[Kirkland, WA – WBHG News] – It’s been more than five months since President Donald Trump was inaugurated after campaigning on controlling inflation to lower grocery and fuel prices. One hundred and fifty-two days later, has the situation improved?

On January 21, 2025, our team benchmarked grocery, fuel, and fast food prices in Kirkland to track over the next four years. This is our fifth update.

Based on actual retail prices, today’s grocery trip costs $2.18 more than last month and $12.05 more than our first trip in January. The price of Oscar Meyer hot dogs went up, and shrinkflation raised the prices of Prego pasta sauce, which lost an ounce, and Bounty paper towels. The “6=12” package of Bounty paper towels we purchased on January 21 is now equivalent to 9.15 rolls, without a change in packaging.

Today’s bill increased from $245.17 to $247.35, a 0.9% rise from last month.

A 12-gallon fill-up of regular gasoline has climbed $2.40 from a month ago and is now 63 cents a gallon higher than it was on January 21. Washington state Governor Bob Ferguson signed the state budget bill this morning, which will increase the gasoline tax by 6 cents on July 1, 2025.

The prices of popular fast food items at McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Domino’s did not change.

Here are the Products

We are tracking the prices of 27 popular items, including regular unleaded gasoline and meals from three major fast food brands.

[Kirkland, WA – WBHG News] – It’s been four months since President Donald Trump was inaugurated after campaigning on controlling inflation to lower grocery and fuel prices. One hundred and twenty-one days later, has the situation improved?

On 21 January 2025, our team benchmarked grocery, fuel, and fast food prices in Kirkland to track over the next four years. This is our fourth update.

Based on actual retail prices, today’s grocery trip costs $1.90 more than last month and $9.87 more than our first trip in January. The price of Kraft Singles processed cheese and milk went down, and hamburger, Dawn dishwashing soap, and Tampax tampons went up.

Two products had very minor changes that didn’t significantly impact their prices. On January 21, the ground beef we used for our benchmark price was 16 ounces and 93/7 fat content. That changed to 91/9 in March and 90/10 in May. The weight for 102 Tide Pods 3-in-1 laundry detergent went from 84.7 ounces to 85.0 ounces.

Today’s bill climbed from $243.27 to $245.17, up 0.8%, an identical increase from last month.

A 12-gallon fill-up of regular gasoline was unchanged from a month ago and is 43 cents a gallon higher than January 21. Washington state Governor Bob Ferguson signed the state budget bill this morning, which will increase the gasoline tax by 6 cents on July 1, 2025.

The prices of popular fast food items at McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Domino’s did not change.

Here are the Products

We are tracking the prices of 27 popular items, regular unleaded gasoline, and meals from three popular fast food brands.

[Kirkland, WA – WBHG News] – It’s been three months since President Donald Trump was inaugurated after campaigning on controlling inflation to lower grocery and fuel prices. Ninety-one days later, has the situation improved?

On 21 January 2025, our team benchmarked grocery, fuel, and fast food prices in Kirkland to track over the next four years. This is our third update.

Based on actual retail prices, today’s grocery trip costs $1.88 more than last month and $7.94 more than our first trip in January. The price of Land-O-Lakes butter decreased, and the price of Oscar Meyer All-Beef Classic Hot Dogs increased.

The quantity of Bounty 6=12 Doubles Paper Towels shrank 37 square feet, the equivalent of 1.65 rolls. Due to shrinkflation, the cost is $2.38 more expensive, despite selling for the same price of $14.99.

The total bill climbed from $241.39 to $243.27, up 0.8%.

A 12-gallon fill-up of regular gasoline increased by $3.60, a 7.2% increase from a month ago and 43 cents a gallon higher than January 21.

The prices of popular fast food items at McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Domino’s did not change.

Here are the Products

We are tracking the prices of 27 popular items, regular unleaded gasoline, and meals from three popular fast food brands.

[Kirkland, WA – WBHG News] – It’s been two months since President Donald Trump was inaugurated after campaigning on controlling inflation to lower grocery and fuel prices. Fifty-nine days later, has the situation improved?

On 21 January 2025, our team benchmarked grocery, fuel, and fast food prices in Kirkland to track over the next four years. This is our second update.

Based on actual retail prices, today’s grocery trip costs $2.26 less compared to last month and $6.06 more than our first trip in January. The price of Kraft Singles cheese, Tide 3-in-1 pods, and Oscar Meyer All-Beef Franks decreased, and the price of Cheerios increased. The total bill dropped from $243.65 to $241.39, down 1.0%. The quantity of Tide 3-in-1 pods dropped from 112 to 102, but the price per pod fell 1/2 a cent each. General Mills stopped selling the 18-ounce Cheerios. It has been replaced by the 20-ounce “giant size,” which is 1.7 cents per ounce more expensive.

Oreo cookies were tagged with a “new lower price” despite no price change from a month ago.

