Why a backyard cookout costs more this summer

Status: stub — supports the Summer Grocery Basket (Task 003).

What this page needs to do

• Translate BLS CPI / Average Price changes into the items families actually shop for: burgers, hot dogs, buns, chips, soda, ice cream, fruit, lemonade.
• Be explicit that the data is national (or major-region) — not state-level.
• Explain the difference between “average price” series (APU) and CPI indexes (CUU): one is dollars-per-pound, the other is a relative number.
• Flag shrinkflation where it changes the read on a given item.

Source of facts

• outputs/grocery_basket.csv
• data/processed/bls/summer_food_prices_monthly.csv
• data/processed/bls/summer_food_series_inventory.csv

Causal framing

• Default rating: contextual. Grocery prices reflect many drivers (commodity markets, weather, packaging, labor, tariffs on imported goods).
• Pair with “Trump promised to lower prices. This summer, [item] still costs more than last year” — honest framing, no false precision.