Table 1. Comparison of average retail prices for selected meat cuts from BLS and supermarket scanner data, most recent month      Next update
October 8, 2008
Most recent month March, 2007
Item1 Feature-
weighted price
($/lb)2
BLS price
($/lb)3
Beef prices
Ground chuck $2.35 $2.63
Ground beef, 100-percent beef $2.27 $2.29
Lean and extra lean ground beef $3.14 $3.05
--All uncooked ground beef $2.61 $2.81
Chuck roast, USDA Choice, boneless $2.42 $3.36
Chuck roast, graded and ungraded but not choice or prime $2.30 $3.19
Round roast, USDA Choice, boneless $2.73 $3.90
Round roast, graded and ungraded but not choice or prime $2.98 $3.72
--All uncooked beef roasts $2.73 $3.73
Steak, T-bone, USDA Choice, bone-in $7.63 N/A
Steak, rib eye, USDA Choice, boneless $9.11 N/A
Steak, round, USDA choice $3.19 $4.21
Steak, round, graded and ungraded but not choice or prime $3.13 $4.08
Steak, sirloin, USDA Choice, boneless $5.58 $6.02
Steak, sirloin, graded and ungraded but not choice or prime $4.46 $5.33
--All uncooked beef steaks $5.25 $5.29
Beef for stew, boneless $3.43 N/A
All uncooked other beef not veal $2.34 $2.99
Pork prices
Bacon, sliced4 $3.07 $3.46
Chops, center cut, bone-in $3.01 $3.27
Chops, boneless $3.35 $3.55
--All pork chops $2.84 $3.14
Ham, boneless not canned $3.08 $3.19
--All ham (not canned or sliced) $2.07 $2.33
Sausage, fresh, loose4 $2.64 N/A
All other pork excluding canned and sliced $1.73 $2.01
Poultry prices
Chicken, fresh whole $0.96 $1.06
Chicken, breast, bone-in $1.42 $2.24
Chicken, legs, bone-in $1.09 $1.29
Turkey, frozen whole $1.21 $1.08
 
 
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 N/A = Not available. Occasionally, BLS is unable to find an adequate number of observations of a particular item's price to ensure statistical reliability.
1Random-weight items only.
2Average monthly price, weighted by sales volume, and accounting for featuring (discounts given to customers from regular shelf price). Compiled for USDA-ERS from retail supermarket scanner data.
3Prices reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
4Random-weight items only; does not include prepackaged items.