Walmart Was the Priciest Store 10 Weeks Running in a Fort Wayne Grocery Test That Hoosiers Should See

If Walmart is your go-to because you figure it’s always the cheapest, a weekly price check in Fort Wayne might change your mind.

They put the same groceries through each store’s checkout every week, and the results shifted from one year to the next.

Here’s how the Fort Wayne stores stacked up, and what Hoosiers can take from it.

Who Runs the Grocery Tracker and How

21Alive’s investigative team launched the Grocery Tracker, a weekly price check, in July 2025.

Year one priced a 10-item basket at the Southgate Plaza Kroger, the Illinois Road Meijer and the Apple Glen Walmart.

If you’ve ever compared two receipts, you already know the idea.

In year one, the sale price of every item was updated each Wednesday.

The station calls the list the 21Cart.

The list may not match the quantities or brands you shop for, but it aims to give a baseline for everyday costs.

The year-two report, published Sept. 25, 2026, is the test behind Walmart’s streak.

Walmart’s Year-Two Streak

Through year one, Walmart was the cheapest store in the tracker more often than any other, the report says.

That record may be why you think of Walmart as the low-price pick.

Then came year two.

Walmart spent 10 weeks in a row as the most expensive store in the tracker.

As we read it, the report doesn’t say which Walmart held the streak, the Apple Glen store from year one or the Lima Road store its year-two list crosses out.

It does say that Walmart will be replaced with a new contender soon.

21Alive calls the streak a stunning upset.

The Year-Two Basket and Store List

Year one’s basket mixed store brands and national brands across 10 items.

Eggs, milk, 80/20 ground beef and boneless chicken breast were store brands.

Butter, bread, cereal and peanut butter were national brands: Land O’Lakes, Sunbeam Giant, Cheerios and Jif.

Bananas and russet potatoes filled out the rest.

The Grocery Tracker’s year-two basket has nine items, and six of them are new.

Orange juice, lettuce, Roma tomatoes, strawberries, an avocado and a pound of coffee grounds are the newcomers.

Only three of the nine items carry over: eggs, butter and 80/20 ground beef.

Milk, bread, Cheerios, peanut butter, chicken breast, bananas and russet potatoes all left the list.

21Alive also dropped national brands for year two, so the list sticks to store brands, private labels and generics.

A national brand you buy out of habit won’t show up in the totals, so your own cart may not match the 21Cart.

The year-two report’s store list names Aldi on Coldwater Road and Kroger on Coventry Lane, and it shows the Lima Road Walmart crossed out.

For one week, the station priced the list at a higher-end Fort Wayne grocery store, and the headline sets Fresh Market against Aldi and Kroger.

Midwest Grocery Prices

A few Fort Wayne stores can't speak for a whole region, so the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) fills in the wider picture.

In the BLS Midwest region, which includes Indiana, prices for food at home (grocery store purchases) rose 1.6 percent over the 12 months ending in August 2026.

That works out to about $1.60 more on every $100 of groceries you buy than a year earlier.

Over August alone, the same index rose 0.4 percent.

Prices for all items in the Midwest rose 3.6 percent over those same 12 months.

That leaves groceries 2 percentage points below the overall rate.

Food overall, restaurants included, rose 2.6 percent over the year.

On a $100 grocery bill, that is $3.60 more for all items against $1.60 more for groceries.

A fixed shopping list matters in a store test, since average prices shift with brand, quality and size from place to place.

The Consumer Price Index sample is built for price indexes, not for average prices, so the 1.6 percent above tracks a trend, not what a Fort Wayne cart costs.

Egg and Beef Price Forecasts

Nationally, eggs and beef are forecast to move in opposite directions in 2026, according to September's outlook from the Economic Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Overall, grocery prices are forecast to rise 2.4 percent in 2026.

That follows a 2.3 percent increase in 2025.

National forecasts like these can't explain Walmart's streak or any Fort Wayne store's prices.

Egg prices are forecast to fall 29.4 percent in 2026.

On every $10 you spend on eggs, that drop would save you about $2.94.