‘Cheap Food Is Dead’: Behind Rising Grocery Prices In Chicago

21/07/2025 26 min
‘Cheap Food Is Dead’: Behind Rising Grocery Prices In Chicago

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Episode Synopsis

An ongoing Sun-Times investigation tracking items at Jewel, Mariano’s, Target and Walmart shows most common grocery purchases cost more today in the Chicago area than they did when President Trump came into office promising lower prices. And local shoppers are struggling to keep up.

Reset learns more about how Chicago residents and business owners are adapting to higher prices and what comes next.

Our guests: Stephanie Zimmermann, Chicago Sun-Times consumer investigations reporter; Amanda Lai, director of food industry practice, McMillanDoolittle; Errol Schweizer, publisher of The Checkout Grocery Update; and Sana Syed, senior director of strategic initiatives at IMAN, which runs the Go Green Community Fresh Market.

For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.