The Price of Walmart Groceries in Every State
In the battle for America’s grocery dollars, Walmart spent 2024 trying to recruit the nation’s big spenders as well as its careful budget-watchers.
“[P]rices are lower than a year ago in places like eggs, apples, and deli snacks, but higher in other places like asparagus and blackberries,” said Walmart President and CEO C. Douglas McMillon in a February earnings call before announcing 7,000 further price “roll-backs” in the spring. “We took our French bread back to $1 which had been $1 for a long time and went up as inflation hit the market,” Walmart U.S. CEO John R. Furner added. “Rotisserie chicken is another one. That price has come down by $1.”
Meanwhile, Walmart is trying to lure “Wealthy Shoppers With Blazers and Duck Breast” by adding upmarket lines and revamping hundreds of stores, according to Bloomberg. And in April, the store added a new label, bettergoods, aiming to offer affordable upmarket alternatives to its value brands.
By concentrating its price reductions on common daily essentials, Walmart has cut the bottom line for many of its regular customers. But price changes — and their affordability compared to local incomes — vary around the country. To find out which state is getting the best deal, CashNetUSA analyzed the cost of a typical basket of groceries or vegan groceries nationwide.
How We Conducted This Study
We compiled two lists of 12 food and drink items for a typical grocery and vegan grocery list and recorded the prices of all items in each state’s biggest city as per Walmart’s website. Then, we compared the total cost for each state’s list against the national average to calculate the price premium for groceries and vegan groceries by state. Next, we calculated the affordability of these lists in every state compared to the local average wage. Finally, we compared price premiums in 2024 against those in our Walmart prices data from 2023 to find how things have changed.
Please note: All prices were gathered in 2024 and do not reflect the impact of new federal policies implemented in 2025.
Key Findings
- Walmart groceries in Hawaii cost +33.98% more than the national average and are the highest of any state.
- Prices are rising fastest in Alaska, where they’ve risen 11.94% compared to the national average since 2023.
- Arkansas is the cheapest state for vegan groceries, costing -3.80% less than the national average.
- Massachusetts is the most affordable place to be vegan: it takes one hour and one minute of work at the local average wage to afford a typical basket of vegan groceries.
Georgia Enjoys Biggest Walmart Price Drop Compared to National Average
Walmart may have dropped the price of a baguette, but the price of a standard loaf will likely sway more consumers when deciding where to do their weekly big shop.
Here’s the list of everyday essentials we used to compare Walmart prices across the country.
Our first map shows the price premium — the percentage locals pay above or below the national average — for the above basket of goods at Walmart in every state. Walmart essentials are cheapest in Texas, where they cost -4.77% less than the national average.
Hawaii and Alaska rank the states with the highest prices at Walmart — but the gap is getting bigger. Alaska’s price premium has risen by 11.94% year on year to 32.05%, and Hawaii’s by 7.80% to 33.98%. Ironically, Walmart’s purchasing power and ability to set lower prices is forcing Alaskan stores to close at rates not seen for years, although this may clear the path to raising prices when local competition is at a minimum.
The price premium has fallen the most in Georgia (-17.11%). But a recent NPR study of Georgia’s Walmart prices concluded that “shrinkflation is real” and that popular big brand names may be reducing the size of their products to hide the fact that prices are going up. NPR advises that consumers check an item’s price per weight or quantity rather than rely on the ticket price.
Next, we compared local prices against the local average income in every state. So, in Mississippi, it takes an hour and 43 minutes of work on a local salary to afford the basket above, while in Massachusetts, it takes just 59 minutes.
In the state of New York, it takes precisely one hour of work at the average local rate to afford this typical basket of groceries. New York is home to America’s biggest Walmart, in Albany, at more than two and a half times the size of the national average store.
Walmart Home Town Offers Best Vegan Prices
Walmart introduced a number of own-label vegan goods with the launch of its new private label, bettergoods, in the spring. But how does vegan shopping at Walmart price up? We swapped our sample shopping list for a list of typical vegan essentials and compared prices and availability around the U.S. once more.
In fact, vegan prices are notably similar at Walmart across most of the country. Alaska (+22.05%) and Hawaii (+31.82%) pay far over the national average for vegan goods, as they do with non-vegan goods. But elsewhere, there is less than a 4.69% difference between premiums. And non-contiguous states aside, California pays the most for vegan Walmart goods, at just +0.89% over the national average.
The cheapest state to shop vegan at Walmart is Arkansas (-3.80% cheaper than the national average). Arkansas is Walmart’s home state, where a new headquarters is currently under construction — with an emphasis on healthy living and environmental responsibility. Arkansas vegans have enjoyed a -2.55% fall in grocery prices compared to the average price of vegan goods at Walmart nationwide.
The biggest fall in vegan grocery prices compared to the national average is in Arizona (-3.40%). Walmart expanded its Health center coverage into Arizona in 2024. The chain faces stiff competition from the likes of the Tucson Vegan Night Market, which has grown substantially since its summer 2023 debut.
Despite the low prices of vegan goods at Walmart in Arkansas, the state is among the least affordable for vegans when the local average income is considered. It takes an hour and 33 minutes of work on the average Arkansas wage to afford our sample basket of vegan groceries.
However, it takes ten minutes longer in Mississippi. Dining out vegan in Mississippi has long involved a difficult mismatch of trendy new recipes versus vegan options of traditional Mississippi meals. “Being a vegan in Starkville, and Mississippi as a whole, hasn’t been difficult for me,” says resident and café-worker Milo King. “Sure, there isn’t a ton of options for myself and my husband if we’re wanting to go out to eat for a date or just because we don’t feel like cooking. But, we don’t like to eat out anyway.”
Every Little Bit Counts
“We never want to raise prices,” Walmart CFO John David Rainey recently told CNBC. “Our model is everyday low prices. But there probably will be cases where prices will go up for consumers.” Rainey was addressing concerns that new trade tariffs will impact grocery prices — although they will likely only affect around one-third of Walmart’s shelves.
In a moment of economic change and cultural shifts such as surge pricing — which Walmart denies using, following the switch to digital price tags — it pays to save pennies where you can.
Browse the table below to explore our full dataset and see which states can literally bring home more bacon:
Methodology
We started by building two lists of 12 food and drink items for a typical grocery and vegan grocery list and recording the prices of all items in each state’s most populous city as per Walmart’s website. Next, we summed them up and got the price of the entire basket. With this data in hand, we compared the total cost for each list by state with the national average to calculate the price premium for groceries and vegan groceries by state.
We then calculated the relative affordability of these grocery and vegan grocery lists in every state by calculating the hours and minutes you’d have to work in each state to pay for the items. For this, we gathered wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and assumed that there are 260 working days a year and eight working hours a day.
Finally, we compared price premiums in 2024 against those in our 2023 study to calculate the difference in price premiums in the last 12 months.
This data study was completed in November 2024.
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