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.
It’s becoming harder to ignore the prices are higher and quality is worse than ever
Hey, don’t forget about quantity! Cereal boxes are so thin that they can’t stand up on their own anymore, old recipes don’t work anymore because cans are too small, and pretty much every non-food item has gotten 25% smaller or more.
The cereal boxes are just awful I was stocking grocery for a while and you had to rely on tricks of physics to get those boxes fully stocked on the shelf lol. Just more proof they don’t think about anyone down the line when they design stuff anymore