Hornbachers President: Rising oil costs increase grocery prices

(Fargo, ND) -- Prices at the pump aren't the only everyday item increasing due to rising oil costs, according to one regional expert.

Hornnbacher's President Matt Lieseth spoke with The Flag's Steve Hallstrom on The Nightly Review with Tom Tucker about rising prices, and correlated oil price increases to higher costs in stores across the country.

"One of the biggest drivers I think for a business like ours is the cost of fuel, "said Lieseth, " Crude oil is up... [many] things touch crude oil, and so every time a truck backs up to our store, that's costing us more money in transportation to get it to us."

Lieseth says fuel prices are only one aspect crude oil prices change, citing a further increase in costs based on grocery packaging. 

"The plastic that we use in the store when we package our bakery products, or the bags that we put it in, that's costing us more," said Lieseth, "That's costing the manufacturers more, as they are packaging their own products and shipping it off to market. It's really a combination of what feels like a hundred different little things that are really adding up to what is unprecedented inflation."

Lieseth says these incremental increases lead to the feeling your money "doesn't go as far" as it used to. He says produce costs are mostly bucking the trend when it comes to larger price increases, but does acknowledge fuel prices still play a factor in their lower cost hikes.