Over the last few weeks, we have been sharing grocery retail prices (food at home) from our 2024 receipts.  Today’s post captures four produce items: potatoes, mandarin oranges, dill pickles, and raisins.  It is important to recall that this is not a random sample.  This is a personal experience with one source, our household.  There is no statistical inference here, only illustrative value.

The first two posts in this food price fun series looked at dairy products and dry, cereal grain foods.

1. A Look Back at Local 2024 Food Purchases – Food Price Fun
2. Processed Food Grain Purchases for 2024 in Rural Illinois – Food Price Fun

With the exception of eggs, which increased in price toward the end of the year, every item has been flat.

Half of the items my household purchased all of 2024 did not change in price.  This is why sharing these food purchases seemed to have value. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) produces several national Consumer Price Indices (CPI).  Food prices are a subset of the general CPI.  Food price CPI is subdivided further into food at home (grocery retail) and food away from home (retail restaurant and food services).

The benefit of reviewing personal grocery expenditures publicly is to illustrate there are additional factors that shape grocery retail prices.  These include but are not limited to:

• Branded vs. generic or store-brand products – Branded products cost more than generic.
• Commercial hub vs. remote retail – Commercial centers have competition while remote areas require additional costs to move products into a remote area and have higher prices.
• Rural vs. urban – Since most food is grown in rural areas some rural food prices may be lower than in urban areas, but the foods that are processed more may be a better value in urban areas.
• Bulk packaging vs. smaller packages – Packaging is costly, larger packages cost less per unit of weight.
• Seasonality plays a role – products with a season are lower during the season than out of season.
• Fresh vs. Processed – Fruit and vegetables move into these two different markets that may influence the comparative prices.

In this chart, Potatoes (usually 5 lb bags) have an average price of $0.063/oz.  Oranges (3 to 5 lb bags) have an average price of $0.095/oz.  Pickles (1/3 to 1 gallon jar) have an average price of $0.102/oz. Raisins (in 2 lb bags) had an average price of $0.201/oz.

Potatoes and oranges are seasonal (one harvest per year in the United States).  Pickling cucumbers and drying raisins are preservation technologies and allow a single harvest to be sold all year round.  Processed markets at the farm are nearly always lower than fresh prices, but as can be seen in this simple illustration, the processed retail markets may not be lower than fresh products.

In the beginning of the year, smaller pickle jars were purchased.  By the end of the year, larger pickle containers were located, lowering the price of pickles over the year.

Branded, 2 lb Sun-maid raisins were purchased each time for a constant 2024 price.  The two events when the price of raisins increased, a generic brand in a smaller container were purchased.  So the larger, branded product is cheaper on a per unit of weight basis than the generic brand in a smaller package.

Food prices are complicated.

The available public CPI metrics provide some boundaries for all prices, food prices, food at home and food away from home prices.  But within these data containers, there are strategies to manage household food expenditures.  It is easier to manage costs when economy-wide prices are lower, but consumers are not without options.  Be strategic in purchases.