The U.S. grocery slowdown is becoming harder to ignore.
Shoppers are buying fewer items than a year ago, and grocery sales are declining as weakening unit sales are now outweighing rising prices. That is according to new analysis from Bain & Company using NielsenIQ grocery data shared exclusively with CNBC.
Grocery units, which refer to individual items or products sold, fell 1.8% in June from a year earlier, a sharp reversal from the 0.1% year-over-year growth recorded in June 2025. While prices continue to rise about 2% to 3% year-over-year, that inflation cushion for the industry is no longer enough to keep overall sales growing.
I genuinely don’t know how families are doing it. I spend as much on food as a single person as my parents did with a family in the early 2000s. Granted, we didn’t eat much, but we didn’t starve, and I don’t eat much either. I rarely eat meat, I don’t go to restaurants, and maybe once every month or two I’ll “treat” myself to a gas station meal or a bagel sandwich from a coffee shop. I’m so glad I don’t have children to try to feed.