The U.S. grocery slowdown is becoming harder to ignore.
Shoppers are buying fewer items than a year ago, and grocery sales are declining as weakening unit sales are now outweighing rising prices. That is according to new analysis from Bain & Company using NielsenIQ grocery data shared exclusively with CNBC.
Grocery units, which refer to individual items or products sold, fell 1.8% in June from a year earlier, a sharp reversal from the 0.1% year-over-year growth recorded in June 2025. While prices continue to rise about 2% to 3% year-over-year, that inflation cushion for the industry is no longer enough to keep overall sales growing.
The prices at Kroger owned stores in SoCal are absolutely insane, regularly 30% more than Aldi and 20% more than TJ’s. Occasionally I’ll run in for a item or two and every single time feel like they’ve picked my pocket, pulled down my pants and pushed me out of the store while laughing at me.
Isn’t it always interesting how the most expensive stores are the closest ones… for me it’s Stop n Shop. Aldi is like a 20 min drive for me along with the other lower priced stores. I try to plan it out so I do most of my shopping at them, but just like you say you always gotta hit the other one for a few items you may need, forgot, or missed and it sucks.
It’s interesting how different locations vary. Kroger is definitely one of the cheaper stores in Washington state. Safeway/Albertson’s is astronomically expensive here.
A cursory check of a few items at Ralphs in SoCal vs Fred Meyer in Seattle show prices are substantially higher in SoCal for common items. For instance a jar of mayo is 15.5% more in SoCal. Other items I’ve checked have been at least 10% more expensive.
It isn’t my imagination - they are laughing at us.
Now I’m curious how Safeway prices in Seattle compare to SoCal prices.
Our cost of living isn’t that different necessarily, though it’s been a while since I actually compared.