Detroit and Cleveland top the nation for grocery costs as a share of income, a new WalletHub report finds, mainly because those cities have the lowest household earnings.
Chain Store Age reported that WalletHub compared the cost of 26 common grocery items across 100 of the largest U.S. cities, then measured that total against median household income.
Detroit came in first at 4.03% of median monthly household income. Cleveland followed at 3.93%. Birmingham, Ala., took third at 3.45%. The gap is not mainly about sticker shock. It is about thin paychecks.
WalletHub found Detroit has the 39th-most expensive groceries out of the 100 cities studied, so overall prices land near average. Some items run high. Lettuce ranked sixth-most expensive in the country. Sugar sat 28th-highest. Whole milk ranked 16th-highest.
Other staples cost less. Ground beef, chunk light tuna, and peaches ranked among the least expensive nationwide. The report’s own detail block puts the real pressure on earnings, not the cart alone.
"People in Detroit spend the most on groceries, which have an average cost of over 4% of the median household income, the highest percentage in the country. For comparison, Fremont, Calif., residents spend an average of less than 1% of their income on groceries, the lowest percentage."
WalletHub added that Detroit posts the lowest median annual household income in America at $39,938. Every dollar at the checkout therefore claims a larger slice of what households bring home.
"The biggest reason why Detroit residents spend such a high percentage of their income on groceries isn’t high prices, it’s the fact that the city has the lowest median annual household income in America, at just $39,938."
Cleveland residents spend more than 3.9% of median household income on groceries. The city carries the second-lowest median household income in the country at $40,801 a year.
A few categories cost more than in most peer cities. Shortening ranked 17th-highest. Soft drinks ranked 13th-highest. Bananas ranked 15th-highest. Whole milk, coffee, and peaches ran relatively cheap. Reasonable prices on some items still cannot offset weak earnings.
"Reasonable grocery prices unfortunately aren’t able to make up for Cleveland’s low median incomes."
Birmingham lands third. Residents there spend about 3.5% of median household income on groceries. Median household income sits at $46,051 a year, the fifth-lowest among the cities WalletHub measured. Potatoes ranked 12th-most expensive. Peaches ranked 13th. Coffee, frying chicken, and shortening ranked among the least expensive. Again, low income does most of the damage.
WalletHub’s upper ranks stretch beyond the top three. Toledo, Ohio, hit 3.20%. Newark, N.J., reached 3.15%. Baton Rouge, La., posted 3.11%. Buffalo, N.Y., came in at 3.10%. Memphis, Tenn., registered 3.07%. Cincinnati, Ohio, sat at 3.05%. Hialeah, Fla., closed the top group at 2.99%.
Detroit and Cleveland also topped WalletHub’s recent list of cities where consumers spend the largest share of monthly household income on fast food. Buffalo ranked third on that separate list. The pattern is consistent: when household income lags, food costs of every kind claim a bigger share.
At the other end of the scale, Fremont, Calif., residents spend 0.91% of median monthly household income on groceries, the lowest figure in the study. San Jose, Calif., follows at 1.07%. San Francisco comes in at 1.10%. Irvine, Calif., posts 1.21%. Gilbert, Ariz., sits at 1.32%.
Higher median incomes in those places shrink the grocery share even when local prices are not the cheapest in America. The ranking measures burden relative to pay, not raw shelf prices alone.
Chip Lupo, a WalletHub writer and analyst, tied the worst rankings to the mix of weak earnings and uneven item prices.
"In the cities where people spend the most money on groceries, residents often have low incomes on top of seeing high sticker prices on common grocery items."
Lupo also offered practical steps for shoppers trying to stretch a paycheck.
"Shoppers should take advantage of sales and coupons, buy generic items and buy in bulk if possible in order to save money. It’s also a good idea to use a credit card that gives a good amount of rewards on grocery purchases and pay it off in full each month."
Coupons and store brands help at the margin. They do not revise a city’s median income. In Detroit and Cleveland, the report shows the core problem is how little households earn, not a claim that every aisle is the most expensive in the country.
When local economies leave families with the nation’s thinnest paychecks, the grocery bill becomes a monthly stress test, and no amount of fine print on a circular fully fixes that.