Here’s Where Groceries Cost The Most In Massachusetts

Depending on where you live, a box of cereal could cost you as little as $2.55 or as much as $7.35. For many families, that’s the difference between coming home with cereal or not.

And according to a recent report by the financial news and opinion site 24/7 Wall St., Massachusetts is home to two of the 50 most expensive metro areasin the country when it comes to buying items such as milk, eggs and frozen meals.

Some cities that you might expect to see in the Top 50, like Boston, do not appear on the list, perhaps because income is high enough to offset the higher price of food.

But the Framingham-Natick metro area ranks 29th nationwide:

Average price of half-gallon of milk: $2.36
Average price of a dozen eggs: $2.19
Average price of a frozen meal: $3.20
Median household income: $ n/a

And Pittsfield ranked 28th nationwide:

Average price of half-gallon of milk: $2.23
Average price of a dozen eggs: $2.18
Average price of a frozen meal: $3.18
Median household income: $52,253

If you think those prices are high, get this: Shoppers in Wilmington, Delaware, shell out an average of $3.87 for a half-gallon of milk, and it costs $4.31 to buy a dozen eggs in the Thibodaux-Lafourche Parish in Louisiana, both tops in the nation. Meanwhile, shoppers in Tallahassee, Florida, pay the most for a frozen meal: $4.31.

Among the other interesting findings:
The least expensive place to buy groceries is Temple, Texas.
Cereal is most expensive in Hilo, Hawaii.
Texas is home to six of the 10 cheapest places to buy ground beef.
Seven of the 10 cheapest places to buy milk are in the Midwest.

Americans overall spent about $566 billion on groceries last year — $42 billion more than 2016, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Survey. The typical shopper spent roughly $7,700 on food last year, an increase of $500 from 2016.

The site determined the places with the highest food prices using The Council for Community and Economic Research’s grocery items index.

The authors noted that various factors contribute to the rankings, including median household income and how close the city is to various food sources. Food prices will be higher in areas where people can afford to pay more -- Boston, for instance -- but that’s not always the case.

“In fact, the median annual household income in 14 of the 50 metro areas is well below the national figure of $55,322, yet these metro areas still have expensive groceries,” the report said.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

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