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.

  • dbtng@sh.itjust.works
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    6 days ago

    Ya. I’m cooking some ground pork to throw in the leftover beans from yesterday.
    Gonna dump that slop on top of a nuked potato. That will fill the plate.
    Tomorrow I’ll do a fresh batch of beans. Or rice. Or both. So much variety!
    And fuk, I still eat pretty good. It’s just not very exciting.