  The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has caused enormous disruptions to not
only the United States, but also the global economy. Due to the pandemic,
issues in the supply chain and concerns about food shortage drove up the food
prices. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the prices for food
increased 4.1% and 3.7% over the year ended in August 2020 and August 2021,
respectively, while the amount of annual increase in the food prices prior to
the COVID-19 pandemic is less than 2.0%. Previous studies show that such kinds
of exogenous disasters, including the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, 9/11 terrorist
attacks, and major infectious diseases, and the resulted unusual food prices
often led to subsequent changes in people's consumption behaviors. We
hypothesize that the COVID-19 pandemic causes food price changes and the price
changes alter people's grocery shopping behaviors as well. To thoroughly
explore this, we formulate our analysis from two different perspectives, by
collecting data both globally, from China, Japan, United Kingdom, and United
States, and locally, from different groups of people inside the US. In
particular, we analyze the trends between food prices and COVID-19 as well as
between food prices and spending, aiming to find out their correlations and the
lessons for preparing the next pandemic.
