TYLER, Texas (KETK) — International demand, labor shortages and supply chain disruptions are just some of the factors that have driven up prices at the store. According to the Consumer Price index, the price of goods typically purchased by American households shows that the cost of food-at-home has risen 7.4% since January.

“I wait until my pantry has anything left before I go shopping again. So, it’s only when I’m getting mass amounts of stuff that I realize, ‘Oh! Prices went up a bit,’” said Tyler resident, Matthew Hester.

While some stores here in East Texas are seeing empty shelves due to lack of supply, some shoppers say they are being forced to put their usual staples back on the shelf.

“It’s not good at all…not good at all. Sometimes I don’t even have enough. I’m on a fixed income so I don’t have enough money to get enough groceries to last me a whole month,” said Tyler resident, Jackie Wheeler.

Continued supply chain issues and the war in Ukraine are expected to continue negatively impacting our prices.

“I usually can get out with $100 back in 2019. But now, if I had really gone in there and bought, I would have spent about $300 just on groceries and dog food alone,” said East Texas resident, Angela Antes.

Small local food stores like Import Emporium are definitely feeling the price hike.

“It’s really difficult because we are far from Houston and Dallas so the items I get here have to be a little bit more pricey because gasoline has gone up. Everything is going up,” said the owner of Import Emporium, Nitaya Russell.

Russell says that most of her products come from Asia and can take up to 3 or 4 months to arrive. Her most expensive item right now is rice imported from Thailand. The price jumped from $17 to $25.

“I can see the customers coming in to check on the price and try to look like their incomes are still the same. But, everything is going up. It’s very hard for everybody right now,” said Russell.

Some East Texan shoppers are recommending comparing prices between available stores and name brands to help save you some money.