New report compares prices of NC grocery stores. Which is the cheapest?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Analysis found Costco, Aldi and Lidl cheaper than Walmart (Virginia Beach, nationwide).
- In Virginia Beach, Target was 4.5% and Whole Foods 57.7% pricier than Walmart.
- Local N.C. price checks in 2024 and 2025 found Aldi, Lidl and Walmart have lowest prices.
It’s no surprise that many goods, including food, are getting more expensive.
Consumers often turn to cooking at home more, versus eating at a restaurant, to cut expenses. But the costs of both ways of feeding continue to increase monthly, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
This is true in Raleigh, even across grocery stores known for offering better value. Shoppers would have paid $0.22 for pound of bananas at Aldi in 2022. Two years later, they would have paid $0.39 for the same amount of fruit.
A new analysis of grocers nationwide sheds light on which stores are offering the best prices.
How the price comparison worked
The independent nonprofit Consumer Reports commissioned New York market research company Strategic Resource Group to compare grocery prices at stores in six regionally representative cities across the U.S.: Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles and Virginia Beach, which is about 200 miles away from Raleigh. Researchers visited stores in late summer 2025 to check prices.
The total price of baskets that included packaged goods, meat and produce at stores with the highest market shares in each metropolitan area were compared. The stores were then ranked from least expensive to most expensive relative to Walmart, the country’s largest grocer.
Basket sizes differed based on which items were available at each store. Mainstream grocers that carry a wide variety of identical national-brand items offered “more robust” comparisons than grocers that specialize in private-label brands or specialty goods and have fewer items in common with Walmart.
Price comparisons were arranged by metro area and nationally, averaging across the six areas.
Grocery prices at stores with NC locations
Grocery prices vary by store location, and Strategic Resource Group did not visit any North Carolina locations. However, several companies with locations in the Triangle and Charlotte area were ranked in the analysis of stores in Virginia Beach, which is the metro area closest to North Carolina included in the report.
Three Virginia Beach grocers — Costco Wholesale, Aldi and Lidl — were found to have lower prices than Walmart. Costco’s prices were 16.8% lower than Walmart, Aldi’s 16.3% lower and Lidl’s, 8.5%.
Nationwide, Costco, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Lidl and Aldi were the four stores that offered the lowest prices on average compared to Walmart.
The rest of the retailers with the highest market share in Virginia Beach, including Target, Wegmans, Food Lion, Trader Joe’s, Publix, Harris Teeter and Whole Foods, charged prices between 4.5% (Target) and 57.7% (Whole Foods Market) higher than Walmart.
In the Triangle and Charlotte, Walmart, Harris Teeter and Food Lion have the three highest market shares among grocery stores.
Food Lion’s prices were 12.5% higher than Walmart’s, according to the Consumer Reports analysis of Virginia Beach stores, and Harris Teeter’s prices were 23.5% higher.
Best value at Raleigh & Charlotte grocery stores
Every few years, The News & Observer compares prices of commonly shopped items across Raleigh grocery stores. The price check was most recently completed in 2024.
That year, N&O reporters found that Aldi, Lidl, Walmart and Food Lion offered the lowest prices among grocers. That corresponds to the Consumer Reports analysis, which found that Aldi and Lidl charged lower prices than Walmart, and Food Lion was more expensive than Walmart.
A comparison of 11 grocery items at Charlotte stores, completed by reporters at The Charlotte Observer in December 2025, found that Lidl, Aldi and Walmart charged the lowest prices, again aligning with the Consumer Reports study.
