Grocery Prices in the United States: Tracker, Reports & What Things Cost

This page is the home of our United States grocery price coverage. Everything here is built from US sources: the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Consumer Price Index, the USDA Food Price Outlook, retailer online listings, and current supermarket weekly ads.

The latest headline: the BLS food at home index rose 1.8% over the 12 months ending in September 2026, and it fell 0.1% in September itself, a rare month where grocery prices got slightly cheaper. The USDA expects food at home prices to rise 2.4% across 2026 as a whole.

Our first US shelf check, on October 19, 2026, priced the same 12 shared staples at $42.28 at Target and $43.05 at H-E-B. The full tracker explains the basket, the two items that would not line up the same way at both stores, and the prices we could not verify at Walmart and Kroger.

Start here: the tracker and the monthly report

The US Staple Grocery Prices tracker is the living page: a fixed basket of 14 staples, repriced every week from retailer online listings, with ad prices labeled as ad prices. The US Grocery Price Report is the monthly companion: each BLS release explained item by item, with the USDA outlook for what comes next.

The September 2026 report covers eggs down 20.6% year over year, dairy prices falling, coffee up 7.1%, and why beef is the category to watch into 2027.

What individual staples cost

Each staple has its own guide with the prices we verified, the BLS national average where one exists, what counts as a good deal, why the price moves, and how to pay less: eggs, milk, butter, bread, chicken, ground beef, coffee, bananas, cheese, and potatoes. Every guide is linked below.

Deals and store comparisons

US Grocery Deals Watch rounds up the best verified deals in the current weekly ads, with stock-up or skip verdicts and the fine print translated. The store comparison prices the same basket at Target and H-E-B item by item, then reports honestly what we could and could not verify at Walmart, Kroger, and Aldi.

We also publish a Canada hub built on the same system, and more countries are coming. Once enough country trackers are live, we will publish a same-basket price comparison across countries.

How we check US prices

Regular prices come from retailer online listings (target.com, heb.com, and store banner sites), checked on the date shown. Online list prices can differ from the shelf price at your local store, and grocery prices vary a lot by region, especially at chains like Kroger and H-E-B. Anything taken from a weekly ad is labeled an ad price with its validity dates.

If a price cannot be verified, we say so on the page instead of filling the gap. That happens more than you would expect: some of the biggest chains in America do not publish prices in a way that can be checked from outside the store.

National averages tell you the trend. Your receipts tell you your prices. Scan them free (5 scans a month, no credit card) and Grocery Spending Tracker builds your personal price history. Premium adds price-change alerts on your regular items and Ask Grocery AI.