That last mile of inflation has been taking its sweet time to come down to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Thursday morning came with more news that inflation’s been sticking around — this time, at the wholesale level.

The Labor Department reported that the prices producers charge for goods and services rose 0.4% between December and January — 3.5% on a yearly basis.

The increase was partly thanks to some volatile categories including fuel and food. Think: egg prices.

But other categories that got more expensive can shed light on what’s happening in the broader economy. One of those was transportation and warehousing.

Shipping and storing goods often gets more expensive in the month of January, said Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University.

“At the start of the year, for different parts of the transportation and warehousing sector, they institute new pricing,” he said.

New year, new contract. Which means that kind of price increase will likely level off.

“Historically, there’s this big jump in January, and then things move more slowly throughout the year,” he said.

But transportation and warehousing companies have also been raising prices because of higher demand.

Zac Rogers, a professor at Colorado State University said that’s because many businesses have been stocking up on extra goods.

“More inventory is coming in to the country in January, and we saw this in late December as well, than we normally would have,” he said.

Rogers surveys companies about their inventory management and many are trying to re-up after the holidays. But he said companies are also concerned about the prospect of new tariffs.

“One of the things you really don’t want to deal with as a supply manager is uncertainty. And so they brought all this inventory in, well what does that do? Especially on the warehousing side. It’s really inflated our stores of inventory. And warehousing prices,” Rogers said.

Consumers could also be driving demand for warehouse space by buying big-ticket items like appliances ahead of any potential tariffs.

Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo, said if that’s the case that’s not a great sign about where the economy’s headed.

“If it’s a pull-forward of activity, that just means we could see a steeper drop-off later in the year,” she said.

But House said there are other reasons consumers are buying expensive, durable goods.

“Financing conditions are a little bit easier for those big ticket purchases. And at the same time, some goods are getting a little bit worn out, if they were bought in the early part of the pandemic,” she said.

And if transportation and warehousing costs are going up because consumers feel confident enough to buy those things, House said that’s a good sign.