Even as inflation cools, Americans report sticker shock at grocery store register

Latasha Warner does everything she can to keep food costs down.

She avoids restaurants. Buys off-brand products. Avoids meat that’s not on sale. Travels out of town to shop at bigger, more affordable chains. And still, she says the $200 she spent on groceries Tuesday isn’t enough food to last the week for her, her husband and two children.

Her $17.54-an-hour job in Kentucky leaves her in financial limbo, making too much for financial assistance but not enough for the basics. Groceries take up about half of her paycheck, she said, which makes other expenses ‒ from car repairs to vacations ‒ unaffordable.

“At $2.50 for a head of lettuce, how is anybody supposed to be able to afford this?” she said. “Trying to feed your family is getting too hard.”

Grocery inflation has cooled substantially since its 2022 peak, according to a recent report from the White House. That, combined with higher wages and falling prices in select categories, means groceries are taking less of a hit on Americans’ budgets.

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Despite the cooldown, surveys show consumers are still struggling to come to terms with how much food costs today.

“Consumers continue to be very concerned with high prices, and they continue to tell us at pretty high rates that high prices are eroding their living standards,” said Joanne Hsu, director of the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers. “It’s continuing to impact the lives of a lot of people.”

What is the inflation rate of groceries?

Grocery prices were up 1% between May 2023 and May 2024 – down from the 5.8% spike the previous 12-month period, according to Labor Department data.

May data also shows wage growth outpacing inflation, growing 4.1% over the past year. The White House report says it takes about 3.6 working hours for an average, nonmanagerial employee to buy a week’s worth of groceries – the same amount of hours required in 2019.

More good news for consumers: Federal data shows certain food prices are dropping. Apples, for instance, are down more than 13% from a year ago, while ham is down 6%. The White House also points out that some retailers – including Aldi, Target and Walmart – are slashing prices on products, which may not be reflected in the latest data.

“With more experts warning of persistent inflation, the time was right to deliver even greater discounts on our already low prices for the second year in a row,” Aldi U.S. President Dave Rinaldo said in a statement last month.

Bridget Keener, 36, keeps a close eye on food prices as a grocery-focused influencer and has noticed some relief in recent months.

Her goal since 2017 has been to feed her family of four for roughly $300 or less each month, allowing any savings to roll over to help next month’s purchases. Nearly 90,000 people follow Keener’s grocery hauls, meal plans and more on her Facebook group, “Frantic Frugal Mom.”

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