While grocery prices aren’t rising as quickly as they did just a few years ago, many Great Falls shoppers say they are still paying close attention to what goes into their carts.
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Great Falls shoppers on grocery costs
For Laura Friberg, that means making decisions about where to shop and how to stretch every dollar.
“It’s definitely not nice to sometimes notice that there is a meal that you could make that kind of have everything that you are supposed to be eating, and then you go into the grocery store and you see that the price has gone up,” Friberg said. “I think even a dollar can make a big difference for a lot of people.”
Friberg says she often shops at multiple stores depending on prices and availability.
“I would definitely say I go to a different grocery store based on where the prices are lower,” she said.
Those changing shopping habits are something Michael Vetere, general manager of 2J’s Fresh Market, says he sees regularly. Vetere said grocery prices have largely stabilized compared to the sharp increases consumers experienced several years ago and that some products have even seen modest decreases.
“We were seeing some things go down even, you know, for a good portion of 2025 and probably hit the first half of 2026, we saw some things backing off a little bit,” Vetere said.
While prices have settled closer to normal, Vetere says Montana’s location continues to present challenges when it comes to getting products onto store shelves.
“The biggest fluctuation that I see, it’s all around the freight cost,” Vetere said. “So right now as we move into the winter months, we’re getting further and further south where the produce comes from. So there’s more miles on the produce.”
As colder weather arrives and produce travels greater distances to reach Montana, transportation costs become a larger factor in the price consumers pay at checkout, Vetere said.
According to the USDA’s September 2026 Food Price Outlook, grocery-store food prices are forecast to increase 2.4% this year. The agency projects beef and veal prices could rise 9.4%, while fresh vegetable prices are expected to increase 5.7%.
Even as overall grocery inflation slows, local shoppers and grocers say affordability remains top of mind whenever it’s time to fill a cart.
Dining and Cooking