In August 2024, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel collected the price of a basket of groceries at five Milwaukee-area stores: Walmart, Pick ‘n Save, Target, Festival Foods and Woodman’s.
On Dec. 2, the Journal Sentinel returned to the same stores to compare how prices changed over the past 16 months. Totals were collected using the same list of common staple items across all five stores. Name brand items were purchased; some stores offer house brands that would significantly bring down prices.
The full grocery list was:
At Walmart, 401 E. Capitol Drive in Milwaukee, the cost was $63.84 in August 2024, and $69.31 on Dec. 2 2025, up around 8.6%. Walmart remains the cheapest of the five stores.
At Woodman’s, 8131 S. Howell Ave. in Oak Creek, the cost was $61.38 in 2024 and $69.80 on Dec. 2, an increase of 13.7%.
At Festival Foods, 11111 W. Greenfield Ave., in West Allis, the cost was $85.62 in 2024 and $94.58 on Dec. 2, an increase of 10.5%.
At Target, 2950 S. Chase Ave., in Milwaukee, the cost was $69.88 in 2024 and $70.21 on Dec. 2, an increase of 0.5%. However, this Target does not carry a name-brand bag of flour, so the house brand was substituted, likely lowering the overall cost.
Finally, at Pick ‘n Save, 605 E. Lyon St. in Milwaukee, the price was $83.18 in 2024 and $81.53 on Dec. 2. That’s a decrease of 2%.
Substituting store-brand alternatives for name-brand grocery items does offer some savings for customers. For example, Pick ‘n Save’s store-brand grocery list cost $57.33 in December.
Some items fluctuated wildly in price since August 2024. A bird flu epidemic drove national egg prices to more than $6 per dozen in March 2025. Prices have dropped significantly since then, but the national average price of a dozen eggs in September 2025 remained above August 2024 levels.
The cost of a dozen Grade A large eggs at the five Milwaukee-area stores ranged from $1.97 to $2.49 on Dec. 2.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Some Milwaukee grocery prices rose as much as 13% since 2024
Reporting by Francesca Pica and Ricardo Torres, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
