Peep: Western Washington’s high price of Easter
Mar 22, 2024, 9:53 AM
Easter Peeps among the items you may be spending money on this holiday. (Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
If you can believe it, Easter is just one week away from Sunday.
KIRO Newsradio’s Heather Bosch did some fun digging into how much you will be paying for Easter this year and she found it to be a mixed basket. (See what I did there?)
You can listen to the story with all the cool sound effects and Seattle’s Morning News host comments just below.
An estimated 81% of Americans plan to celebrate Easter and many will be opening our wallets to do so.
“The National Retail Federation believes there will be less Easter spending this year compared to last,” Mark Hambrick with Bankrate told Heather. “Last year was a record.”
America spent $24 billion last year, but we’re still expected to spend about $22.4 billion this year. That’s about $177 per person.
Yikes! How much does it take to live comfortably in Seattle?
Now I checked the prices of some popular items like eggs.
“Egg prices are down almost 1/5 from a year ago, to be precise 17%,” Hambrick said. “That might be a welcome surprise.”
Prices are ticking up a little due to a resurgence of bird flu but well down from the peak prices in January of 2023 when bird flu was depleting flocks.
In Seattle, you’ll pay anywhere from $3 to nearly $8 a dozen. Depending on which store and type of eggs you buy.
Chocolate, of course, is another favorite. Unfortunately, because of severe weather in West Africa, cocoa bean prices have increased more than 150% over the past 12 months.
It’s unclear if that’s affecting prices here, but you can pay anywhere from $19 for a high-quality Franz chocolate bunny to $5 for a Cadbury creme egg.
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For other candy, a small bag of jelly beans will cost between $2 and $2.50, and Marshmallow Peeps are less than $2.
Heather didn’t price out an Easter bonnet, but she did get some news on clothing prices.
“The price of clothing for men is up slightly 3.1% compared to a year ago,” Hambrick explained. “But for women, it is down.”
Finally if you’re putting the family in the car for a holiday drive, you’re paying on average $4.55 for a gallon of gas, up nearly a dime from last year.
So you win some, you lose some.
Listen to the audio clip to find out what our hosts would do with a Marshmellow Peep.
Heather Bosch is an award-winning anchor and reporter on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of her stories here. Follow Heather on X, formerly known as Twitter, or email her here.
Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
