In the aggregate, consumers appear to be stable, with the Biden administration touting a solid economy ahead of the November presidential elections. However, as Goldman re-acknowledged earlier this week, under the surface, low-income consumers are struggling in the era of failed Bidenomics. Given this, a separate Goldman note has pinpointed the best grocery deals among major retailers, revealing that Walmart offers the lowest prices. This new data saves folks time instead of guessing where the best deals are.
On June 6, Goldman analysts led by Leah Jordan analyzed the prices of 38 SKUs in the dairy, frozen goods, dry grocery, HPC, and produce categories. The retailers surveyed included Walmart, Sprouts Farmers Market, Whole Foods, and Dollar General.
"In this note, we discuss takeaways from our June grocery pricing survey. Overall, prices were relatively stable m/m. WMT continued to have the lowest prices, while price gaps widened," Jordan said.
Jordan and the other analysts find that Walmart offered consumers the lowest prices for grocery items: "WMT had the lowest prices at -15.1% vs. the group average (widened from -12.0% last month), followed by KR at -3.5% (vs -3.5% last month). WFM had the highest prices in the group at +15.4%, followed by SFM at +11.2%. KR had the highest SKU availability for the products surveyed at 38, followed by WMT at 36."
Walmart had the lowest prices in dairy products (-18.3%), frozen foods (-15.7%), dry grocery (-13.5%), and produce (-17.3%), while Dollar General had the lowest prices in HPC (-13.9%). On the other hand, Sprouts Farmers had the highest prices in dairy products (+19.3%), frozen foods (15.0%), and HPC (+31.8%). Whole Foods had the highest prices in dry grocery (+10.0%) and produce (+20.4%).
Amidst an economy full of inflation landmines, one thing is sure for working-poor consumers: Walmart offers the best grocery deals, while Whole Foods does not.
But as we found in Walmart's latest earnings call, higher-income consumers are trading down to the mega-retailer to find the deals.
Food inflation is sticky. It will linger for years. Sigh...
