If there's anything we've all collectively learned in the past 10 years, it's to expect the unexpected. The decade from 2016 to 2026 has seen us setting our Bingo cards ablaze and tossing any semblance that we know anything at all straight out the window. It's a period that has not only brought us incredible works of entertainment and media such as Stranger Things, Insecure, Rihanna's career-defining Anti, and Beyoncé's Lemonade, but also marked by significant changes in the world around us.
We've seen Brexit, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the COVID-19 pandemic, and even the rise of AI-generated slop posited as genuinely valuable. From global warming to climate change and the ongoing circus that is politics, the period from 2016 to now has been nothing short of unpredictable. But the most obvious visual representation of just how over the top things have gotten lies nowhere else but in our shopping carts.
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Unless you're Kim Kardashian and haven't gone grocery shopping in 15 years, then you're well aware that grocery prices have gone through the roof. According to data aggregated by the USDA, grocery costs have surged in recent years, with the period from 2020 to 2024 seeing a 23.6 percent increase in food-at-home prices alone. Even more shocking is the revelation that your shopping cart in 2016 would've cost 30 percent less on average than it does today. To put that into numbers, a cart full of groceries that would've cost you $100 in 2016 would cost nearly $130.
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Courtesy Kenn Bivins
While that might not seem immediately significant, according to data from the USDA's Monthly Cost of Food Report, the average four-person household spends at least $1,011 a month on groceries. At that rate, even conservatively, most households spend about $12,132 on groceries per year, up from $8,492.40 in 2016. That equates to a whopping $3,639.60 extra on average. While numbers have typically increased across the board, a few items have seen significant price increases. Eggs, coffee, ground beef and milk have all seen significant price increases compared to the relatively low prices of 2016.
Despite falling significantly from a high of nearly $6.23 in March 2025, a dozen eggs today will set you back about $2.71. Ground beef rose by nearly half, with the average price being a jaw-dropping $6.69 per pound today, and coffee increased the most, jumping nearly $4.66! Although it's difficult to pinpoint a single cause, factors such as an increase in communicable diseases among livestock, rising tariffs on imported goods, and regulatory and policy changes affecting production and agriculture are significant drivers of higher food costs.
Unfortunately, as much as we'd love to say that things are bound to stabilize sometime soon, a decade of experience has taught us that we really have no clue. While you might be looking back at 2016 with rose colored glasses and at your grocery bill with disdain, at least the silver lining is that after the Bad Bunny Bowl and the impending return of Beyoncé to complete her dazzling three-act trilogy, we still have season two of Heated Rivalry to look forward to.
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