Consumers largely blame government policies for high grocery prices, according to a new consumer survey from The Feedback Group.
Supermarket shoppers rated a variety of entities and factors, using a five-point scale where five is “highly responsible” and one “not at all responsible” as to their degree of responsibility for higher prices in supermarkets.
Government policies and actions received the highest mean score (3.86), and thereby were viewed as the most responsible. Product manufacturers and suppliers scored second most responsible (3.75), followed more distantly by wars and worldwide political conflicts (3.42), supermarket retailers (3.40), and labor supply shortages (3.23). Factors viewed as least responsible were climate change factors (2.85) and farmers and growers (2.78).
“In this politically charged environment, supermarket shoppers believe that government policies are the leading influence on higher supermarket prices,” Doug Madenberg, chief listening officer of The Feedback Group, said in a statement.