The Receipt · August 2026
The Receipt — August 2026 Edition
Romaine Lettuce Leads July 2026 Grocery Moves
Released August 12, 2026 · Data through July 2026
Retrieved August 13, 2026
The Basket Report Grocery Basket Price Index fell 0.6% in July 2026, landing at $110.50 for the 24-item staple basket. The year-over-year change was −1.5%. This issue is built from BLS CPI Average Price Data for the national U.S. city average.
Pork chops: May 2026 price carried forward because July was not published.
Oranges: June 2026 price carried forward because July was not published.
The number
The grocery basket changed by ▼ 0.6% in July 2026, bringing the fixed 24-item basket total to $110.50.
The headline was relatively stable, but several individual items moved sharply underneath it.
The chart
The fixed-weight Grocery Basket Price Index from January 2020 through July 2026, shown as a national U.S. city average.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics average price data. Basket Report analysis; BLS does not endorse this analysis.
What shoppers will notice
Shoppers may notice higher prices for ground beef and butter, while tomatoes and lettuce provided some offset. These figures are national U.S. city averages, so individual store prices will vary.
What moved the 24-item basket
Dollar figures show how each weighted item changed the headline basket total in July 2026.
Increased the basket
- Ground beef +$0.12 · +0.9% MoM
- Butter +$0.11 · +2.8% MoM
- Eggs +$0.10 · +2.2% MoM
Reduced the basket
- Tomatoes -$0.30 · −7.0% MoM
- Lettuce -$0.26 · −12.9% MoM
- Cheddar cheese -$0.22 · −3.7% MoM
Milk & eggs
Milk ran $4.31 a gallon in July 2026 — down 0.1% on the month and up 3.6% on the year — at a record high. At the fixed basket quantity that swing added $0.01 off the tape this month. See the 2026 milk prices by month or the full milk price history.
Eggs averaged $2.19 a dozen, down 39.2% on the year and up 2.2% on the month — 65% below the March 2025 peak of $6.23. Track the swing on the egg price history or read why eggs got cheaper.
The read
Tomatoes did the most work on the downside, subtracting $0.30 from the fixed basket on its own. Ground beef moved the other way, adding $0.12. That split is the story of July 2026: a few lines moved sharply while the all-in basket changed −1.5% from a year ago.
For citation, use the Grocery Basket Price Index as the headline number: $110.50 for July 2026, covering all 24 configured staples at the U.S. city average. Item pages below carry the underlying BLS series IDs, CSV/JSON downloads, charts, and embed codes for source-level follow-up.
Biggest price changes across all 36 tracked products
These percentage changes include reference-price series that do not carry weight in the 24-item basket.
| Item | Price | MoM | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Romaine Lettuce /pound | $3.47 | −13.7% | +15.4% |
| Lettuce /pound | $1.75 | −12.9% | +11.0% |
| Tomatoes /pound | $2.00 | −7.0% | +11.7% |
| Strawberries /12-ounce package | $2.40 | −4.5% | +8.2% |
| Cheddar cheese /pound | $5.74 | −3.7% | −5.0% |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI Average Price Data. Retrieved August 13, 2026 via the BLS Public Data API. BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.