What this dashboard tracks

The Lodi Grocery Price Trends dashboard monitors the cost of 10 staple grocery items across 5 Lodi-area stores — Walmart, Raley's, Safeway, Save Mart, and FoodMaxx. Prices are collected daily and aggregated to show how much a family's standard weekly quantities cost over time.

Time periods

Past 30 Days — short-term view of recent price movement, useful for spotting sales cycles and week-to-week fluctuations. Year to Date (YTD) — full-year trend from January 1st to today, revealing seasonal patterns and inflationary drift.

Key metrics explained

Median Price — the middle price across stores, resistant to outliers from deep sales or premium brands. Highest/Lowest Price — the range extremes seen across all 5 stores during the period. 10 Essentials Index — a single weekly cost number from summing all 10 median basket prices; a Lodi-specific grocery inflation gauge.

Stores monitored

Walmart, Raley's, Safeway, Save Mart, and FoodMaxx. In the By Product view, store comparison bars show each store's price range over the period — a trophy icon marks the store with the lowest average price.

How prices are normalized

All prices are converted to a standard weekly basket quantity before comparison — e.g., eggs as "2 dozen," chicken as "3 lbs," milk as "2 gallons." This ensures a 3 lb family pack and a 1 lb package are compared fairly per-pound then scaled to basket amount, eliminating package-size tricks.

Data is collected each morning from store websites and apps. Prices reflect in-store shelf prices and may differ from sale prices, member discounts, or delivery fees. Source: Lodi411.com