 He says he wanted to support local small grocery stores, the little guys, the mom and pops, but that soy milk price tag was just a no. And so I've definitely avoided the smaller grocery stores as of late. Economists have wondered if this kind of increasing price sensitivity was going to result in consumers spending less. And at first glance, that looked like it could be the case with today's retail sales numbers. The overall number was flat, with automobile sales down at least 2%.