Here’s where groceries cost more (and less) over the past year

After shaking up the 2024 presidential race, grocery prices are once again making headlines, this time in New York City’s mayoral contest.

Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist who declared victory last week in the city’s ranked choice Democratic primary, has vowed to build “city-owned grocery stores” focused on “keeping prices low, not making a profit.”

Mamdani argues that “without having to pay rent or property taxes, they will reduce overhead and pass on savings to shoppers.”

The idea has drawn criticism from both the political Right and Left, but it underscores how central everyday cost-of-living concerns remain for voters.

In May, grocery prices in U.S. cities were up 2.2 percent compared to a year earlier, according to the latest Consumer Price Index. That’s a major improvement from the 13.5 percent spike in August 2022, the largest 12-month increase in over forty years. Still, the damage has added up.