this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2026
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The U.S. grocery slowdown is becoming harder to ignore.

Shoppers are buying fewer items than a year ago, and grocery sales are declining as weakening unit sales are now outweighing rising prices. That is according to new analysis from Bain & Company using NielsenIQ grocery data shared exclusively with CNBC.

Grocery units, which refer to individual items or products sold, fell 1.8% in June from a year earlier, a sharp reversal from the 0.1% year-over-year growth recorded in June 2025. While prices continue to rise about 2% to 3% year-over-year, that inflation cushion for the industry is no longer enough to keep overall sales growing.

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[–] Abyssian@lemmy.world 57 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Pressure on food companies? Loads of people not being able to afford much food seems like maybe those people are under some pressure too, and maybe that's the more important part?

[–] modus@lemmy.world 17 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yes, but are you considering the shareholders?

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

Yeah, we should steal food from them.

[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 15 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Remember, companies are people. The GOP knows they are the most important people and are far more important than the people who are people.

[–] jtrek@startrek.website 56 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I'd buy a lot more food if my job paid me more. Instead, rice and beans baby. Maybe a splurge on champagne every time a key republican dies, but that's it.

[–] lonefighter@sh.itjust.works 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Rice and beans are pretty good though, especially if you add in a little salsa or some grape tomatoes and a sprinkle of shredded cheese.

[–] jtrek@startrek.website 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Oh yeah. I throw anything in there. I sincerely enjoy it, in addition to it being cheap. But I used to buy a lot of other stuff too.

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[–] Blackfeathr@lemmy.world 41 points 6 days ago (3 children)

We have scaled back significantly on our grocery purchases within the past month. No snacks, only stuff that's on sale, beef products very rarely (because it's fucking expensive now) and fewer items overall. Even after all that it comes to around $80 per trip. But we are now losing money due to our power and water bills getting jacked up so we are looking into cutting back even more.

[–] Shindo66@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago

I have a family with 3 teenage boys, I spend $100 pretty much every day...

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 10 points 6 days ago

power/gas /water isnt telling its customers that the rates are going up because of AI datacenters, i saw our parents rates increase as well.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

beef products very rarely (because it’s fucking expensive now)

I was in Acme a few days ago looking through the steak section. There was a porterhouse close to expiration on sale for ... $54 fucking dollars. It was a little over one pound. I'd be astonished to pay that much for a steak at a fucking steakhouse, cooked and brought to my table with sides and drinks.

If I want the taste of steak these days, I buy bottom round and flatten the shit out of it with a tenderizing mallet.

[–] Tinks@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

My husband wanted a special German stew this week and I went to price out chuck roast for it and it was $10/lb! It would cost us $20 in meat to make a pot of simple freakin stew. Round wasn't even cheaper either! I quickly decided we weren't having that stew right now. The price of beef is insane. Beef roast and stew was the poor meal when I was growing up - the thing my parents made to stretch the budget because you just buy a super cheap cut and cook it all day to make it edible, along with cheap veggies. Now those meals are damn near a delicacy considering the cost of the meat. Chicken isn't much better either at the moment. Grocery shopping has become exhausting.

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[–] Tiral@lemmy.world 45 points 6 days ago (4 children)

All I know is, I'm 43, when I was a kid in the 90s we'd go grocery shopping and have an overflowing cart that was around $100. Now, the same cart $100 isn't enough to cover the wire mesh at the bottom of the cart. It's absolutely insane. I bet it would be $400 to fill the cart. That's not inflation thats a scam.

It is absolutely a scam. Remember the egg shortage? Eggs were going for $7+ a dozen in SoCal and a few miles across the border the prices had only risen slightly to maybe $2.50/dozen.

And now there's this:

Egg producers will pay $3.3M and donate 53 million eggs to settle price fixing claims

Forcing U.S. egg producers to pay a minuscule 0.37% fine on $1.22 billion in excess profits sends an unmistakable message to businesses everywhere. With Trump in charge they can fleece Americans without the slightest fear of consequences and they are doing just that.

[–] lonefighter@sh.itjust.works 26 points 6 days ago

I genuinely don't know how families are doing it. I spend as much on food as a single person as my parents did with a family in the early 2000s. Granted, we didn't eat much, but we didn't starve, and I don't eat much either. I rarely eat meat, I don't go to restaurants, and maybe once every month or two I'll "treat" myself to a gas station meal or a bagel sandwich from a coffee shop. I'm so glad I don't have children to try to feed.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 11 points 6 days ago

old man here. I am not exaggerating to say you could have large paper grocery bags full of food using a 20 and get change back. Those paper grocery bags held more than twice the standard plastic ones from today. I keep complaining that places still have signs saying they won't take over a 20 when that was what everything would take when I was a kid. Nobody had signs saying they won't take anything over a 5 or 10.

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[–] justaman123@lemmy.world 37 points 6 days ago (4 children)

This is because of all the people who just got kicked off food stamps because of the big beautiful bill

[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 28 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Probably has a lot to do with it. A friend says his retired, low income parents had their SNAP benefits cut from $300 / month to $30.

Well I'm sure that has a lot to do with it, I would expect it's simply also just due to the massively inflated prices of many foods and the massively increasing costs of other standard expenses like rent

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

thats not even the worst part, peoples preniums on thier aca plans became unaffordable, although there doesnt seem to be that many using ACA marketplace.

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[–] NoForwadSlashS@piefed.social 25 points 6 days ago

People can't afford to buy food? Please think about poor Nestlé, they might make slightly less profit this year.

[–] rozodru@piefed.world 21 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I suck at math but even I know that stagnation of wages + increase in cost of rent + increase in cost of food = bad times.

Wages continue to stagnate or people are being laid off left right and center and these knuckleheads are all shocked pikachu face that no one is buying while continuing to raise prices?

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Pressure to bring prices down right? Less demand means lower prices right? The free market is a lie

[–] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 19 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Fuck anyone who makes millions off of basic human rights

[ drops SM-58 mic ]

[ the floor breaks ]

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 7 points 6 days ago

We can't even build floors right anymore. Too expensive.

[–] switcheroo@lemmy.world 28 points 6 days ago

Won't someone think of the shareholders???

[–] NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 25 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Have they tried paying people more?

[–] SoloCritical@lemmy.world 14 points 6 days ago

There will literally pay private armies to start killing us before they would pay us a dollar more per hour.

[–] SarcasticMan@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago

Sorry, no...Best we can do is charge you more for groceries, gas, and basic necessities.

[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

The same greedy bastard would charge us for oxygen if they could. I am middle of the middle class and my grocery shopping has changed dramatically thanks to the shareholders and executives making life more difficult.

[–] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago

You mean those same food companies that literally were found guilty of price fixing and then got a slap on the wrist, which was the best that we could do under the law, for manufacturing scarcity and screwing Americans over?

Pressure on those food companies?

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 7 points 5 days ago (2 children)

My go-to "relatively easy, quick and cheap" meal is some kind of grilled meat with a side salad.

Well meat is expensive as hell, and salad components are widely contaminated. FML I guess.

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[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

That's one way to solve the obesity epidemic...

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[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Starting to think if prices go up ozempic starts to become cost effective

[–] HeyJoe@lemmy.world 21 points 6 days ago

If prices keep going up you probably won't need ozempic.

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