Maria, a 68-year-old retiree in Ohio, told a local food bank volunteer in early 2026 that she had started skipping fresh fruit entirely because a bag of apples now costs what she used to spend on three days of lunches. Her experience is far from unusual. A carton of eggs that cost $1.50 in early 2020 now regularly rings up above $3. Multiply that kind of increase across every aisle, and you start to understand why nearly three out of four Americans say the grocery bill is a source of genuine financial stress.

A Rasmussen Reports national survey of 1,389 American adults, conducted in March 2025, found that 73% said they were paying more for groceries than they had a year earlier. The question did not ask whether people were “worried” in the abstract. It asked whether they were actually spending more, and the answer was overwhelming. That survey is now more than a year old, but the conditions it captured have not eased. Federal price data released throughout the rest of 2025 and into spring 2026 has shown food costs continuing to climb even as the broader inflation rate cools, meaning the financial pressure the poll measured has, if anything, intensified. It is worth noting that Rasmussen Reports relies primarily on automated telephone polling supplemented by an online panel, a methodology that some polling analysts have criticized for potential sampling bias. The 73% figure should be read alongside other surveys rather than treated as a standalone benchmark. For households that were already stretching every dollar at checkout, the math has not improved.

The numbers behind the frustration

The Consumer Price Index summary from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for March 2026 showed that both the food-at-home index and the food-away-from-home index continued rising over the prior 12 months. Annual increases have slowed considerably from the peaks of 2022, when grocery inflation topped 13%, but prices have not reversed. They have simply climbed at a less dramatic pace.

Cumulatively, the BLS food-at-home index has risen roughly 25% since January 2020. In practical terms, a grocery run that cost $100 six years ago now runs closer to $125. That gap between “inflation is cooling” and “my groceries still cost more” is not a contradiction. A slower rate of increase is not a decrease. But for families budgeting week to week, the distinction offers little comfort.

Who is feeling it most

Older Americans are under particular strain. A survey conducted by Humantel for AARP, published in 2024, found that 78% of adults aged 50 and older expressed concern about grocery prices, and four in 10 said costs now exceed what they can reasonably afford. Respondents described tangible changes: clipping more coupons, swapping name brands for store labels, and relying on pantry staples instead of fresh produce and proteins. Those are not hypothetical trade-offs. They are decisions that affect nutrition, health, and quality of life every day.

Lower-income households face an even steeper climb. An AP-NORC poll published in 2024 found that about half of all U.S. adults called grocery costs a major source of stress, with the burden falling hardest on those earning the least. That tracks with longstanding USDA research showing food accounts for a larger share of total spending in low-income households, leaving less room to absorb price shocks.

The Rasmussen survey did not break its results down by income, household size, or region, which limits how precisely analysts can identify who within that 73% is struggling most. The AARP data fills part of that gap for older adults, but younger demographics and working families remain less well documented in recent polling.

Why relief remains hard to predict

Several forces make the outlook murky. The USDA Food Price Outlook projects continued, if modest, increases in both grocery and restaurant prices through 2026, but its forecast intervals widen as the year progresses. Weather events affecting crop yields, ongoing avian influenza outbreaks that have kept egg and poultry prices volatile, and shifting U.S. trade and tariff policies all introduce variables that no single model can pin down.

Tariffs are a particular wild card. New and expanded duties on imported food products and agricultural inputs have added cost pressure at multiple points in the supply chain, from fertilizer to finished goods. The full effect depends on which tariffs remain in place and how trading partners respond, but grocery analysts widely expect some of those costs to reach consumers.

Wage growth has offset some of the pain for workers in certain sectors. Hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers have risen over the same period, according to BLS data. Yet for households on fixed incomes, including many retirees and Social Security recipients, grocery inflation has effectively functioned as a pay cut with no corresponding raise.

No prominent economist or federal official has offered a public timeline for when grocery prices might stabilize in real terms. The USDA provides a range of possible outcomes rather than a single trajectory, which means families cannot plan around a firm date for relief.

What shoppers are doing to close the gap

While systemic price relief remains uncertain, the behavioral shifts already reported in the AARP survey point toward strategies that consumer advocates have long recommended. Switching from name brands to store-label equivalents can meaningfully reduce per-item costs. Planning meals around weekly sale circulars, buying staples such as rice, beans, and frozen vegetables in bulk, and comparing unit prices rather than sticker prices are small steps that compound over a month of shopping trips.

For older adults and those on fixed incomes, federal nutrition programs such as SNAP and the USDA’s Commodity Supplemental Food Program remain available, though enrollment does not always keep pace with eligibility. Local food banks and community pantries have also reported sustained high demand since the pandemic, a sign that informal safety nets are filling gaps the formal ones miss.

None of these measures solve the underlying price problem. But until the forces driving grocery costs higher begin to reverse, they remain the most immediate tools families have to narrow the distance between what they earn and what the register demands.