cost-of-living

Ground Beef Hits a Record $6.92 a Pound and the Grocery Math Gets Ugly

Published September 17, 20263 min read

Fresh ground beef mounded in a lit butcher's display case with a blank price tag and soft chrome reflections — Ground beef averaged a record $6.92 a pound in August, even as the rest of the grocery basket held steady. Illustration: MarketIntelLabs

Ground beef set a record in August. The average price of 100 percent ground beef hit $6.92 a pound , per Bureau of Labor Statistics average price data released with the September 11 CPI report , the highest monthly reading the series has ever shown. A pound that cost $6.32 in August 2025 is up 9.6 percent year over year, and against the $3.81 average of 2019 the same pound costs about 82 percent more. This is the most expensive quiet repricing on the American grocery receipt.

Key Takeaways Ground beef averaged $6.92 a pound in August 2026, a record high, up 9.6 percent from $6.32 a year earlier, per BLS average price data (series APU0000703112). Every month of 2026 has set a record for its ow…

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