Grocery, one of the biggest categories in retail, has a 15.6% share in overall retail spending in the US. Grocery is a high-frequency low-margin essential category, and any impact on grocery prices influences discretionary spending. Tracking grocery inflation at a higher frequency than what is released by the Bureau of Labor & Statistics allows us to identify these trends, analyze the impact and share actionable insights with our clients faster.

We have created a basket of the most consumed grocery products in the US, from various categories including fruits and vegetable produce, cereals and bakery products, dairy products, meat, seafood and poultry, frozen foods, deli, beverages, etc. These items were selected based on availability, accessibility, and popularity among consumers.

The different categories in the basket are weighted based on their consumption by the “average” US consumer. For example, if consumers spend approximately 20% of their grocery budget buying dairy products, 20% of the basket used to create the index contains dairy products. The pricing of these products is compared on a weekly basis to get detailed insights into price inflation along with its effects. We have further classified these products into macro-nutrient food groups (protein contributors, carbohydrate contributors, fat contributors), staple food and discretionary food, healthy food and unhealthy food, and plant-based and non-plant-based to help uncover any underlying price trends across each of these groups.

Overall there is an increase of 0.03% in prices from February to early March. The steepest increase of 0.99% was observed in nonalcoholic beverages and beverage materials. Fruits and vegetables on the other hand saw the steepest decrease in prices by 0.93%. Moreover, the prices of meats, poultry, fish, and eggs decreased by 0.71%.

Inflation in the overall food-at-home segment (including grocery store and supermarket food purchases) rose by 13% over the previous 12 months, with the largest increase, 16.2% in cereal and bakery products. Dairy and related products and other food at home showed significantly higher inflation than fruits and vegetables, non-alcoholic beverages, and beverage materials. A host of factors such as elevated energy prices, a relatively strong employment market leading to a sustained increase in demand, and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine contributing to supply-side constraints, could help in understanding this rise in inflation levels.

Prices on discretionary food products continued to rise faster than staple products by 0.55% month-over-month (MoM). The carbohydrate-rich products have increased by 0.51% while prices for protein-rich products have increased by 0.30%. On the other hand, fat-rich products have grown at a comparatively slower pace of 0.23%. Growth in prices for non-healthy products (0.44% MoM) slightly outpaced that of healthy products (0.38% MoM). Prices for non-plant-based products increased at a slightly faster pace of 0.43% than plant-based products, which saw an increase of 0.32%.

Food prices are on the rise for most categories from February to early March. Cereals and bakery products have increased by 0.27%, while dairy and related products have seen a 0.24% increase. Other food at home, such as canned goods and packaged snacks, has also seen an uptick of 0.29%. However, fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry, fish, and eggs observed a decrease.