One of the most enduring and visible parts of post-pandemic inflation has been increases in what the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index calls “food at home” — in ordinary terms, groceries.

Groceries are unique in two ways. First, they fulfill a basic need. So unless someone exclusively gets food from restaurants or lives in an institutional setting, they are buying and using groceries.

Second, groceries offer plentiful options for substitutions, such as replacing a premium steak cut with a cheaper one, dropping a brand name for a store label or moving from organic milk to regular.

Groceries are a necessity, but numerous choices exist at many price points. The same cannot be said of housing or utilities.

Government data provides key insight about how grocery costs cha

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