What’s in your wallet?
Not much — especially after a trip to the supermarket.
At the checkout counter at the D’Agostino in Hell’s Kitchen, retired ballerina Carol Sumner shook her head over the increasingly steep price of her weekly grocery bill.
“It’s outrageous,” said Sumner, a senior citizen who was making a pit stop to buy soda, ice cream and cake for a party she was throwing.
“I feel like I am getting fleeced and taken advantage of. I don’t buy meat anymore. I can’t. It’s too expensive.”
The price index for groceries is expected to surge 3 to 4 percent nationally this year, according to the US Dept. of Agriculture.
“Right now, food commodities have all been rising pretty rapidly for the past seven or eight months,” said Ephraim Leibtag, deputy director of economic research for the USDA.
“The three big things [causing increases] are energy prices, the growth of the Chinese and India market, and bad weather,” said economist Martin Kohli, of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, referring to poor wheat-crop production in Russia and Australia.
“If the Chinese are buying more wheat, it pushes up prices here for Americans. They are competing with us. We might turn it into bagels or pizza, and they might turn it into noodles.”
A breakdown of food staples nationally showed that in one month, between this past December and January, the price of veggies shot up 23 percent, pasta surged 5 percent and beef rose 3 percent.
Fish and shellfish prices were hiked a whopping 12 percent over last year, Kohli said.
A Post shopping survey of three Manhattan supermarket chains last week showed that the prices at the top of the food pyramid — meat, poultry, cheese and fresh vegetables — were significantly higher than last year. Eggs remained the same or slightly lower.
The tally for the dozen items at Food Emporium, D’Agostino and Gristedes averaged $59.85 — $9.11 more than last year.
Here’s the breakdown:
The Post calculated the average cost of 12 grocery items at three Manhattan supermarkets:
A dozen eggs
2010: $2.67
2011: $2.62
Chunk light tuna (6 oz. can)
2010: $1.74
2011: $2.42
Pork sausage (1 pound)
2010: $4.35
2011: $5.36
Frozen corn (16 oz. sack)
2010: $2.51
2011: $2.59
T-bone steak (per pound)
2010: $13.93
2011: $15.99
Half-gallon of milk
2010: $2.47
2011: $2.52
Fresh orange juice (half-gallon)
2010: $4.94
2011: $5.35
Frozen prepared food
2010: $4.79
2011: $4.92
Iceberg lettuce head
2010: $2.16
2011: $3.32
Ground beef (per pound)
2010: $3.59
2011: $4.82
2010 total: $50.74
2011 total: $59.85
-2010 prices according to ACCRA Cost of Living Index, produced by The Council for Community and Economic Research