The average cost of groceries in Britain vs America 

Most of the items you chose in the U.K. were premium brands, I’d love to see this comparing basic brands like Tesco own brand for example. Would be even more jarring.

As an American who moved to the UK recently, the difference is astounding. It's one of the surprising things about the UK. I'd love to see someone do an economic breakdown of food prices in the US vs UK and see the prices through various stages in the supply chain.

As a South African (lower median income and weak economy) we were terrified of what it was going to cost to feed us when we went over to the UK a few years ago. I was blown away to realise that, even with a 21\1 conversion on our currency, I was able to feed us for under what we budget for at home. Yes, there are things that are priced considerably higher but those are mostly vices and luxury items. Staple foods were extremely affordable and if you know what to look out for you could eat extremely well for not very much. I have always been a "frugal" shopper so I made our poor travel mates get stuck in supermarkets for hours on the first few days of the trip so that I could figure out our meals for pretty much the entire visit (perk/downside of traveling with a former chef and kitchen manager, I suppose).

My husband is American (I'm British) we have lived in both locations and it always blew my mind how expensive grocery shopping was. I cant stomach regular American super market bread so we would have to drive half an hour to a bakery and spend $6 on an "artisan" loaf, not too different to a fresh Tesco loaf at 0.70p. He didn't realise it was such a big difference until we moved back here and he would freak out every time we were at the checkout with a full cart without breaking £50. He recently went back home and would send me updates on just how bad all the food is and how expensive it is "Why does this have sugar in it" was the most common complaint, alongside "I miss Tesco."

And remember that the "local" smaller branches of Sainsbury's, Tesco, etc, are actually more expensive than the bigger branches. These smaller shop are not where you'd typically do your big grocery shop, but might be where you get your meal deal lunch or those occasional essentials that you've run out of or forgotten, like milk or bread.

I watched this yesterday but had to come back to comment this; The family in front of me at the grocery store, spent 673 us dollars (about 594 pounds at the time of typing) on one full cart of groceries. This wasn’t at a fancy place. That’s insanity to me.

As Aldi is a presence in both US and UK it would be interesting to compare prices, unfortunately their US site does not list prices, it just says 'see in store'.

the terrifying realisation of that being my local sainsburys

As a Norwegian living in the Midwest (Please send help! 🤣) it boggles me that American groceries are on par with Norwegian prices. I went over to visit my mother over the summer, and the prices seemed reasonable. Until I remember that I make about half in the US compared to what I'd make in Norway. Americans are being fleeced, not just groceries, but wages, taxes and health insurance.

a lot of the comments are saying the british ones were branded food so it would be super interesting to do another video like this but “on a budget” version where you choose the cheapest version of each product and see the difference

I assume we say 4 pints instead of half a gallon of milk is because milk used to come in 1 pint glass bottles, so it's just four of them. Nobody in the UK really uses gallons for anything anymore, and most people couldn't tell you how many pints to a gallon. Also, UK Imperial pint/gallon is almost 20% larger than the US version!

I’m in Southern California and I am shocked at the “US prices” he’s showing. I never pay that much for food lol. I mainly buy from Costco and Aldi, and ethnic stores. I never buy groceries from Walmart or Target.

UK grocery prices are famously (infamously?) low relative to median income. This is due to absolutely brutal competition between the major grocery chains, which has led to aggressive negotiations with suppliers, incredibly efficient logistics, and razor-thin margins in pursuit of volume. Here in Singapore, the industry is a bit more civilised, so prices make the US look cheap... I've been here 25+ years, and this sort of comparison still hurts.

Being from Norway this is shocking, not only the fact that the US is so much more expensive than the UK - but also much more expensive than here in Norway 😬

It's crazy that the UK is so much cheaper, especially considering food prices have risen so much. My weekly shop 4 years ago was £65-70. It's now £95-100

We are also experiencing shortages on certain products in the U.S. and catfood is one of the shortages. Also, for a family of four...and we are not eating steak every night...our monthly grocery bill is around $1,000.00...it's insane! Last year our monthly grocery bill was around $750.00

Groceries are definitely cheaper in the uk than Canada. When I went to England in 2014, it was about half the price. It was astronomical. I’m on a single income and groceries kill me every week

I'm a Canadian that moved from Vancouver to London earlier this year and it amazes me how cheap groceries are in comparison even in central London. On the flip side though, restaurant prices and drinks are roughly 1.5-2 times more expensive here (depending on the conversion rates) which makes it so much harder to justify eating meals out. My go-to example of the difference in cost is a standard pack of Halloumi will run you roughly £1.50 compared to $8-10 in Canada

I am in Minnesota and pay about half of what you show as US prices on most items and no tax on food. Of course our salaries reflect the lower cost of living. I’d love to see, a comparison of prices in different states within the US. Glad I found your channel.

