Since I keep track of my food spending a little more intensely than most, I’m able to pick up on food pricing trends pretty quickly. What I have seen over the last few years is actually an overall decrease on basic items, which is not at all what I expected. I read an article on Npr today that confirmed what I was seeing.
“For 19 months straight, the U.S. government reported declines in the food consumer price index, which compares supermarket prices with what they were a year earlier.”
For me, I started noticing it with eggs first. I can almost always find them for under a $1, and then the cost of a gallon of milk dropped, too. That usually runs me about $2! And that’s pretty much what the article said. The biggest price drops were on beef, eggs and dairy. And then of course there’s always bananas. $0.39 a pound at Costco or $0.59 at the grocery store most days. Also, a loaf of decent bread will run me around $1 now, and it used to be double that a few years ago.
So what’s the cause behind the drop? A few things. Food producers could operate more cheaply because energy and transportation costs fell. There was also just a ton more food on the market, because as the dollar strengthened, American goods got more expensive and so China and a number of other countries stopped buying so much from the US. It’s a supply and demand thing, and the US suddenly had a large supply!
What have you seen in your neck of the woods? Any noticeable drop in prices? Have you seen an increase on some things and decrease on others?
~Mavis
BRB says
Everything seems to be more in the trend that it was before 2008. Discount stores have better stuff again and clearance sales are better than they were for a looong time. I’m sure it will last for a while longer until the economy tanks again!
Melody says
Recently, we were able to buy a dozen eggs for $0.25 apiece, and a gallon of milk was $1.19. With six kids in the house we were buying eggs 12 dozen at a time, scrambling, and freezing them 2-3 times a week! We bought extra gallons of milk and froze those too! Eggs have gone up in the past two weeks to $0.69, and I would still consider those a steal.
lynne says
no noticeable drop, in fact, dairy prices seem higher. Butter, even when on “sale” runs no less than $2.99#. I try to buy the Rbgh free butter, which is close to $5/#. Milk is still running $2.69-$3 / gallon. Eggs I buy from a local farmer for $1.50/doz, in the stores they run about .99/dozen. LynneinWI
Brianna says
I think it depends where you are in the country too. In GA chicken and pork were cheap, but lamb and beef was pricey. After moving last month to MT, beef, bison, and lamb is much cheaper, but pork and chicken is almost 2X the price. Bananas are steady at 0.59/lb in both areas. Organics cost a ton more in MT than the same organics in GA, perhaps it was less distance to truck in or more demand. Prepackaged junk food costs more in MT, whereas in GA it was insanely cheap. I think location, proximity to warehouses and sources, and consumer demand controls a lot of the prices.
Delorise says
Bet you’re glad you’re in MT instead of GA right now. We are waiting to see what Hurricane Irma is going to do. In my area (middle GA) several cities have no hotel vacancies. They have already booked up. There was a run on water yesterday also. One Walmart had only a few gallons of distilled water left on its shelves. I was at a Kroger and they had no gallons of water on the shelves. I anticipate the closer we get to Sunday that there will be a run on gasoline. Enjoy MT.
Katie says
Except Montana has been on fire since mid-July. The air quality is absolutely awful and listed as hazardous in many locations. Not great to be either place right now.
Delorise says
Is there a healthy, safe place in the US right now?? Maybe Hawaii?? No I think that is out– I can’t afford the cost of living there. Guess I’ll just bunker down and count my blessings that I am where I am. Sure wish I could send a lot of rain Montana way.
Susie says
Montana fires are horrible. We are getting smoke in Wyoming and I can’t imagine it there. Not much news though, not sure why.
Kathy says
Not in the SF Bay Area, the lowest price I pay for a dozen of organic eggs is $3.99, which is a sale price.
