In recent months, Butler County father Justin Lackey’s regular shopping trips have brought new challenges.

Finding Similac Alimentum baby formula for his 9-month-old, a weekly necessity, has become increasingly difficult. And when he can find it, it’s increasingly expensive.

“The brand we get went up 5 bucks a container regardless of the size. There’s two different sizes you can purchase, and the midsize one used to be $27 to $28. Now it’s $31 to $32,” he said “The larger one used to be $38, and we just paid $43 dollars for a container. The only way we were able to find it was to get up at 7 in the morning.”

Lackey has found himself changing his shopping habits. His family now shops more at Giant Eagle to find the formula his daughter needs, and to track down other hard-to-find products, such as cat food and cat litter.

“Since we’ve had to go there for baby formula, we’ve kind of just been doing our grocery shopping there and taking advantage of the Fuelperks, because there isn’t much of a savings at Walmart anymore,” he said. “We hardly look at those places anymore for cat food — what you can find, the cost increased.”

Lackey is not alone in his experience. Supply chain issues, and accompanying inflation in prices, continue to affect Butler County residents and Americans across the country as the world rounds out two years of COVID-19 pandemic conditions.

The recently released Consumer Price Index report for January noted that the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, a measurement that indicates average changes in the price over time of goods and services purchased by urban consumers, increased 0.6% in January, and 7.5% over the past 12 months. The increase is the largest since February 1982.

Nationally, increases were seen in a variety of areas — in January, the food index rose 0.9%, following a 0.5% increase in December. The energy index also increased 0.9% over the month.

On a local level, such increases are seen on the price tag of products like the baby formula Lackey’s daughter needs.

“When we have to buy two or three cans for our daughter a week, the cost is like we’re having to purchase an extra container, almost,” Lackey said. “I’m nervous to see where this is headed. I’m seeing in the impact in baby formula and in cat food, but I’ve noticed gas jumped up overnight last week too. It’s kind of scary to see what may become of it.”

Butler County Commissioner Kevin Boozel encountered the impacts of inflation in his search for a new Jeep.

“I’m now looking at Jeeps. A Jeep I would have paid between $10,000 and $11, 000 for a replacement is now $16,000 to $18,000. I literally just saw that yesterday,” Boozel said Thursday. “Even some of the disruption that I’m seeing is in the food industry, where the shelves are pretty bare looking. I spent $140 carrying three bags out. It’s that type of thing people are starting to notice.”

Boozel credited the loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States as a source of inflation and supply chain problems, and praised Butler County’s history of manufacturing.

“As far as making things, it’s critical — it’s our blue-collar roots,” he said. “Because of that, we still have very good paying jobs. When you make it here, you can control some of the supply-demand issue.”

At the moment, the disruptions are not limited to one particular sector, he added.

“We had a housing shortage, we have an affordable housing shortage for sure. We’ve had that for a while, but it’s exacerbated now,” he said. “We have a lot of homeless families that we have not seen in years — decades, really. It’s a huge effect that is really plaguing us, personally, as individuals, but also as a county, and as business owners.”

Jordan Grady, executive director of the Butler County Chamber of Commerce, said inflation has hit small businesses in particularly frustrating ways.

“It’s really none of their faults — inflation is something that is controlled by macroeconomic events,” he said. “(These are) events that are out of the control of your everyday person.”

Grady said that the chamber had received a few calls from businesses looking for alternate suppliers, but that the problem stretches larger than a single supplier.

“This is not just a problem specific to Butler County and the suppliers that they may be dealing with,” he said. “There’s really nothing that can be done other than trying to weather this storm by being creative and trying to cut costs where you can, manage other costs hat can be managed, and roll with the punches that inflation throws.”

Area Agency on Aging director Beth Herold said that older people in Butler County have been especially affected.

“I think it’s affecting all age groups, but especially affecting our older population because many of them are on fixed incomes,” she said. “Even though they got an increase in Social Security, it’s not matching up to what the inflation rate would be. It’s affecting all aspects. It’s not just the things you buy in the store — it’s affecting utilities, your phone, everything.”

Herold said the Agency on Aging had received a slight uptick in calls in recent months from elderly Butler County residents having economic troubles. When older residents come to the group for help, she said, the agency looks for areas it might be possible for them to reduce costs.

“We look at things like can we assess potentially they could get assistance with their medications if they qualify. We look at their insurance — can we get them an insurance company that might have a lower deductible?” she said. “We also look at if they can continue living in their current environment. Sometimes, living in a home that they lived in for 50 years is an optimal thing to do, but with utilities going up, with the cost, sometimes their income doesn’t allow them to do that.”

The agency also checks to see whether they might qualify for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, or home-delivered meals.

“We look at a lot of different aspects in their life, seeing where we could potentially free up money or get them items that could lower costs,” she said.

Older Butler County residents have noticed prices increasing, Herold said.

“I think they are noticing that what they used to be able to get at the grocery store for ‘X’ amount of dollars has gone up substantially in some cases,” she added. “I think they also see it as their own families or children may be having economic hardships due to the increase in cost, and being asked to potentially assist other family members.”

The agency’s programs, over the course of a year, serve between 10,000 and 12,000 individuals in the county, Herold said.

“My fear is that it continues to get worse, and then that compounds issues,” she said. “It’s not just one segment. It’s not like just food — it’s the utilities, the gas — you’re getting it from all sides.”