New reports reveal that Americans have started panic buying again. People are noticing that shortages are getting worse, and shelves are getting increasingly emptier as we approach the last quarter of 2023. Some have decided to act now before they can no longer find household supplies and their favorite items at their local stores.

Many shoppers are buying in bulk to try to save on costs and stock up for the future, and they’ve been flocking to Costco in search of good deals. But in the past few weeks, it seems that a large number of items are sold out at Costco warehouses, and new price markups are shocking customers who revealed increases of up to 250% on Costco products, according to a recent analysis of consumer complaints.

For that reason, in today’s video, we tracked which supplies faced the biggest price hikes at Costco stores over the past month, and we shared the latest warning from the company’s CFO Richard Galanti about the future of the U.S. economy.

A new analysis shows that the main reason for the company’s disappointing sales numbers: Soaring prices at the retailer’s warehouses. And some loyal customers, who pay a membership fee that can typically go from $60 to $100, are outraged with recent price markups. The megaretailer says that higher operational costs and commodity prices are affecting prices in all industries, but especially the grocery sector.

Americans are noticing a lot of sold-out notes on Costco shelves in the past few weeks. Shortages of household supplies and basic grocery items seem to be rapidly spreading across Costco warehouses. However, most of the complaints have been published by shoppers that just can’t believe the price hikes they’re seeing at their local stores. One major example of this was the 250% increase in the price of 40-packs of Kirkland-branded water bottles. One Redditor reported that the bulk buy, which cost $1.44 as recently as a year ago, now costs $4.99.

“Yeah that used to be the case at the beginning of the year, just checked yesterday, and $4.99, ridiculous,” user u/ghx16 wrote.

User jasonsparks19 said that crab legs have more than doubled in price over the past year: “King crab legs went from $23/lb to $48/lb.”

That’s a 110% increase. It has been difficult for shoppers to find chicken nuggets in stock at Costco, as they are often sold out in the frozen section due to the high demand. They used to cost $13 for a four-pound bag, but are now going for $19.99, causing some customers to express their displeasure with the price hike on Reddit.

“I saw them today for the first time in a while too. My jaw dropped when I saw the price and I kept walking,” a commenter said.

When even affordable chains are losing customers due to rising prices, then you know something must be broken in our economy. At this point, prices should be going down, but that’s not what we’re seeing when we go shopping. At the end of the day, Costco is not the only retailer raising prices right now, and certainly, it is not the only one facing financial losses and declining sales.

This situation is just a symptom of a much larger issue that is going to accelerate as we reach the final stretch of 2023. And you too should start preparing for the recession that has only just begun.

Article and video cross-posted from Epic Economist.