A 12-gallon fill-up of regular gasoline decreased by $2.40, a 5.3% decrease from a month ago but still 4.7% higher than January 21.

The prices of popular fast food items at McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Domino’s did not change.

Here are the Products

We are tracking the prices of 27 popular items, regular unleaded gasoline, and meals from three popular fast food brands.

[Kirkland, WA – WBHG News] – It’s been a month since President Donald Trump was inaugurated after campaigning on controlling inflation to lower grocery and fuel prices. A month later, has the situation improved?

On 21 January 2025, our team benchmarked grocery, fuel, and fast food prices in Kirkland to track over the next four years. This is our first update.

Based on actual retail prices, today’s grocery trip costs $8.32 more compared to last month. The price of diapers, Coca-Cola, and frozen pizza went up while the cost of coffee and bread went down. The total bill climbed from $235.33 to $243.65, up 3.5%. Most of that jump was caused by shrinkflation.

Two products, Barilla rotini pasta, and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, were marked with a tag showing a “new lower price,” despite no price change from last month.

A 12-gallon fill-up of regular gasoline increased by $4.56, a 10% increase from a month ago.

The only change to fast food prices was at McDonald’s, where a Big Mac meal is now 10 cents cheaper.

Here are the Products

We are tracking the prices of 27 popular items, regular unleaded gasoline, and meals from three popular fast food brands.

[Kirkland, WA – WBHG News] – During the 2024 United States elections, inflation and grocery prices took center stage, with the blame for post-COVID inflation placed on politicians from both parties, corporations, and private equity firms. President Donald Trump campaigned on the promise to lower grocery prices, while his opponents and some economists argued that the White House doesn’t have much direct control over the price of Kraft mac and cheese or a gallon of gasoline.

Inflation at the grocery store has been a very real problem for Americans since 2020, caused by COVID-19 supply chain disruptions. The reasons why prices have continued to increase, and inflation has remained stubborn are complex and go beyond national politics. According to the Federal Reserve Bank, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) peaked in 2022 at 8.0% and has since dropped to 3.2% in 2024. Economists prefer to see an inflation rate between 2% and 3%, so the U.S. economy remains slightly overheated. Additionally, CPI doesn’t account for shrinkflation, when companies make a product smaller without changing the price.

During Trump’s inauguration, our team benchmarked grocery, fuel, and fast food prices in Kirkland to track over the next four years. Will grocery prices drop now that the Republicans have control of the House, Senate, the White House, and confirmed a majority of the sitting Supreme Court justices?

Methodology

Our team established the following rules for identifying what items to track and how to keep the methodology as fair as possible.

• We benchmarked prices using national brands, which are less impacted by local market fluctuations, with two exceptions. We benchmarked milk based on the Kroger store brand and ground beef using Kroger’s Simple Truth organic brand. Dairies in the United States are regional, which impacts local prices and supply. Four corporations control most of the meat product distribution and pricing in the United States, and the house Kroger brand provides a fixed product with a known weight.
• We decided not to track the price of eggs or poultry due to the bird flu epidemic, which is decimating egg and poultry production across the United States. The current outbreak is outside of the control of the previous and current administration. Further, the egg cases in the local stores were practically empty and missing most of their price tags.
• We did not benchmark the price of fresh produce because Washington is one of the largest producers of some items in the country, such as apples. This increases our supply and variety, which lowers our regional prices. In contrast, fresh corn and lettuce are more expensive in the winter months compared to the southern United States due to the need to import these items over very long distances. Additionally, prices are impacted by acts of God and weather, creating another layer of complexity.
• The size of each product was carefully recorded, including the unit count and the weight or volume of each unit within the package. This will enable our team to track shrinkflation, which could hide a price increase.
• We will recheck the prices once a month on the 20th. In the event that one of the stores we benchmarked is closed on the 20th, we will check prices on the closest opening day after the 20th. If a location permanently closes, we will record prices as the next closest location, preferably within Kirkland.
• Prices from McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Domino’s were logged using their respective apps and are determined without using any coupons, incentives, or benefits from customer loyalty programs.

We Couldn’t Benchmark Every Item on our List

During our audit, we noted that almost all items were on sale or had new price reductions in the Kroger-branded stores in the Kirkland area. Some of the sale tags showed the normal retail price, while others didn’t. We were unable to benchmark shampoo, toothpaste, razors, canned and frozen vegetables, and other popular items.

In other cases, there were problems with the posted price tags. For example, we wanted to benchmark Cascade automatic dishwashing pods, which is the most popular national brand. However, the item on the shell was 62 count, while the price tag reflected a 57 count product. We could not determine if the 57 count price was an error or misplaced under the slightly larger product being sold or if Cascade is rolling out a smaller package.

We photographed each product with its published price tag, documenting the count, weight, and volume.

Here are the Products

We will track the prices of 27 popular items, regular unleaded gasoline, and three popular fast food brands. We will publish our next update on February 21.