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We compared the cost of 11 grocery staples from 10 years ago against the cost of those staples today.
- Many factors have contributed to the changing price of goods over the last 10 years.
- America recovered from the 2008 recession, but parts of the economy have also been increasingly affected by evolving tastes, climate change, and recent trade wars.
- In order to track how the cost of living has changed, we used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to compare the cost of 11 grocery staples from 10 years ago against the cost of those staples today.
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A decade ago, Americans were still reeling from the collapse of the housing market and major banking institutions. Unemployment was high, spirits were low, and much of the news was focused on how America was going to return to normal after the worst economic downturn in generations.
During the early 2010s, America did just that. But recent years have seen a variety of unpredictable factors that may have affected the prices of goods and Americans' cost of living.
Climate change has begun to affect how, when, and where crops are grown. The proliferation of fast-casual, farm-to-table, and international foods has reflected changes in how Americans consume. And a breakdown of international relations has led to tariffs, uncertainty, and full-blown trade wars.
In order to track some of this change, we compared the cost of 11 grocery staples from 10 years ago against the cost of those staples today.
All data was taken from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. All prices are in US dollars, non-seasonally adjusted, and reflect an average of prices in US cities.