8% is nationally. Some people had a 1% increase, some may have seen no increase. Your anecdotal evidence doesn’t change that.
As for food, I see prices coming down at my grocery store now. 3% would be YOY since last February. Prices will always go up YOY in general. People tend to do a poor job estimating how much things have gone up because they have older memories of prices.
CPI-U is 3%:
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm
Well, it may be at 3%, but I certainly don’t believe that the actual number is 3%. I know my cost of energy and food has gone up by more than 3%.
Edit: The government last year said it was 8% yet when I recalculated my energy bill it had increased by 20%
8% is nationally. Some people had a 1% increase, some may have seen no increase. Your anecdotal evidence doesn’t change that.
As for food, I see prices coming down at my grocery store now. 3% would be YOY since last February. Prices will always go up YOY in general. People tend to do a poor job estimating how much things have gone up because they have older memories of prices.