As Inflation raises prices across the country, the Arlington community watches necessities become more unattainable.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, consumer prices have steadily increased in 2025 with groceries, gas, housing, and transportation facing some of the greatest spikes. This nationwide trend is revealed in smaller communities like Arlington, where local teachers and students have begun to notice its effects on household budgets and common routines.
“It’s definitely impacting the community,” English teacher Greg Hurst said. “Everything is just so much more expensive, whether it be the burgers at Nutty’s are a little more expensive, or going to Walmart, the groceries are getting absurdly priced.”
Jeff Keeley, another teacher at Arlington High expresses concerns about broader economic impacts. Specifically, the financial pressures could make it more difficult for students and young adults to find work.
“If some companies end up laying off people, then those people who are going to be more in the middle age and have families, they’re going to go into the entry level positions, and the younger people will be pushed out,” Keeley said. “So it’ll be harder for younger people to get a job, we saw that in 2008 to 2012.”
Students are also observing changes in their day to day spending. Issac Emerson, a junior at Arlington, noticed the issue when purchasing items he regularly buys.
“You can see substantial price rises anywhere from a half a percent to 10% in most of the industries that we see around here. Red Bull has gone up 43 cents per can in the past two months,” Emerson said. “And even in electronics, where I used to get 100 resistors for $5, now I can get half that for the same amount.”
The impact of increasing goods may be especially difficult for younger families, who often rely on necessary products that have been targeted.
“I shudder to think what’s going on in households with young children like in their early 20’s. I can’t imagine what they’re going through, knowing that simple things like formula have gone up 25, 30% and these are absolute necessities,” Hurst said. “So I do think it targets younger families more so than older.”
Some anticipated the impact of inflation and made practical changes early on when managing expenses.
“My wife and I, actually realizing that prices were going to go up, did some home improvements before all this stuff went into effect,” Keeley said. “We also did a little bit of stocking up on goods that we were clearly going to get tariffed and knew that the prices were going to go up. So we did a little bit of that, overbuying things that we are always going to need and then just storing them.”
Emerson summed up the wider impact of this, emphasizing that this issue adds onto an already challenging economic situation.
“I think it makes an already very punishing and ruthless capitalist system even more punishing, and just puts another layer on top of what is already a very large problem economically and society,” Emerson said.
