For what it's worth, his experience mirrors mine. I don't itemize down to extreme detail, but my wife and I actually do more cooking at home now in the last 1.5 years than we did previously yet our average grocery bill is actually down about $12 a week this year. Honestly, it's kind of shocking.

And before you ask: No, it's not because we switched from buying prepackaged/processed food to raw ingredients. We just order-out less.

Some of it might have to do with the fact that I live in Chicago, a major logistics hub, in a middle class neighborhood that has price-sensitive consumers and multiple major grocery stores.

It's plausible, but not on a medium to large scale. Of all my consumption expenses, certainly coffee has gone up per cup, but everything else is roughly the same.

Oats, deli meat, fruit, pasta, that's about it. Canned beans have gone up a little, maybe butter too.

Last month was the lowest spending month our household has had in nearly five years, for what it’s worth. And that’s with some home renovation (DIY) and a new hobby.

The biggest factor for us is changing what we buy, not prices. Buying less alcohol and fewer pre-packaged foods has made a huge difference in our grocery bill.

Is it possible that on the high end of expensive groceries it hasn’t gone up as much? For instance a 12oz bag of my favorite coffee beans were $20/bag in 2019, they’re still $20/bag…

I have not seen price raises anything like that at grocery stores