Publix, ALDI, Food Lion & more: See grocery stores with best prices in Columbia area
Want to find the cheapest groceries in your area?
Groceries are essential items that can significantly impact a family’s budget as prices increase and in the past few years, grocery prices across the country have done nothing but go up, except for a few items.
According to a report from the USDA, food prices in April 2026 were 3.2% higher than in April 2025. The report was published on May 22. In just a month, between March 2026 and April 2026, grocery store prices increased by 0.7%.
To save you money and help you budget for groceries, we went to five different grocery stores within the Columbia area and price-checked several essential food items:
Grocery stores visited
On our quest to find the cheapest groceries, we did not go to stores with membership requirements, such as Sam’s Club. We also left out stores that specialize in organic items from our list.
Between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on May 26, we traveled to these five grocery stores in the Columbia area:
- ALDI - 7610 Garners Ferry Rd
- Publix - 501 Gervais St
- Food Lion - 300 Knox Abbott Dr
- Kroger - 3403 Forest Dr
- Walmart Supercenter - 2401 Augusta Rd
Items on our grocery list
We wanted to make sure to cover the most common food items in each grocery store and not items that aren’t considered luxury items. These were the groceries in each store that we checked prices on:
- A dozen eggs
- Yellow onions
- Ground beef
- Chicken breast
- A gallon of orange juice
- A gallon of 2% milk
- White bread
- A bag of russet potatoes
- Bananas
Starting with ALDI, here are the prices for each store:
ALDI prices
- A dozen eggs: $1.46
- Yellow onions: $0.66
- Ground beef (1 lbs): $5.79
- Chicken breast (1 lbs): $3.29
- A gallon of orange juice: $7.49
- A gallon of 2% milk: $2.68
- White bread: $1.45
- A bag of russet potatoes (10 lbs): $3.99
- Bananas (1 lbs): $0.49
Total: $27.30
Publix prices
- A dozen eggs: $2.30
- Yellow onions (1 lbs): $1.59
- Ground beef (1 lbs): $7.96
- Chicken breast( 1lbs): $6.99
- A gallon of orange juice: $7.99
- A gallon of 2% milk: $3.39
- White bread: $2.99
- A bag of russet potatoes (5 lbs): $3.99
- Bananas (1 lbs): $0.53
Total: $37.73
Food Lion prices
- A dozen eggs: $1.89
- Yellow onions (1 lbs): $1.19
- Ground beef (1 lbs): $6.49
- Chicken breast( 1lbs): $2.79
- A gallon of orange juice: $6.99
- A gallon of 2% milk: $2.99
- White bread: $2.49
- A bag of russet potatoes (5 lbs): $4.39
- Bananas (1 lbs): $0.50
Total: $29.72
Kroger prices
- A dozen eggs: $1.79
- Yellow onions (1 lbs): $0.99
- Ground beef (1 lbs): $7.99
- Chicken breast( 1lbs): $2.89
- A gallon of orange juice: $8.49
- A gallon of 2% milk: $2.79
- White bread: $1.99
- A bag of russet potatoes (5 lbs): $3.19
- Bananas (1 lbs): $0.55
Total: $30.67
Walmart Supercenter prices
- A dozen eggs: $1.66
- Yellow onions (1 lbs): $1.00
- Ground beef (1 lbs): $6.42
- Chicken breast( 1lbs): $3.47
- A gallon of orange juice: $7.87
- A gallon of 2% milk: $2.64
- White bread: $1.48
- A bag of russet potatoes (5 lbs): $3.37
- Bananas (1 lbs): $0.50
Total: $28.41
Out of the five grocery stores, ALDI had the cheapest overall total, and Publix had the most expensive grocery receipt. The difference in price between the two for one visit is $10.43.
Look out for future grocery price checks in The State’s growing affordability stories.