in Lyon County;
— $2.85 in Marshall County;
— and $2.82 in Calloway County.
Kentucky’s average: $3.01, with the national average at $3.28.
While it was slightly cheaper in the state a week ago, it was $3.15 a gallon this time last month, and $3.33 a gallon this time last year.
West Texas Intermediate opened at $77.77 per barrel Wednesday morning on the New York Stock Exchange, and closed down -1.23% to $76.81 — despite what many analysts believe will be one of the busiest Thanksgiving and Black Friday travel and spending weekends in recent memory.