I just got back from New York and based on the amount of bread I eat, and how much it cost me in the US, I don’t think I could stay there long. 😂❤

As someone who has only ever really known UK prices apart from the odd European holiday, I'm curious as to what the income is like in New Jersey in comparison to the UK and whether that plays any part in it? Would love to see a UK versus US income video I.e. teacher, bin man, solicitor, customer service worker etc. Whatever the most common jobs are.

oh I would love to see an "own brand"/budget version of this. I don't think we've ever had the luxury of buying tilda rice 😭😭

First time watching your channel! loved it! keep up the awesome work :)

In the uk right now and I keep marveling at the prices. My husband keeps reminding me we get paid more in the states but with the cost of rent and insurance etc, I’m still spending more back home on everything and coming out poorer

Every time I have watched a cooking show from the UK I always marvel at how much they get for the price. Glad to see I wasn't crazy and that things are indeed way cheaper. Wish I was mistaken though...

Wow. I'm Australian and I just assumed that the US would have cheaper groceries than everywhere. Wasn't expecting this 😱

The price has more than doubled in US over last couple years. Many generic brands have just disappeared. I bought a 2.5 pound grapes at grocery store was almost $14 for the bag.

Really interesting. I moved to the UK in 2012 and I remember being blown away with how cheap groceries were. I was also living on dollars at the time (and the exchange rate was not good that direction then). When I lived in the US I literally ate eggs, bread, squash, potatoes, butter and that was it. I had $500 a month for food, travel, clothes and fun. To be fair, I probably prioritised "fun" in my 20s but would still spend $50 a week on just those items - I couldn't afford to eat well, and was sick a lot (7-8 times a year) probably due to my lack of nutrition. As soon as I started living in pounds, I stopped getting tonsillitis so much (not sure if connection?) and get sick two times a year on average. My diet is way more varied!

I did a summer in the UK, and was astounded each and every time I went shopping! There were so many things UNDER a pound! Going back to the states made me sad as I realized how cheap groceries can be.

Something overlooked at 10:10 is that plenty of other states in the US may allow a "local tax" or equivalent, instead of a statewide sales tax. For example, North Carolina is not listed on that list, and if you look it up North Carolina indeed does not have any "sales tax" on groceries, but instead has a uniform "local" sales tax on groceries of 2%. No idea how many other states are like this, but just goes to show how complicated and messy taxes are in the US.

When I first moved to London, the cost of groceries was a shocker for me. I couldn't believe how inexpensive items were. And if you yellow-tag.... well my god! I'd get my bread from M&S in Central on Fridays for as low as 10p a loaf! Now Im back in California, it was another shock, in a bad way.

My cousin has a YT channel about saving money at US grocery stores. Sometimes she does videos like $25 for a week for a family, etc. I usually try to make her meals here too, and mine are always less expensive! 😂 Definitely cheaper to eat at home in the UK than the US. 👍🏻

As a young adult in America, I recently moved out of college dorms/parent's house and am budgeting and cooking all my own food, it's really sinking in how expensive basic groceries are. Even stuff like milk, eggs, and grain which should be very local to my area is two to three times the price of goods in London (it's about the same if you go to a farmer's market but those typically only run in the summer). I also lived in Sweden for a summer and from what I saw even there groceries were wildly cheaper than the US despite its reputation for being an expensive country

As someone who's watched lovely British YTer Grackle engage in her most favorite pasttime of checking out what's new at the shops in her vids & vlogs (which technically are on Extra Grack, but anyway) for years, where she will almost always mention the price, I'm often **gobsmacked** , as you say, at the difference not only in price but also in quality. Having known many ppl that have upped sticks from the US to greener food pastures the world over I can't think of a single one that doesn't mention the immense difference in the quality of food pretty much worldwide...& never in the US's favor. 😕

Lived in Chicago for 10 years before returning to Germany. Food cost were insane in the USA, given the dismal quality you could get in normal stores.

