Supermarkets sit at the center of the U.S. food-at-home market, but the numbers vary substantially by outlet, category, state, and household. In 2025, U.S. food-at-home expenditures reached $1.10 trillion, while grocery prices continued to move unevenly across products. The statistics below put those changes into context for shoppers planning meals and managing weekly food budgets.
Contents
- U.S. supermarket and food-at-home market size
- Market concentration and geographic differences
- Grocery price changes and the 2026 outlook
- Grocery categories in the CPI
- Household food budgets by composition
- Food budgets by income, place, and food security
U.S. supermarket and food-at-home market size
The overall U.S. food market reached $2.51 trillion in total food expenditures in 2025. Food-at-home expenditures, the category most closely associated with supermarket and other grocery purchases, reached $1.10 trillion. These are nominal-dollar measures for 2025, so they should not be read as inflation-adjusted totals.
Inflation-adjusted 2025 sales provide another view of the retail mix. Food sales at U.S. grocery stores reached $617 billion, while warehouse clubs and supercenters reached $289 billion. Grocery stores accounted for 56.2% of U.S. food-at-home sales, warehouse clubs and supercenters accounted for 26.4%, and other food-at-home outlets accounted for 17.4%.
| Food-at-home outlet | Share of U.S. food-at-home sales, 2025 | Inflation-adjusted sales, 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Grocery stores | 56.2% | $617 billion |
| Warehouse clubs and supercenters | 26.4% | $289 billion |
| Other food-at-home outlets | 17.4% | Not supplied |
The retail balance has changed over time. Grocery stores accounted for 72.2% of U.S. food-at-home sales in 1997, compared with 56.2% in 2025. Warehouse clubs and supercenters accounted for 9.4% in 1997, compared with 26.4% in 2025. The comparison is a change in outlet shares across the stated years; it does not identify the cause of the shift. These market-size and outlet-share figures come from the USDA Economic Research Service’s Retailing & Wholesaling - Retail Trends.
Market concentration and geographic differences
The retail market is large, but sales are not evenly distributed among companies. Supermarkets, other grocery stores, warehouse clubs, and supercenters recorded $796 billion in U.S. food sales in 2022. The 20 largest U.S. food retailers recorded $519 billion, representing 65.2% of that 2022 sales total. Together, supermarkets, other grocery stores, warehouse clubs, and supercenters represented 83.4% of U.S. food sales in 2022.
The USDA’s 2022 state HHI comparison normalized the median state, Arizona, to 1.0. At least three named states—New York, California, and Hawaii—were among those with the lowest food-retail concentration in 2022. Because the comparison is normalized, the Arizona value is a reference point rather than a dollar amount or a national average. The source also reports concentration at the state level, so these figures should not be treated as a measurement of every local shopping area.
Per-person food-at-home sales also differed by state in 2025. U.S. per-capita food-at-home purchases reached $3,197 in nominal dollars. Connecticut had median state per-capita food-at-home sales of $3,121. Washington had the highest state per-capita food-at-home sales at $4,612, while Oklahoma had the lowest at $1,815.
Those values describe sales or purchases per person, not a recommended household grocery budget. A household’s actual spending can differ because of household size, income, shopping habits, food waste, restaurant use, and local prices. The concentration and per-capita figures are reported by the USDA Economic Research Service in Retailing & Wholesaling - Retail Trends.
Grocery price changes and the 2026 outlook
Food-at-home prices increased 1.2% in 2024 and 2.3% in 2025. In April 2026, food-at-home prices were 2.9% higher than in April 2025. That overall change concealed large differences between supermarket categories.
| Food category | April 2026 change from April 2025 |
|---|---|
| Fresh vegetables | +11.5% |
| Fresh tomatoes | +39.7% |
| Fresh potatoes | -3.0% |
| Beef and veal | +14.8% |
| Pork | +2.3% |
| Retail eggs | -39.2% |
Fresh tomatoes rose 39.7% year over year, while fresh potatoes fell 3.0%. Beef and veal prices increased 14.8%, compared with a 2.3% increase for pork. Retail egg prices were 39.2% lower in April 2026 than in April 2025. Fresh vegetables overall increased 11.5%.
