CHARLOTTE — As inflation hits items at the grocery store, some may be choosing to shop at the “cheapest” grocery stores.
But analysts found that’s where the biggest price changes are happening. Bank of America analyzed the local grocery market in Charlotte to get a specific measure of inflation in the Queen City.
Roberta Keener says she sees inflation wherever she goes -- she’ll buy staple items from a discount store, but then buy her produce and meat from another.
“I know I went to another store to get something, and it was a lot more expensive,” Keener told Channel 9′s Evan Donovan.
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New data from Bank of America backs her up. One of the company’s analysts looked specifically at the grocery store market in Charlotte over the past year.
Bank of America found grocery prices on average were up 3% across Charlotte. That’s led by a 4% increase in produce and a 7% increase on dairy, especially eggs.
Zach Maddigan said he knows that all too well.
“Definitely yeah, over the last year for sure. Eggs today were $3.50 alone,” Maddigan told Donovan.
Bank of America’s study found the cheapest grocers actually had the biggest price increases. Aldi, Lidl, and Walmart still have the lowest prices overall, but their prices are up 4-6% in the past year, which is more than all of the other grocers in the study. Target and Harris Teeter had the lowest price increases year over year.
“It’s kind of gotten out of hand, to be honest with you,” Maddigan said. “Going to the grocery store is now easily $100 to $100-plus just for a week’s worth of groceries.”
The study only compared prices between the same basket of goods that you can buy at all of the stores, and the price study was based on shelf pricing so it doesn’t include the savings you get when using store loyalty cards.
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