Inflation Cure: Trader Joe's

Inflation is on the horizon--you can almost taste it. Reports this week from the Bureau of Labor Statistics prove it. Last month, there was a larger than expected rise in wholesale prices. Producer prices increased 0.8 percent in January and the core rate, which excludes food and energy prices, spiked 0.5 percent, the largest rise since October 2008.

While many businesses are seeing their costs rise, they haven't passed along the full impact of those increases to consumers yet. Still, consumer inflation rose 0.4 percent in January, with food and energy accounting for over two-thirds of the rise in overall CPI. Without those items, consumer prices were up 0.2 percent, the largest gain since October 2009. In the 12 months to January, core inflation rose 1 percent, the largest gain since March.

What's a poor consumer to do?

The answer may be as easy as being a smarter shopper. We recently went down to the tasting center at CBS Interactive (OK, it was our lobby) to see if people could tell the difference between name brand and Trader Joe's store brand items--in this case, we used wine and chocolate to lure our unsuspecting participants. (Come on, who would stop to sample tissues?)

Here are the very unscientific, but interesting results:

Jill Schlesinger

Jill Schlesinger, CFP® is the Emmy-nominated business analyst for CBS News. She covers the economy, markets, investing and anything else with a dollar sign on TV, radio (including her nationally syndicated radio show), the web and her blog, "Jill on Money." Prior to her second career at CBS, Jill spent 14 years as the co-owner and chief investment officer for an independent investment advisory firm. She began her career as a self-employed options trader on the Commodities Exchange of New York, following her graduation from Brown University.

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