Fair prices for 22 grocery staples in the western U.S. — so you can tell whether the number on the shelf is a deal or a shrug. Then log what you actually pay and find out which store is really cheaper for the things you buy.
Each tag is what a typical western shopper paid, averaged across all stores. Tap one to see how your own price compares.
Consumer Reports and Strategic Resource Group priced full baskets across 35 chains in six metro areas in late summer 2025. Utah was not one of them, and only three of your local options appear at all.
Nobody publishes Utah shelf prices. Costco, WinCo, and Sam's Club post no prices online at all. Walmart blocks automated price checks. Kroger will serve live prices for Smith's through its developer API, but that needs an account key. So a genuinely live, Utah-specific comparison can't be assembled from public data — which is why every app that claims to have one is worth a squint.
Banner matters more than parent company. Kroger's own stores ranked 14.8% above Walmart in the study while King Soopers, also Kroger, ranked 7.9% above. Smith's is a third banner with its own pricing zone. That spread is why it would be dishonest to just paste Kroger's number next to Smith's.
Logging your own prices is the fix. Tap any staple above and record what you actually paid. Every entry is a real Utah observation, which is more than any national number on this page can claim.
BLS averages every brand, size, and store in the region into one number per item. No single store charges exactly this. Treat it as the line between "fine" and "look again," not as a target.
Thirteen of the 22 items are western-region figures. The other nine — eggs, whole wheat bread, flour, rice, pasta, lettuce, tomatoes, coffee, and orange juice — have no current regional series, so those tags show the national average instead. Each tag says which it is when you open it.
Warehouse savings assume you use the bulk. Costco's edge is real on staples and disappears the moment produce spoils. A $65 membership needs roughly $300 of genuine savings a year before it beats just shopping at WinCo.
Unit price is the only honest comparison. A bigger package is not automatically cheaper, and stores know that. The log below converts everything to price per pound, gallon, or dozen so the comparison holds.