Katy says
I live in the North Bay (Sonoma County) and our food prices are always high. We have chickens but even conventional eggs don’t go below $2 and when other people list their prices ours are always double. Even our farmers have high prices. It’s actually cheaper to buy organic at the store at full price than our local farmers. It’s a beautiful place to live but EVERYTHING is more expensive.
lilton says
In Southern WV, Kroger has been having eggs really cheap [49c/dozen or 69c/18 count] and milk for $1.39/gallon [this price never includes chocolate, though, which we sometimes get as a treat]. Fruit prices have varied…some weeks, peaches, apples, pears, and/or cherries are 99c/pound, but plums have never been as cheap as in recent years. Pork prices have been great, as have bone-in chicken; beef prices okay but not super cheap. We’ve been really cutting back on our pop and junk foods, so I’m not sure about those prices, but Greek yogurt prices seem ridiculously high. Bread prices have been really good lately, too; I think there must be a surplus from Labor Day because store brand hotdog and hamburger buns were 50c on Tuesday with a regular sale tag, not a clearance one. I was more than a little sad that our 4-H club didn’t have a hotdog sale in the near future so I could stock up at that price! 🙂
Kristina says
Yeah, what we walnut farmers are paid for a pound of nuts has dropped by half in the past couple of years. Hopefully, it doesn’t drop any further. Those egg guys make peanuts in a good year. If the price is dropping, I feel for them.
Jo says
I’ve wondered about this. Walnuts at the grocery stores here haven’t dropped, but they have been downright cheap at the farmer’s market. I feel for the farmers who have seen their income slashed.
I haven’t noticed eggs or milk prices dropping but I pay higher prices for milk and eggs because I support humane farmers. I will pay more to know I’m not supporting factory farming and can see the animals.
Delorise says
Depends on the items– some like eggs and milk have decreased in price. However other items have increased- like soap, cleaning items and paper products to name a few. I am hearing that items made with wheat may be increasing in price. Hope that rumor is invalid as wheat is in a lot of stuff- guess time will tell. I did catch a great sale on sugar this week– 4 lb bags for 99 cents. I bought 75 bags— no I didn’t buy all these for me–this will stock up a number of family members for the next year. They don’t have a Kroger in their area so I am happy to pick up deals for them. It helps all of us stay within budget, eat well and have a nice life.
Julie says
Hope you don’t mind me commenting about our prices here. By the same regard the pound is not as strong as it was and our food and grocery prices have rocketed. Having said that, bananas, milk and eggs are still a reasonable price in places like Lidl and ALDI they run at about £0.79 per kilo for bananas, £0.89 for 6 medium ‘free range’ eggs, fresh milk is £1 for 4 pints in most places.
Like the previous commenter, it worries me that the farmers are still only getting pennies for their milk per gallon and the bulk of the price is going to the supermarkets. Eggs bought straight from free range farms direct are more expensive depending on where you live. I pay £1.50 for six ungraded mixed free range eggs.
All nuts are crazy expensive here, £2 for 200g of walnuts in Lidl but then £2.99 for 150g in Waitrose!
Mavis Butterfield says
We love comments around here Julie. 😉 It’s the best part of the blog.
Kristina says
If those walnuts are from California, they could be from my farm! Yay! I love to see where the fruits of our labor end up. If they are from last year’s crop, we were probably paid about 45p for that 200g. I don’t know how much markup a 6000 mile journey warrants? Anyway, enjoy!
Julie says
The Lidl ones most definitely are Californian. Thank you I do enjoy them they are delicious but it’s very worrying about how far they have had to travel to get in my pantry!
Marcia says
So, about $1.50 a pound? (Had to do a double conversion). That’s not much. I’m in CA and I generally pay $6-7 a pound, depending on where I buy them. A little more at the farmer’s market or local produce store.
Julie says
Marcia it’s appalling that Kristina’s family business gets paid so low but what about the fact that I’m paying roughly the same price here in the uk as you on the doorstep, here it works out about $6.50 at Lidl prices.
Tracy says
I believe more people are on a plant based diet these days. Plant milk sales are surpassing cows milk sales these days so there is more supply than demand. People are using less eggs and meat these days too. Even my most carnivore family members are at the least cutting way down on meat consumption. Im not sure why walnuts farmers are being paid less, I know I buy more nuts that I ever have.
