SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – If you’re planning a weekend cookout, the brisket is going to cost you a lot more than it did last week.
According to new data from the USDA, the national average price for whole brisket at grocery stores jumped from $5.29 a pound to $11.05 a pound in just seven days — more than doubling. For a standard 12-pound packer brisket, that’s the difference between a $63.48 grocery bill and a $132.60 one.
Compared to a year ago, when brisket averaged $6.48 a pound, prices are up nearly 71% — an extra $54.84 on that same 12-pound brisket.
Local BBQ restaurants feel the squeeze too
Brandon Grame has owned Bubba’s BBQ for 10 years and has worked in barbecue for three decades, since he was a kid cooking with his grandfather in Kansas City.
His restaurant cooks 200 to 300 pounds of whole brisket every day — for sliced brisket, burnt ends, and even the offcuts that go into the baked beans.
“You try to go with the roller coaster of these prices, you know, fluctuating with all the meats,” Grame said. “But when one of them goes so exorbitantly high, it makes it very tough to make any profit.”
Grame said his wholesale price for top-quality brisket has climbed from under $6 a pound to about $8 a pound.
“I’ve tried to kind of lock in some prices, but it’s still high,” Grame said. “I’ve got a meat supplier out of Kansas City that’s been a partner for a long time. He’s helped me out a lot. But other than that, it’s just kind of go with the flow on what the market price is.”
Some restaurants cutting brisket from the menu
Grame said some other restaurants have responded to rising prices by dropping brisket from their menus entirely. He’s taken a different approach.
“A lot of places are taking it off the menu,” Grame said. “What I’ve decided to do is that I haven’t made any permanent price increases. I did do a couple of additional price increases on the meat combos. If you add our burnt ends or our brisket, there’s a small upcharge on those. But I’m hoping that’s just temporary. We’ll see how the market tells us.”
Grame said keeping menu prices manageable matters to him personally — he has a family of four of his own.
“I just hope all the local customers are understanding that we’re struggling with this and trying to do the best I can,” Grame said. “I know I’m trying not to raise prices at all, and that’s really hard to do. I hate to pass it on. I’ve got a family of four, so I know how hard it is to go out to eat on a regular basis, and I’m trying to keep it to where everybody can.”
By the numbersPrice per lb.Cost of a 12-lb. brisketStores advertisingThis week$11.05$132.6061Last week$5.29$63.48227Last year$6.48$77.761,407
Source: USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, Weekly Grocery Store Beef Feature Activity report, week ending Sept. 25, 2026.
Notably, far fewer stores are advertising whole brisket this week compared to last week or last year — a sign some retailers may be scaling back brisket promotions as wholesale costs climb.
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Dining and Cooking