For meal planning, these differences support flexible substitutions rather than assuming every grocery aisle moves with the headline food-at-home rate. A plan built around a lower-priced protein or a vegetable with a smaller year-over-year increase may have a different cost profile from one built around beef, tomatoes, or other sharply changing items. The figures describe price changes, not the dollar cost of a specific recipe or basket.
The USDA forecast 2026 food-at-home prices to increase 3.2%, with a 1.3% to 5.2% prediction interval. Its 2026 forecast for beef and veal was a 12.1% increase, with a 6.6% to 18.1% prediction interval. Fresh vegetable prices were forecast to increase 7.8%, with a 3.9% to 11.9% prediction interval. Egg prices were forecast to decrease 29.8%, with a -38.8% to -18.3% prediction interval. These are forecasts, not completed measurements. The price changes and forecasts are from the USDA Economic Research Service’s Food Price Outlook - Summary Findings.
Grocery categories in the CPI
The Consumer Price Index provides a way to compare the relative importance of grocery categories within the U.S. city-average CPI-U. The December 2025 table uses 2024 expenditure weights, so the percentages describe relative importance in that weighting framework rather than a current receipt total or an individual household’s spending pattern.
Food at home had an 8.325% CPI-U relative importance. Within the listed grocery groups, meats, poultry, fish, and eggs had a 1.995% relative importance; fruits and vegetables had 1.269%; cereals and bakery products had 1.035%; nonalcoholic beverages and beverage materials had 0.995%; dairy and related products had 0.758%; and other food at home had 2.273%.
Several subcategories show how broad groups contain different components. Beef and veal had a 0.638% relative importance, and poultry had 0.363%. Fresh fruits and vegetables had 1.008% overall, including fresh fruits at 0.532% and fresh vegetables at 0.476%. Breakfast cereal had 0.136%, rice, pasta, and cornmeal had 0.141%, and frozen and freeze-dried prepared foods had 0.305%.
These weights help explain why a large price movement in one category can matter differently from a smaller movement in another. They should not be added to create a personal budget, and the broad and subcategory figures should not be double-counted. The source is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Relative importance of components in the Consumer Price Indexes: U.S. city average, December 2025.
Household food budgets by composition
Market totals describe retailers, while household statistics show what people actually spend. In 2024, the median U.S. household spent $75.00 per person per week on food. That was 1.18 times its December 2024 Thrifty Food Plan cost.
Household composition produced a notable difference. Households with children under 18 had median weekly food spending of $60.00 per person, or 1.05 times their Thrifty Food Plan cost. Households without children under 18 spent $83.33 per person per week at the median, or 1.22 times their plan cost.
Among people living alone, women had median weekly food spending of $100.00 per person, equal to 1.44 times the Thrifty Food Plan cost. Men living alone also had median weekly food spending of $100.00, equal to 1.39 times their plan cost. The equal dollar medians therefore came with different ratios to the applicable benchmark.
The Thrifty Food Plan comparison is a ratio to the stated December 2024 plan cost, not a claim that households bought identical foods or followed the plan. These household composition statistics are from the USDA Economic Research Service report Household Food Security in the United States in 2024.
Food budgets by income, place, and food security
Income and location also shaped the relationship between food spending and the Thrifty Food Plan. Households below the poverty line had median food spending equal to 0.94 times their December 2024 Thrifty Food Plan cost. Households at or above 185% of the poverty line had median food spending equal to 1.28 times that cost.
Households inside metropolitan areas had median weekly food spending of $75.00 per person in 2024, or 1.18 times their Thrifty Food Plan cost. Households outside metropolitan areas had median weekly spending of $70.00 per person, or 1.07 times the plan cost. By region, Northeastern households spent $80.00 per person per week at the median, or 1.22 times the plan cost, while Midwestern households spent $75.00, or 1.15 times the plan cost.
Food security status was associated with different median spending levels. Food-secure households spent $75.00 per person per week at the median, or 1.18 times the Thrifty Food Plan cost. Food-insecure households spent $66.67, or 1.06 times the plan cost.
These comparisons are descriptive statistics for 2024. They do not establish that income, geography, or food security alone caused a particular spending level, and they do not define what any individual household should spend. For meal planning, they provide context for why a single “average grocery budget” can be misleading: the benchmark relationship differs across household composition, income, metropolitan status, region, and food security. The full set of household spending measures is reported in the USDA Economic Research Service’s Household Food Security in the United States in 2024.