Rising food prices have made everyday Americans more proactive in finding the cheapest option for grocery shopping. As global events hinder the path from farm to table, many consumers have figured out their own “supply chain.” Stores and suppliers are adjusting too.
So which stores are cheapest?? Well, it depends on where you live.
To help families on their way to better budgeting, we analyzed prices at over 2,000 grocery stores. We looked at 136 supermarket chains in hundreds of cities across the country and found the least expensive stores, on average, in every state and major city. Here are the results.
Key Findings: What are the cheapest grocery stores?
- Target is the most affordable supermarket in 15 states, including Florida and Hawaii — the highest number for any chain.
- Walmart sells the cheapest groceries in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
- In Oregon, Grocery Outlet is -32.71% cheaper than the average Oregon supermarket, the biggest saving in any state.
- Grocery Outlet is -34.02% cheaper than the average supermarket in Washington, D.C., the biggest saving of any location in our study.
Target or Walmart sell the least expensive groceries in 23 out of 50 states.
First, we built a set basket of branded groceries to compare the average cost at different supermarket chains in each state. We found that Target is the cheapest in 15 states and Walmart in eight states — including New York and California. Grocery Outlet is the most affordable option in six states, while Hy-Vee and Food Lion are cheapest in five states each.
In May 2024, Target made sweeping reductions across 5,000 everyday grocery products, including brands like Huggies and Persil. In addition, Target stores offer a price match guarantee that applies not just to rival stores but to their own online pricing. If you see qualifying items cheaper than in the store, the store’s Guest Service should honor the cheaper price.
All the same, the best savings may be made by opting for Target’s private-label goods, which can be much cheaper than the sometimes-astonishing price of branded products. “If I hear a gasp, I’ll say, ‘May I show you something comparable?’” says shelf-stocker Amanda Whitworth.
Regional chains offer best grocery prices in Seattle, San Diego and San Antonio.
Next, we identified the cheapest supermarket in 20 major U.S. cities, comparing the prices at each store with others locally.
On the East Coast, Grocery Outlet is the most affordable supermarket in both San Diego and Seattle. Grocery Outlet is operational in just 11 states and offers an “odd assortment of steeply discounted surplus national-brand products” based on buying in discounted, oversupplied or discontinued groceries and brands. The store is particularly noted for providing organic and health foods at a lower price than other large grocers.
In Texas, Food City is the most affordable in both Dallas and Fort Worth — cheaper than the local average by -12.40% and -13.41%, respectively. In San Antonio, H-E-B offers savings of -11.88% compared to local competition. Three new H-E-B stores are planned for the San Antonio area over the next 18 months. The brand has been operational for over 120 years and presently maintains more than 430 stores across Texas and Mexico.
The most affordable supermarket in over 100 U.S. cities.
Finally, we created this interactive resource to find the cheapest supermarket chain in your state and 145 major U.S. cities. Use the buttons to switch between cities and states, or use the search box to jump straight to your location and reveal the average price difference between each store and the local average. You can also use the arrows to sort the data.
Grocery Outlet offers the biggest savings in any state (Oregon, where it is -32.71% cheaper than the local average) and in any city (Washington, D.C., where it is -34.02% cheaper than average). However, in some cities, the price difference between stores is far less profound.
For example, in Lincoln, Nebraska, the best bet is Hy-Vee, which is -7.20% cheaper than the local average; the least affordable supermarket in Lincoln is Family Fare Supermarkets, which is +11.89% more expensive than the local average.
How to save money on supermarket groceries.
Supermarket shopping makes picking up groceries far more convenient than for previous generations, who would need to visit a number of specialist shops to fill their larder.
But taking full advantage of this convenience and the price advantages of the supermarket model needs a bit more work. Here are six tips to help you save money on groceries when you head out to the store.
- Use the store’s loyalty program to accumulate points and access discounts.
- Make a list and stick to it — don’t get distracted by special offers on non-essentials.
- Go alone and when it’s quiet. Hungry children and bustling aisles can entice you to make deviations from your shopping list.
- Buy the store’s own branded version of goods unless you are certain the branded version offers proven nutritional benefits.
- Buy in-season produce. Fruit and veg that are in season tend to be both healthier and cheaper.
- Stores tend to reduce near-to-expiry goods at regular times of the day or week. Figure out when your local store clerk goes around with the price reduction stickers — if you shop with the idea of putting together meals from what’s reduced, it’s the one exception to sticking to your list.
While grocery prices are rising in general, the supermarkets we’ve covered are keen to compete on pricing with their rivals — whether by matching prices, stocking discontinued lines or offering cheaper alternatives.
It can also be reassuring to think that the price of food may seem to continually rise because you notice it every week when you visit the store. Of course, the price of most things is always rising, but you’re reminded of it less often.
“Unlike other prices, we see and experience food prices on a weekly, if not more frequent, basis,” says David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University. “We buy food more often than we get a haircut or book a vacation or buy a car.”
Methodology
To discover the most affordable supermarket chains by state and city, we explored grocery prices from more than 2,000 stores across America.
First, we created a seed list of items from major brands (e.g., packs of Coca-Cola, bags of Cheetos and tubs of Ben and Jerry’s) to compare like for like across different stores in each location.
Next, we built a seed list of 145 cities, including the top 100 most populous across America and at least the two most populous in each state.
Using Instacart.com, we then input an address from the most populous zip code in each state/city and sourced the prices of the branded grocery items from every available store that delivers to that location.
Once the data was collected, we calculated the average price per item at every chain in each city/state.
Comparing the average prices of the branded items to the average across all chains in each state/city allowed us to calculate the price premiums.
The data is correct as of April 2025.
DISCLAIMER: This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, tax or legal advice.