So I’ve just found your channel… I live in North West England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 and I absolutely love see Americans move here and seem like they are having a good time and hearing you say “arsed” and picking up our sayings and mannerisms. It makes me proud to be British that people like you enjoy our country and nutty ways…. Brilliant mate 😂much love ❤️

Sainsbury’s local to me is the smaller convenience version of their standard supermarkets, I find them more pricey than their larger stores, Evan showed branded items like Lurpak butter and Kelloggs cornflakes, Sainsburys own label brand is as good and cheaper.

This goes a long way to explain the american love story with diners and eating out! I always wondered how / why it was more normalised in american culture to have breakfast out, never cook etc but it's all making sense now.

I just moved from the US to the UK a few months ago. Yes, in the US groceries are incredibly expensive. My family can afford to eat much better here! I currently spend about £80 on the weekly shop here in South-East England for my family of 3. (And that's including yummy treats that we don't really need.) Rent is more expensive in the US, too, at least where I was on the East coast it was getting very, very high. The only saving grace was the very cheap public transit in our city.

Visited UK in September. Found my favorite pita bread for less than £3; back in the US, exact same brand/quantity is $8. Groceries aside, it was also cheaper to send my kid to a UK university than it would have been to send him to a state school, even factoring in housing and travel costs.

You're preaching to the choir !! One of the first things I noticed about moving to the UK was how insanely cheap food was. And then I was flabbergasted again when I went from sainsburys to lidl. I went back to the US recently on a trip and accidentally bought a tub of cherries which I thought was the equivalent of £3.50 but actually ended up being £16 (I read the label wrong, as it was based on weight). When I got home I saw the same amount of cherries at M&S for £4.

Good job that the £££ has absolutely floored it. I didn't want to wait until the price conversions were out-of-date.

I'm American, but I've lived overseas for about twenty years. I 've always experienced sticker shock when I've visited my relatives in the States, but this year I was floored by the increases that had occurred since my previous visit (about 8 months ago). I then spent a month in Canada, and nearly fainted when I saw what Canadians are paying for their groceries. I had planned on staying for 90 days, but cut my visit short, departing after only three weeks. Not sure if the citizens of these two countries realize that they're paying 2-10 times (or more) what the rest of the world is paying for their groceries, but if I were them, I'd start asking my politicians why that is.

It would be interesting to compare the average salary, house prices and interest rates in both countries to get a real price difference 🤔

France is known for having very high food standards and a culinary culture emphasizing seasonal and local produce and typically higher grocery prices than neighboring European countries (or used to), but I was always surprised by how much cheaper than in the US grocery shopping there was. And if the quality is taken into account, the difference is even more astonishing. Shopping in Spain or France is a pleasure, Europe is doing things right!

prices have been increasing exponentially as well. I work as a Deli clerk at my local Kroger store. when I started working there in February, most of the deli meats that I slice (turkey, ham, etc) cost $7.99-8.99 a pound. now, 8 months later, it's $11.99-13.99 for the same amount. I can barely afford groceries.

American here - Honestly when you totaled it all up and it was only $100 for everything you listed, I was shocked. Jersey’s got some cheap groceries!!! I’m tempered to go and find the prices in my region, buuuut that feels like too much work 😂