Kristina says
My family grows both walnuts and almonds. Most of us have little control over the price we get paid. We can only get what is offered to us on the commodities market, which takes into account a lot of factors, including shortages, price of fuel, trade embargoes with other countries, shipping strikes, etc. This is pretty typical of farmers of lots of products. We don’t set our price, we get what the market will bear at harvest time, even those of us who belong to grower-owned co-ops, like Blue Diamond Almond. One paycheck, once a year. (Sometimes I ask myself why we are in this business, lol.)
Amy says
I am a third generation vegetable farmer. This will be our last year growing vegetables. Lack of true supply/demand pricing, Walmart price fixing, government regulations and labor shortages leaves very little profit margins for the family farm anymore.
Katie says
We started to have Aldi stores pop up around us in Northern VA over the past 18 months. Shopping there has made a significant dent in my grocery budget, especially for things like vegetables. At other grocery stores, I haven’t noticed much of a change.
KC says
The thing that I’ve noticed has really rocketed up in price? Vanilla. Harrumph.
SandyF says
Yes! Vanilla is crazy! Costco had it for $26.00. I am waiting for a sale somewhere. Imagine how bakeries feel! Bakeries can’t raise their prices when prices go up. Eggs, butter, vanilla, etc…all the good ingredients…
Jennifer says
The one thing I have noticed is that Wal-Mart is competitive again and often the “low price leader”. I had not shopped there for years as I could find everything cheaper somewhere else, like Aldi, or just watching sales at other stores.
However, now I am doing at least 50% of my weekly shopping there. Their GV multi grain bread – $1.43 is awesome and Aldi’s version is $1.79 most weeks. Milk is the same as Aldi’s, chicken breast is $1.69#, and eggs are $1.12 for an 18 ct. package. We go through 6 eggs a day, so it adds up for me.
Now beef, on the other hand, is a different story. Steaks are often on sale for $6 or $7#, but that is still too rich for my blood. I have all but given up on it, but don’t miss it at all.
Jennifer says
Have you ever thought about making your own? I’ve heard that even with cheap vodka it’s cheaper than most stores. If nothing else, there will be good sales closer to Christmas.
Susan says
I was going to do that….but the vanilla beans are really expensive, too.
Candy C. says
Live in Ohio area. Eggs were 17Cents a dozen at Walmart in NE Ohio last week. Milk is $1.25 a gallon. Butter still high. Make my own bread so don’t know the prices on that. Mine tastes better so really doesn’t matter.
Molly says
Vancouver BC here. I bought eggs yesterday 4.99 dozen, but the cheapest were 3.99. milk is about $5 per litre which is slightly larger than a US gallon.
Almost all those prices sound like fairy tales to me 🙂
Michèle says
I totally agree with you! What planet do these people live on?! Their prices for eggs and milk sound like the 1950’s! LOL! We’re in Salem, Oregon, and must be annexed to the Taj Mahal! But I do know prices are much worse in Arizona AND they have sales tax which we don’t have.
pamela says
not so much as you would notice where I live on the east coast. Milk still over $2.50 per gallon. Eggs in the $1 to $1,50 range for the store brand regular eggs. Bread not any lower. The lowest price “regular” grocery store in my area didn’t even have the usual summer produce sales like they have in the past even though the produce they have sales on is VERY local.
Gertrude Ezell says
Wow! I wish our prices would go down in Western PA! Milk is $3.49-$3.51, sometimes more, 25 lbs of flour just went up almost a $1 at Sams Club, and all of the sugars (powdered, brown & granulated) have gone up 16 cents to over a $1 within the last month. Giant Eagle is our local grocery store and bread is still about a dollar a loaf, sometimes $1.19. We don’t get Zaycon here, so we buy our meat at our local Sam’s Club (they have bulk case meat everyday and the prices are good !) and beef prices are up at least $1 a pound too. We have seen eggs cheap, a couple of weeks ago we had a dozen Giant Eagle brand eggs going down to 59 cents, but that’s about the only thing down in price. (We are getting farm fresh eggs for about $2 a dozen from someone who works with my Aunt – chicken and duck eggs – but they are so worth the price, other places they are $3.50 or more a dozen.) So please, send the cheaper food prices here, please! My 3 boys are growing like crazy!!
