2 Places in Texas Where Groceries Cost More Than Houston

H-E-B holds about a quarter of the grocery market in Houston. Kroger holds another fifth, and Walmart trails close behind.

Nobody has a strong majority.

That fight for your cart helps keep grocery prices lower across the nation’s fourth-largest city. But that’s not the case everywhere in Texas.

These are the cities where groceries are more expensive than in Houston.

1. Fort Worth

Fort Worth’s grocery basket costs more than Houston’s, and it affects a lot of people.

Fort Worth’s population hit 1,028,117 in 2025, according to the Census Bureau, enough to make it the tenth-largest city in the country.

That growth didn’t come with big-city grocery bargains.

A cost-of-living index that tracks grocery prices puts Fort Worth’s basket about 1% below the national average, while Houston’s runs 2% below it.

That one-point gap means Fort Worth shoppers pay closer to the national average than Houston shoppers do.

Every point counts at checkout.

A dozen eggs costs about $4.33 in Fort Worth, a dime more than Houston’s $4.23.

Bread runs about ten cents higher too, $4.16 against Houston’s $4.06.

Walmart holds the largest share of the Dallas-Fort Worth grocery market, with more than 100 stores and about $7.9 billion in sales in one recent year.

H-E-B is still catching up in Fort Worth, buying land across the city and building new stores directly across the street from longtime Kroger locations.

Houston’s grocers fought that fight decades ago.

2. Weatherford

Weatherford costs more than Houston at the grocery store too, despite being a fraction of the city’s size.

Weatherford’s population reached 40,634 in 2025, according to the Census Bureau, up from under 31,000 just five years earlier.

The Parker County seat sits about 25 miles west of Fort Worth on Interstate 20.

Locals call Weatherford the Cutting Horse Capital of the World, home to the National Snaffle Bit Association, and Parker County grows enough peaches to fill its own festival every summer.

Small town, big identity.

Weatherford’s grocery basket also runs about 1% below the national average, the same gap as Fort Worth and a full point pricier than Houston’s.

A pound of ground beef there runs about $7.90, 60 cents more than Houston’s $7.30.

A dozen eggs cost about 27 cents more too.

Small differences add up at the register.

Weatherford’s grocery scene now includes a Brookshire’s, a Walmart Supercenter, an Aldi and an Albertsons.

That’s four chains, one store apiece.

Houston shoppers can choose between several H-E-B, Kroger or Walmart locations within a few miles in almost any direction, while a Weatherford shopper who wants a different Aldi or a second Albertsons has to drive to another town.

Fewer stores per chain means fewer nearby alternatives when a price looks high.

What This Grocery Index Measures

Houston’s number on this list comes from one source: The Grocery Items index inside the Cost of Living Index published by the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER).

Every quarter, C2ER collects local prices for the same grocery basket, milk, eggs, bread, coffee and more, through chambers of commerce and economic groups in more than 250 U.S. cities.

Same basket, every city.

Each city’s number then gets set against the average of every participating city, which is fixed at 100.

A city sitting 2% below that average, like Houston, isn’t being measured against Fort Worth or Weatherford directly.

Why Houston’s Grocery Aisles Stay Competitive

Houston’s own grocery aisles explain why its index number runs so low.

H-E-B and Kroger together made up nearly 47% of the Houston market in 2024, according to data compiled by Chain Store Guide, and Walmart still had to fight for the rest.

Nobody runs away with it.

Fort Worth’s grocery scene looks different.

Walmart holds the largest share of the Dallas-Fort Worth market, according to Axios market-share reporting, and H-E-B has spent the past few years racing to catch up.

H-E-B keeps buying land across Fort Worth and opening new stores directly across the street from established Kroger locations, including a former Sack ‘N Save site at Altamesa Boulevard and McCart Avenue.

Catching up takes time.

Shoppers pay for the gap while it closes.

Dallas and El Paso Match Houston’s Number

Dallas ties Houston’s grocery index exactly, both landing 2% below the national average despite sitting nearly 240 miles apart.

El Paso matches that same number, all the way on the other side of the state near the New Mexico border.

El Paso sits closer to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, than to Dallas or Houston, and its grocery number still lines up with both.

Location isn’t the deciding factor.

H-E-B holds only a small slice of the Dallas grocery market, nothing like its dominant position in Houston, yet Walmart, Kroger, Tom Thumb and Fiesta Mart still compete hard enough to hold Dallas prices to Houston’s level.

Three very different Texas cities post the same grocery number.

The Rest of Texas Runs Even Cheaper

Texas grocery bills run cheaper almost everywhere outside Fort Worth and Weatherford.

San Antonio’s basket sits about 7% below the national average, H-E-B’s own hometown market.

Amarillo runs about 6% below it, out on the Panhandle.

Lubbock’s basket runs about 4% below the national average too, out on the South Plains.

Distance doesn’t decide the price.