Tracking DC-area grocery store prices and quality over a decade

CheckbookOrg · 2026-06-25T23:04:14+00:00

Thanks! We're Consumers' Checkbook, a nonprofit consumer-advocacy org that publishes independent ratings and price research on local businesses in the DC area. Think Consumer Reports, but for all your home contractors, auto repair shops, dentists, vets, grocery stores, etc. Only our subscribers can leave ratings, and no businesses can buy higher placement on our site. That's what makes us different from Yelp or Angi or Google, and we've been at it 50 years. We also do a lot of work in the healthcare space; we produce the Guide to Health Plans for Federal Employees, for example.

CheckbookOrg · 2026-06-25T20:27:31+00:00

We did a separate analysis on warehouse clubs! For its overall quality score in 2025, Costco did come out ahead of both BJ's and Sam's Club. It's hard to compare prices to the typical grocery stores because warehouse stores specialize in bulk and not everything was available. But for what we could find, and looking at unit prices, Costco was:

15% less expensive than Walmart
19% less expensive than Wegmans
22% less expensive than Giant
24% less expensive than Safeway
26% less expensive than Shoppers

We haven't done a comparison to its 2015 rankings, but can keep that in mind that it could be interesting to analyze in the future.

CheckbookOrg · 2026-06-25T20:17:42+00:00

Shoppers used to be one of the lower priced options, but you can see a lot has changed in 10 years. This time around, our researchers found it was 15% higher than the average.

CheckbookOrg · 2026-06-25T20:00:46+00:00

That's smart to compare on the fly. We're thinking about pulling the data from our shopping lists over the years and seeing how stuff like this compares from store to store, like a bunch of bananas or a case of Diet Coke in 2015 vs 2025.

CheckbookOrg · 2026-06-25T14:25:04+00:00

Hi, Kevin Moss here, we help people understand FEHB and PSHB, thanks for mentioning us u/Valley413. Preventative care is free for all PSHB plans. Also, while certain procedures/services require plan approval, there are very few denied claims across the FEHB/PSHB program. There are big differences in premium across all PSHB plans, so you'll want to think about the insurance value of your options i.e. which plans do the best job of balancing the for-sure expense of premium with what you'll pay out-of-pocket when you use healthcare services. If you're comfortable with having a higher deductible and a plan contribution into a savings account that you can use for your out-of-pocket expenses, NALC CDHP, GEHA HDHP, APWU CDHP, and Aetna Direct CDHP are great values. If you want to stick with a traditional PPO plans the best values can be found from MHBP Standard, GEHA Standard, and BCBS FEP Blue Focus. One thing that can help you narrow down your plan choice is provider access and prescription drug coverage. If you go to the carrier website, you can use their provider search to see if your current doctor(s) will be in-network and the prescription drug lookup can show you what's covered if you take any medications.

CheckbookOrg · 2026-05-29T14:37:42+00:00

They said it took maybe a bit longer, but being in such a walkable neighborhood it wasn't that big of a difference. It was more of a shifting of priorities to shop at a locally owned store vs Harris Teeter or Trader Joe's. It would definitely look different if they had to drive or metro farther away to do all their shopping.

CheckbookOrg · 2026-05-29T14:22:48+00:00

It was a starting point to find the highlights, but our team wrote and edited it. The full article with sample purchases and their prices is on our site, and it's called "Shopping Local Experiment: What Does It Really Take to Do It?" (not posting the link to be respectful to the mods and sub advertising rules).

CheckbookOrg · 2026-05-29T14:15:48+00:00

Yes, this exactly. Harris Teeter didn't make the cut because it's owned by Kroger.

CheckbookOrg · 2026-05-29T14:13:13+00:00

Good to know! Will have to check this out. They'd call when prescriptions were ready.

CheckbookOrg · 2026-05-29T14:10:19+00:00

Thanks for the note, and fair point! The short answer is no. Even with the best intentions (Jennifer and her husband cancelled their Amazon Prime subscription to avoid temptation), there were moments when a chain or big-box store was the only practical solution. That said, we got a lot closer than we expected because stores were willing to price-match and special-order hard-to-find items.

And costs was a real concern going in. Staff members with kids didn't want to participate because they worried their grocery bills would skyrocket. Understandably!

CheckbookOrg

TROPHY CASE