Seeing your comparisons of New Jersey make me glad I'm in the Midwest. I live in Gary Indiana, and the dominant grocery store chain is independent Strack and Van Til. The next big chain is Aldi, and Aldi has been in my area since 1979. The prices here are $1 to $3 cheaper than what you provided for New Jersey. Since I'm close to Illinois, we can get a lot of Illinois shoppers, especially from Cook County, because the sales tax is overall much higher. Indiana has a 7% sales rax, where the sales tax varies throughout Cook County Illinois, because Illinois allows County and local governments to add their own sales tax. I know for Chicago, outside of downtown, it's a combined 10.25%, with the downtown area being 1% higher. What does not get taxed at the state level, everything is taxed at the County and local levels. Those items in Cook County are at 2.25% sales tax. Food costs aren't that much higher in Cook County Illinois, but the sales tax makes a big difference in if people are willing to travel to Indiana. Those closer to other Illinois counties will cross into those counties to shop. After watching videos of expats living in Australia and New Zealand, their food costs even more than ours, as they have to import a lot of food. One video of an American expat in New Zealand showed what produce costed, and I was shocked at what out of season produce costed. An example was shown that out of season tomatoes were close to $40 NZD/kg. The most I ever saw was $5 USD for a basic tomato. As for Aldi, certain items have been out of stock for a while, that when in stock, that their prices have slowly been on par with my local Strack and Van Til stores. When that happens, I might get that similar item at Strack and Van Til. The other grocery stores in my area are Jewel Osco, and 2 different Kroger division stores: Food 4 Less, which looks like a traditional grocery store, but you bag your own groceries, but bags are supplied, unless you want to use your own bags, and Ruler Foods, which is Kroger's version of Aldi, selling mostly Kroger products. You do need a quarter to get a cart at Ruler Foods, and you have to bring your own bags, and bag your own groceries. British would call these 2 stores supermarkets, but in the US, supermarket and grocery store mean the same thing. Meijer and Walmart are superstores, or supercenters, as they have a full line grocery department and a full line general merchandise section. Walmart is broken down into 3 types of stores: discount department store, which they have less than 1000 left, and that's general merchandise with limited selection of food. Superstore or Supercenter, which makes up the bulk of the company since the 2000's, and Neighbors Market, which is grocery and pharmacy. I forgot to put this in the original comment, which I'm updating. When you mentioned Switzerland, they don't use the Euro, as they're not part of the EU, and will never be, as they're a neutral country, and don't want the EU dictating what they can do in their country. So they're still on the Swiss Franc. Last I remembered, Poland and Denmark have not joined the Euro yet, though they'rein the EU, but Denmark eventually plans to join the Euro. Poland from my understand has resisted joining the Euro, out of fear of goods going up. Had the UK remained in the EU, they were grandfathered in to remain on the pound. If they decide to rejoin the EU, the EU will make the UK join the Euro.

It's 4 pints of milk as the traditional milk bottle delivered to your door is a pint so it's a unit which Brits are very familiar with.

My weekly grocery budget for a family of 4 is $300. This includes some household items like laundry detergent, pet food, etc. I think I’ve noticed prices increasing lately though.

I grocery shop weekly in the US and he is not lying. When our minimum wage increased in my state, so did our prices. Next month the state changes to $13.20, but the local trend is $15/h minimum. We have cut back on our meat, eggs and butter lately because it's so expensive.

Sainburys is mainly in the south of the UK & is actually fairly expensive compared with supermarkets like Morrisons, mainly in the rest of the UK. The smaller ('local' in this case) version tends not to have the cheaper labels

I'm Canadian and our prices are very comparable with the American store prices. It's getting absolutely ridiculous! We're a family of 3 and our weekly shop is routinely $150-180 CAD, which is roughly $110-132 USD or £97.50-117 GBP at today's conversion rates. Insane! Just 6 years ago when we were a family of 2 with no baby in sight we were regularly paying $80 CAD a week ($58.65 USD or £52.) You can't tell me introducing a little girl doubled our food needs.

As a Brit living in NZ, our grocery prices make the US ones seem cheap 😂😂 (supermarket duopoly in a country so far away from everything else!) You should do a series for other countries in the world to compare 🇳🇿🇳🇿 also it's weird having to buy seasonally, the UK you barely need to think about what is in season!

Have you compared takeaway prices like McDonald's, Kentucky Dried Chicken yet, including ready meals from supermarket, chilled and frozen? If not, you definitely need to do that!

Those meal box subscription ads suddenly make more sense. Seemed insane to be paying as much as they are asking. Also always assumed the sheer qty of take aways in tv shows was just fiction

Would be interesting to feed in data for average income for both countries and then calculate cost relative to income.

As someone from the States in the PNW, I spent about 50 USD yesterday on a loaf of bread, some peanut butter, a small container of milk (12 oz container), pizza bites (a 60 pack), and some jam. It is literally cheaper to eat out everyday... well it was most of the time, until several local chains stopped accepting coupons (looking at you Subway).

