Stock up on toothpaste, shampoo, soup, and cereal now before prices jump even higher

Now is the time to stock up on your favorite nonperishables—before prices rise even more. What’s happening? Consumer product companies are pointing to increased costs for things like packaging, ingredients, transport, and labor, noting that these costs must be offset by jacking up consumer prices. Here’s a rundown of the eyebrow-raising price tags you can expect to see this August:

Packaged food. General Mills (Cheerios cereal, Betty Crocker cake mix, Häagen-Dazs ice cream, Yoplait yogurt, Pillsbury cookie dough), Campbell Soup (Goldfish crackers, Prego pasta sauce, Snyder’s pretzels), J.M. Smucker (Jif peanut butter, Folgers coffee, Meow Mix cat food), Kellogg’s (Frosted Flakes cereal, Cheez-It crackers, Pringles chips), and Unilever (Hellmann’s mayo, Breyers ice cream, Klondike frozen desserts) are just some of the food manufacturers that recently announced price hikes for their products. General Mills says that its costs are going up 7%, and that while the company will compensate for half of that with internal cuts it will still raise its prices.
Used and Rental cars. A computer-chip shortage has limited the production of new cars, which has partially fueled a price leap in used cars. Rental cars are also expensive these days because during the pandemic, rental companies sold their fleets to survive.
Makeup and Toiletries. Unilever (Dove soap, Axe body spray), Kimberly-Clark (Huggies diapers, Scott paper products, Depend underwear), and Procter & Gamble (Tide detergent, Gillette razors, Olay skincare products) are all boosting prices. Unilever already raised prices 1.6% in the second quarter of this year. It had planned a slow, gentle rise in prices, but has since changed its tune, citing swiftly rising costs for pretty much everything (ingredients, packaging, and transport). This week the company said consumers would be seeing higher prices imminently. P&G said back in April that it will implement price increases this September. Kimberly-Clark has already upped its prices 4% to 9%.

The take-home: There has never been a better moment to buy six boxes of cereal and a three-pack of lotion on sale. If you know you’ll use it, grab it now.