Publix Charged the Most for Eggs and Bananas in a 2022 Miami Price Check. Here’s What the South Pays Now

Bread, eggs, milk, bananas and eggnog: that’s the December cart a Miami price check filled at seven stores.

Publix topped the list on egg prices, but its lead on bananas was a single penny.

Here’s how that snapshot compares with the South’s average grocery prices now, and what it means for your cart at Publix.

How the Check Was Done

Howard Cohen’s report put Publix on a list with six other stores. The Herald priced the same five items at each.

Those items were bread, eggs, milk, bananas and eggnog.

Only one location was named for each chain.

Those were Publix, Milam’s Market and Whole Foods in Pinecrest, Winn-Dixie in Doral, Fresco y Más in Kendall, Aldi in Palmetto Bay and Walmart in Westchester.

The report was published December 23, 2022.

The paper called its run non-scientific.

Prices for the same item can differ between locations of one chain because of supply costs and market demand.

So the list is a December 2022 snapshot. Don’t read it as a verdict on any store.

Whole Foods, not Publix, had the highest bread and milk prices on the list.

Eggs, Store by Store

Publix charged $6.15 for its Publix-brand dozen of large white eggs. That was the top of eight egg prices on the list.

That was the Pinecrest store, the only Publix the Herald priced.

Eight prices showed up across the seven stores because Fresco y Más showed two brands.

Crystal Springs eggs cost $5.19 at Fresco y Más and $5.03 at Winn-Dixie.

Eggland’s Best sold for $3.89 at Fresco y Más and $4.19 at Milam’s Market.

That’s a 30-cent difference for the same brand.

Aldi’s Goldhen large eggs were $3.66, and Walmart’s Great Value dozen eggs were $3.16.

Walmart’s $3.16 was the lowest.

Whole Foods’ 365 brand large white eggs were $3.39. Publix’s dozen cost $2.76 more than that.

Compared with Walmart’s Great Value, you’d have paid about 95% more for the Publix dozen.

That’s nearly double.

Bananas, Store by Store

Bananas on the list ranged from 46 cents a pound at Aldi to 70 cents at Publix.

Publix’s 70 cents, at the same Pinecrest store, was the highest.

The lead was one penny.

Winn-Dixie, Whole Foods and Milam’s Market all charged 69 cents.

Fresco y Más was at 59 cents and Walmart at 48 cents. So your cheapest pound was at Aldi.

That put Publix 24 cents a pound above Aldi, or about 52% more.

Buy five pounds, and you’d have paid $1.20 more at Publix than at Aldi.

Eggs, Then and Now

One store on one day isn't the same as a regional average, but it gives you a rough comparison.

Publix's $6.15 in December 2022 was about 56% above the $3.95 South average the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recorded that month.

That series covers large white Grade A eggs sold by the dozen in urban areas across the South region.

The Census Bureau's South region includes Florida.

The South average more than doubled between January and December 2022.

By January 2023 the average had passed $4.75. In January 2022, it was under $2 a dozen.

Then the South average fell to $1.73 in August 2023.

In December 2024 it was back at $3.91, within 5 cents of the December 2022 level.

It reached $5.91 in March 2025.

The September 2026 figure was $2.37 a dozen.

Buy a dozen eggs at that average, and you paid about $1.58 less than in December 2022.

That's 40% less.

Say you buy a dozen eggs every week. At September 2026's $2.37, 52 dozen would cost about $123.

At December 2022's $3.95, it would be about $205. That's a gap of more than $80.

Bananas, Then and Now

Set against the 60.4-cent South average for December 2022, Publix's 70 cents a pound was about 10 cents higher.

Remember, that compares one store's single day with a regional monthly figure.

If you bought bananas at the South average in September 2026, you paid 61.6 cents a pound.

That's up about 2% from that December.