“More Signs Emerge That Inflation Is Altering Shopping Habits”

“A day after Walmart warned investors that its profit would shrink as rising prices forced shoppers to make fewer purchases at its stores, Unilever, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, three other consumer-facing giants, reinforced the message, to different degrees, providing a window into how companies are navigating this fragile economic moment.

On Tuesday, Unilever, the maker of Dove soap, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Hellmann’s mayonnaise, said it raised prices until they were 11 percent higher than in the same quarter last year, offsetting a 2 percent decline in the volume of things that consumers bought. It was the fourth consecutive quarter in which prices outpaced volume growth at the company…

Alan Jope, Unilever’s chief executive, said on a call with analysts that “peak cost inflation” was likely to come in the second half of the year. Sales volumes may fall more in the second half than the first, Mr. Jope said, “as the full impact of pricing lands.”…”