IN SHORT
We read online shelf prices by hand from the store’s public website, one named store per chain, and write down the date, the product, the pack size and the page. We price whole packs, the way you pay at checkout. Figures are before tax and fees, and they are not what any household actually spent.
Where prices come from.
- The store’s own website, signed out, at the store the website picks or the one we name. We record the store’s address with every month of data.
- Read by a person in a web browser, at a normal pace. We do not use paid price feeds, and we do not get around bot checks. If a site blocks us, that store is left out for the month and we say so. In November 2026, Target was left out for this reason.
- The price the site showed that day, including any sale price. When an item is on sale, we keep the regular price next to it.
Which product we pick.
- Store brand where there is one (Great Value, ALDI’s own brands, Kroger). Otherwise, the cheapest plain match.
- Not organic, not family packs and not multipacks, unless that is the only pack sold.
- The closest pack size. When a store only sells a different size, we price the pack it sells and note it.
- Sold-by-weight items such as ground beef or broccoli crowns use the store’s own estimate for one pack. We keep the per-pound price as well.
Whole packs, and the size-matched figure.
A recipe might use half a bag of rice, but you pay for the whole bag. So our headline figure is the checkout total: every pack you would put in the cart. Leftovers such as rice, butter or soy sauce carry into the next week.
Because stores sell different pack sizes, we also show a size-matched total. It scales each price to the basket’s pack size when the units agree (ounces to ounces, for example). Use it to compare stores. Use the checkout total to plan what you will spend at the till.
What the figures do not include.
- Sales tax, delivery and service fees, tips, coupons and loyalty discounts.
- Differences between the website and the shelf, or between two stores of the same chain.
- Anything outside the stated basket. Our Grocery Index covers five weeknight dinners for a family of four. Salt, pepper, oil and dried spices are assumed to be in the cupboard.
One store per chain is a price check, not a national average. It is not the Consumer Price Index, and it is not a measure of inflation.
Check our work.
Every price on the Grocery Index links to the product page we read, and each month has its own CSV with every product, size, price, date and URL. If you find a mistake, email [email protected] and we will correct it and note the change on the page.
MealPot is an independent meal-planning app. No store pays us to be included, and stores do not see our figures before we publish them. Writing about grocery costs? See the page for journalists.
See this month’s prices.
Five family dinners, priced item by item at Walmart, ALDI and Kroger.