I have seen prices on rice, flour (especially real bread flour), coffee, milk, eggs and other items going up in price dramatically over the last several months. I do look for those things when on sale, and try to pay less. Buying the larger sizes sometimes saves some money as well. The 25 pound sack of all purpose flour is a much better deal than any other size, and it stores well. Share it with some friends/family who will use it.
As far as rice goes, we eat quite a bit of it. We buy and use La Preferida extra long grain for Mexican cooking, Kokuho Rose sushi grade rice and Basmati rice for asian cooking, and Minnesota Wild Rice. We usually buy rice in 5 or 10 pound packages, and pickup some extra on sale.