Grocery shoppers felt a slight reprieve this spring as grocery prices finally fell, after a run of increases spanning back to September 2020.
Grocery prices remained relatively unchanged in May at a 0.2% increase, following two consecutive months of decreases, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. It certainly didn’t undo the two years of historically high inflation, and prices were still up 6.7% from May 2022. But urban prices have fallen in many grocery categories, including eggs, meats, vegetables, grains, and dairy products.
Many factors have contributed to past surges in pricing, including producers’ increased cost to package goods, extreme weather conditions that destroyed crops, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the lasting effects of COVID-19.
While costs remain high overall, the decreases mean dollars can stretch a bit farther at the grocery store. Stacker used monthly data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to find the grocery items that experienced the largest price increases over the last month in the Northeast, using year-over-year changes as a tiebreaker where needed. For this analysis, the Northeast includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Stacker excluded some hyper-specific meat categories in order to better understand grocery price fluctuations more broadly.
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#10. Whole milk (per gal.)
– One-month decrease in cost: -0.3%
– Annual change in cost: -7.2%
– May 2023 cost: $4.33
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#9. Malt beverages (per 16 oz.)
– One-month decrease in cost: -0.4%
– Annual change in cost: +6.2%
– May 2023 cost: $2.03
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#8. White bread (per lb.)
– One-month decrease in cost: -0.6%
– Annual change in cost: +26.1%
– May 2023 cost: $2.03
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#7. Spaghetti and macaroni (per lb.)
– One-month decrease in cost: -0.7%
– Annual change in cost: +9.4%
– May 2023 cost: $2.03
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#6. Wine (per 1 liter)
– One-month decrease in cost: -1.2%
– Annual change in cost: +0.4%
– May 2023 cost: $14.42
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#5. Ham (per lb.)
– One-month decrease in cost: -2.0%
– Annual change in cost: +9.0%
– May 2023 cost: $3.94
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#4. Ice cream, prepackaged in bulk (per 1/2 gal.)
– One-month decrease in cost: -2.2%
– Annual change in cost: +8.8%
– May 2023 cost: $5.98
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#3. Potato chips (per 16 oz.)
– One-month decrease in cost: -3.7%
– Annual change in cost: +11.6%
– May 2023 cost: $5.63
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#2. Cheddar cheese, natural (per lb.)
– One-month decrease in cost: -7.1%
– Annual change in cost: +1.6%
– May 2023 cost: $5.99
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#1. Eggs (per doz.)
– One-month decrease in cost: -14.0%
– Annual change in cost: +7.9%
– May 2023 cost: $3.36
This story was written by Stacker and has been re-published pursuant to a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.