Prices Of Some Grocery Staples Are Lowest In Years

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- You may have noticed that your grocery bill has been a little cheaper lately.

A number of meat and dairy products are at, or near, two-year lows.

Ground beef, eggs and milk are just some of the items shoppers are saving on.

"Chocolate milk for the little one is cheap right now so we are grabbing that," said shopper Lizzy Reich.

The more money you save, the more fun it is to make a trip to the store -- especially when so many staples of the family dinner are relatively cheap right now.

"The meat for sure, that's what I look at," said shopper Dave Swanson.

The United States Department of Agriculture says ground beef is down 55 cents a pound since 2014, and chicken breasts are down 32 cents a pound.

Milk, in particular, has really dropped. It is 80-cents-a-gallon cheaper compared to where it was just two years ago.

"We have so much production here, one of our dollar days sales is eggs. They are two dozen for a dollar," said Kim Mackenthun, owner of Mackenthun's Fine Foods in Waconia.

He says lower prices have everything to do with supply. There seems to be an abundance of just about everything right now.

"There are more cattle on feed right now than there has been in a long time," Mackenthun said.

Grain prices are also cheaper right now. Corn is the cheapest it has been in four years. And while that helps consumers, it does not necessarily bode well for farmers.

"We'd really love to see a time when the retailers, as well as the producers, processers, have it be a middle ground where everybody can make a buck. It'd be nice," Mackenthun said.

For now, it is the shoppers who are saving a buck, filling both their shopping carts and their appetites for saving money.

"People here are starting to get more like Europeans. They are starting to shop more often," Mackenthun said.

He says food prices ebb and flow, and he looks for milk prices to actually go back up by the end of the year.

Todd Penegor, CEO of Wendy's fast food restaurants, says sales were down in July. He says this is partially due to restaurant prices being out of line compared to eating at home.