(CALMATTERS) – If you’re one of the 6.1 million Californians planning to take a Thanksgiving road trip, prepare to pay more at the pump. The Golden State’s average price for a gallon of gas skyrocketed to $4.69 on Tuesday — breaking the previous record of $4.68 set on Monday, according to AAA. That’s far above the national average of $3.41 and a whopping six cents higher than California’s average gas price last week. Sacramento has set a new record gas price 10 times this month, with the average cost climbing to $4.71 per gallon on Tuesday. A gallon costs more than $5 in many parts of the Bay Area, and some Los Angeles residents were shocked to see prices tick past $6 per gallon on Tuesday. “This is absurd,” Brian Sproule told the Los Angeles Times after paying $72 to fill a tank that normally only costs him $40. Meanwhile, rising inflation rates are pushing up the price of everything from electricity to meat. Frozen turkeys, for example, cost about 26 cents more per pound than they did last year.
“Even the carne asada at the market is $25 to $36, so we were like, ‘OK, we have to change our plans to make (Thanksgiving dinner) affordable.”
Los Angeles resident Monica Oliva
As the backlogged supply chain struggles to keep up with steep demand, California businesses reported a record high of $217 billion in taxable sales during the second quarter of 2021, a 39% increase over the same period last year and 17% higher than in 2019, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration announced Tuesday. Those numbers are not adjusted for inflation.