I noticed this in September when we spent a week in Edinburgh. We bought some groceries to make breakfast each morning. It was cheaper than it would have been in the US. Restaurants were also less expensive unless we were really splurging.

Well the thing is, is that it really depends state by state. For example, I live in Texas and I do not pay nearly as much for most of the things you've mentioned. This is of course because Texas has a lot of farms we can pull from and we're by Mexico so things like avocados are drastically cheaper than most anywhere else. The cheapness also depends on the store. I'm surprised you didn't use Walmart as it's the most national grocery store.

I just moved to Birmingham, England to pursue my masters after living in Massachusetts my whole life. I was in actual awe when I went to Sainsbury's for my first shop. Especially now with the pound and the dollar pretty much equivalent, my first shopping trip in the UK I spent 21 pounds! I couldn't believe how cheap it was here. My usual shopping trip at College in the states would cost around 50 dollars per week, and that was me super budgeting as well.

I remember visiting Canada from the UK and loving it so much that I considered living there...... Then I saw how expensive cheese was and I scrapped the idea.

Saw a funny meme the other day and it’s soooo much more relevant now 😂😂 “being a Brit is just really wanting to live in the US as a kid, then growing up and thinking, nope!!”

US got hit with some nasty inflation in the last year or two so everything is super expensive now. Going to the grocery store makes me very sad. I've heard part of the reason is because a large portion of our interstate truck drivers retired during the pandemic, so there is a big labor shortage raising prices.

The start genuinely felt like I was watching the local news

Germany is also extremely cheap when it comes to groceries, even in comparison to other European countries. I can do a basic weekly shop for myself (milk, bread, fruit, veg,...) for about 10-15€.

Higher income drives demand led inflation (innit?), so it would be interesting to adjust the prices on both sides with Purchase Parity to see how expensive or cheap the groceries really are.

As an American teacher, I'm now considereing getting a teaching job in the UK.

How do the average wages differ? I've seen people saying that they are struggling on $45,000 online, but I earn ~£25,000 (NHS) and I'm not rich but I can afford the basics in a high cost area.

I go back to the states every two-three years. The first time I realized the price difference between the UK and US. I was truly baffled. Free range organic eggs was my lightbulb moment! The price was nearly triple in the US. And I don't even want to go down the organic produce differences! I've been in the UK for 10 years - I am a citizen now and the UK is stuck with me. :D

I’ve seen a few videos of the cost of food (as of late 2022) and I was blown away by how much cheaper it is there than the US. Are food prices subsidized by the government in the UK? Or are we just getting ripped off in the US? I’d be interested to see a comparison of standard living costs (mortgage/rent, gasoline, house gas, electricity, water, cable, cell service…I guess these would be standard expenses for most.) Comparing an average middle class neighborhood in an average sized Midwest city would probably be the most “average” and not have extremes such as CA or the east coast.

One of the reasons some fresh produce (particularly domestic crops) is cheaper in the UK is because its a much smaller country. For example, carrots and potatoes usually only have to travel about a maximum of 500 km to reach the shops from the farms. If you think about getting something like a New Jersey tomato in California or getting a California avocado in New Jersey, its had to travel nearly 4,000 km. That's also why processed food is cheaper and more common. It costs a lot more to transport fresh produce across a country as big as the United States in refrigerated transports or using rapid transport networks than it does to transport the likes of canned or dry goods in standard trucks or freight containers. Even our imports (particularly those arriving by sea) are cheaper because once it arrives in the UK it has considerably less distance to travel from our ports to our shops than imports entering the US destined for the central states. Food miles do make a big difference to the cost of goods and its only going to get worse as the energy crisis worsens.

Thanks for making a clear comparison between US and UK food prices, I honestly don't think I'd have found this information out without this video 🤙

I did my study abroad in the UK right before the pandemic and I could tell groceries were WAY cheaper even before inflation. I could never figure out why. Going shopping after I came back was so sad :(

The prices in metro Detroit are mostly a bit higher than the ones shown for US stores in Jersey. If you look for sales you can do better on some items, but no where near as cheap as the UK prices.

