Weekly Grocery Bills In Oklahoma Are Slightly Above National Average

The price of groceries has been at the forefront of everyone's mind in the United States, especially during this last election cycle. Consumers began to notice increased prices on everyday goods during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though the worst days of the pandemic are behind us, those prices have seemed to continue to rise.

According to data from the United States Census Bureau, Delish calculated the data and found that the average weekly grocery bill in America for 2024 is $270. For Oklahoma, that weekly average grocery bill sits at $279, just slightly above the national average.

Other areas of the United States have weekly grocery bills that are 20 percent higher than the national average, like Hawaii and Alaska. The areas with the lowest grocery costs are areas of the Midwest, like Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Why do grocery prices continue to be high?

Grocery prices have been steadily increasing since 2019, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). From 20219 to 2023, the all-food Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 25 percent, which was faster than housing, medical care and the costs for other major categories.

The reason for the increase in grocery prices from 2020 to 2021 was because of "shifting consumption patterns and supply chain disruptions" due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But during 2022, when the impacts of the pandemic seemed to be lessening, "food prices increased faster than any year since 1979, partly due to a highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak that affected egg and poultry prices and the conflict in Ukraine which compounded other economy-wide inflationary pressures such as high energy costs." That year, the food-at-home prices rose by 11.4 percent.

By 2023, the average food-at-home prices were 5 percent more than 2022. According to the USDA, the 20-year historical average for retail food price inflation is 2.5 percent per year.

And the reason for continued grocery store prices in 2024 was found to be due to the grocery store retailers themselves taking advantage of the pandemic supply chain disruptions to continue to hike prices. According to a report from the Federal Trade Commission, "some firms seem to have used rising costs as an opportunity to further hike prices to increase their profits, and profits remain elevated even as supply chain pressures have eased."

After the report was issued, President Biden accused grocery store chains of overcharging and began urging the chains to drop prices as food costs were burdening consumers. During a speaking engagement in South Carolina earlier this year, he stated that these continued price increases were due to corporations "ripping people off" with "price gouging, junk fees, greedflation, shrinkflation."

What's your average weekly grocery bill?

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