MELISSA BLOCK, host:
Of course it's not just corn that costs more these days. New government statistics show that milk prices are up 26 percent from last year. Eggs are up 40 percent. We spoke to shoppers at grocery stores in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., to see whether they are noticing the changes and what they're doing about it.
Unidentified Woman #1: It's very noticeable, very noticeable. With my married children, we talk about it all the time, yeah.
Unidentified Woman #2: It's ridiculous.
Unidentified Woman 1: That along with the gas is ridiculous.
Unidentified Man #1: I saw that the lemon is very expensive, yeah. It's 89 cents each. It should be about a dollar something for a pound.
Unidentified Woman #3: So now everything is more expensive, you know, maybe for the situation but what we can do? Just buy it because we can't stop buying, you know?
Unidentified Woman #4: I did not notice. No.
Unidentified Woman #5: Tell me about it. Are you kidding? Yes, indeed. I think everyone is noticing the prices in - well, it's (unintelligible) because the gas is up, the food prices are up. So when I shop, then, I cut down on the shopping and, you know, we're going to have to get the gas. So, it's one or the other, you know?
Unidentified Man #2: The prices and the chance are simply how much (unintelligible) used to be 89 or 99. If you (unintelligible) shot up to 50 percent increase. People are very, very concerned about the sudden increases.
Unidentified Woman #6: Well, you have to eat, and you're not going steal it. I don't really - I can't grow it so I don't really see what the alternative is.
BLOCK: That was Connie Destito(ph), David Perrets(ph), Gladys Castellanos(ph) and Lorrie Cramer(ph) from Los Angeles; as well as Annie Jackson(ph), Katuhu Koroman(ph) and Kent Whiteside(ph) in Washington, D.C. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.