For two people it's like 150 a week for groceries, and we make a lot of foods at home. Still feels super high, and we're vegan. Some of our friends spend 2x that just because they eat meats (US)

My wife and I went on a self-catering holiday to America a few years ago and we were so shocked at how expensive groceries were in the US we ended up eating out most of the time as restaurants were cheaper than eating in!

I presume someone has mentioned this already, but there's no VAT on most basic food items in the UK.

When I was in the US in 2007 we were getting 2 dollars to the pound and now it’s barely above one. It isn’t really that difficult to understand why food shopping is so much more expensive in the US.

I think a lot of people are missing the fact that the prices were from the website so yes can be cheaper in store but even that's regional so probably the better way of conducting the test was comparing to where he lives and where he's from for simplicity

Wow, that has changed a lot. The first time I went to the US (Florida), I went to a petrol station, filled up, bought an ice box, ice and a range of snacks and when I was told the price I actually said, "Did you remember to charge for the fuel?" How/why/when did it all change?!

Living in the North West of England, we spend around £150/month for two people. That is with both of us being vegan and me strategically shopping for the best deals. We cook and bring leftovers to work for lunch as well, and always have treats and favourite convenience foods on hand for when we don't fancy making proper meals.

Our standard grocery shopping in HEB vs Costco is quite staggering as well, here in Texas. 1 cart of standard goods in HEB could run you as high as $350-$400, whereas those same goods in Costco would be $200. And this is to feed a family of 4.

Kind of shocked by this. Not long ago I bought a box of Twinkies from the local Sainsbury's out of morbid curiosity, which was about £5. I assumed that was because of import costs or something but now I'm thinking I got a bargain?

Sainsbury's local, Tesco express, Morrison's Daily, Asda Quickshop are all more expensive than the large supermarket versions of their stores. You pay more for the items there due to the locations of the smaller stores which have higher overheads such as rent being usually in town centres or neighbourhood areas for convenience

Im afraid that Sainsbury's Local, Like Tesco Express tend to charge higher prices than the larger versions of the same supermarkets especially in London.

Man, I'm from the US and trying to move to the UK. When I visited my partner there, I noticed everything seemed cheaper and struggled to explain it to people. This is so helpful for that.

The local versions of stores are usually the small ones that charge more. The regular supermarket ones are best for comparison

Very interested in comparison of frozen goods, like chips, chicken goujons, chicken nuggets, fish (cod/haddock), fish fingers, pizza. And of course snacks/fizzy drinks 🤔

was wondering why everything was so expensive then i remember you're living in London, its about half the price in the north

I’ve always noticed how much more expensive food costs in the states in comparison to England ever since I moved to NJ 25 years ago. People say it has to do with the distance it has travelled. You’re right to rave about Jersey tomatoes as they are so good, but they only seem to be on sale for a very short period of time and then it’s back to the same old watery tasting flavourless tomatoes.

Thank you so much for saying 'shops', that made me laugh.

I live in England and after the inflation my parents went from spending £30 on three full bags of shoppings to £45 and they always complain how it’s so expensive now but seeing this video they may reconsider 😭the moan

I’m moving from NY to the UK in the next few months (whenever my visa comes through) and this just made me feel so much better!

The milk. Something you didn't take into account. A British pint is more than half a litre. An American pint is less than half a litre. The British milk bottle you chose there is 20% larger than the American one.

My daughter and husband live in America the difference is astounding. It’s not just food neither.

I live in Texas and I always get really excited if my groceries are under $100. Recently I feel like I'm always at the checkout hoping I don't go over $200. 😬 I had no idea things were so much less expensive in the UK! Also the price of fast food has gone up a lot recently too. It seems like it's always around $10 a meal! For just junk food!

I haven't been in the US since 2010 but I do remember being surprised how expensive a groceries shop was in the US supermarkets. Groceries are perhaps too cheap in the UK and the primary producers should probably be getting paid more but it is the supermarkets that decide pricing (while maintaining as best they can their margins) and is is difficult to see how this will change.

US supermarkets love to set us up using the Goldilocks affect, though I tend to go for the store generic brand which tends to be cheaper than the name brand. Great bargains can be found at the warehouse stores, but one has to purchase large quantities

Would love to see how much these prices have changed since this was filmed......I feel like the UK prices are going up every week!