Beth says
Milk was $1.19/gal when I bought it last. I recently paid $0.29/dozen eggs. I try to buy the clearance wheat bread at $0.39 per loaf. Bananas are almost always $0.29/lb. Grocery prices have definitely gone down here in IL (St. Loius Metro East.)
Amy says
We are in Southern IL our prices on basics milk/eggs/bread/sugar/flour have been holding steady since they increased 8 or 9 years ago. Cheese prices keep going up for us. Today at the store I saw milk on sale for $3.19 a gallon (normally $3.39) and eggs for $1.29. Our prices have been holding the pretty much the same for the past 8 or 9 years on milk/eggs/bread. We were able to get some clearance French loaves for $0.29 at Wal-Mart the other day which made my children so happy.
Kelly Ennis says
I am amazed at the price you pay or food, it is super cheap. Bananas here are .99 cents a pound, milk is like 3.99 for 2 liters, eggs are anywhere from 2.49-3.49.
Eileen says
Near Syracuse, NY here. Eggs per dozen were down to .47 cents in July at Aldi’s but last week, they were $1.09. A gallon of 2% milk has been pretty steady at $1.90 and a loaf of multigrain bread is $1.79. There are regular sales of boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $1.99/lb. but beef has just been too high for our budget–even on sale it’s usually $5 a pound or more. I’ve been buying our fresh fruit and veg at the local farm stand-good prices and great taste!! It’s interesting to hear what prices are really like in different places-thanks everyone for sharing!
leslie says
Just moved from PNW to Utah (the desert) I thought the prices would go down, but no, I pay more now for food. Sad face!!! I do have neighbors with chickens who share sometimes, but we have opted to have milk/eggs delivered here, as there are farms readily around us that we can drive up and buy our produce.
We are loving living here, but a little bit discouraged with a bigger food bill (because since the price of living was so expensive in Snohomish county, we thought it would be different here)
Susan says
Our prices ave risen at our one and only local grocery store. Bananas are 79¢ a lb, milk is $3.59 a gallon, eggs are well over a dollar even when on sale. Bread is $2.49 for the cheapest. Meat is outrageous. And we have to drive 100 miles to the nearest WalMart or 300 miles to the nearest Costco or Sam’s Club.
amy says
here in Utah this morning and I just bought 5 dozen eggs for 2.99 and a gallon of milk for 1.99, these have been pretty consistent loss leaders the last six months or so.
Anne Wiebe says
I’m amazed at these egg prices. I’m in Austin, Texas, and our eggs have not gone below $1.85 a dozen. This is lower than last year, though, and I’ve paid as much as $6 a dozen for yard eggs (free roaming chickens). Milk is about $2.79/gallon for the cheapest at H-E-B (Texas’ big chain grocery), over $3/gallon everywhere else. I’ve seen bread at the dollar store for $1/loaf, but it’s higher everywhere else. We do seem to have cheaper bananas than most; it was $.39/pound till last week, now $.45/pound for the cheapest.
I keep wondering why HUGE red peppers keep going on sale for $.99 each, when they take longer than green peppers to grow! Green peppers, half the size usually, are about $.59 each.
Melissa in Oz says
You would all hate the prices in Australia!! Milk is usually a $1 a litre in the supermarkets but that is unbranded milk that doesn’t pay the farmer a very good wage. You can get cheap bread for less than a dollar but decent bread is usually $3.50 at least. Bananas are normally around $2 – $3 per kilo. The cheapest non free range eggs are about $2.39 a dozen – never seen them cheaper than that unless they are reduced to clear. How can farmers make any money when shops sell food that cheap??? Butter is expensive at the moment due to more people drinking full fat milk apparently – there was an article in one of the Australian papers about it!