1997 HEB Receipt Reveals Shocking Price Increase
After Zoe Dippel found a 1997 HEB receipt for 122 items totaling $155, she decided to compare current grocery prices to prices in the 1990s.
For Zoe Dippel, a walk down memory lane looking through her family photo albums became a simple lesson about inflation.
Dippel, a 24-year-old dental hygienist who lives near Austin, told USA TODAY that she was flipping through her sister-in-law’s baby album when the envelope fell out.
“When we open it, the first thing you see is an ultrasound of her as a baby, because she was a twin,” Dippel said. “[Then]we pull out the receipt and we’re like, ‘Oh my God, this is a huge receipt. This is so long.'” And I ask, “What’s the date?” ”
The receipts they found were for 122 items ordered from HEB, a Texas grocery store, shortly after my sister-in-law was born. The price for this bulk order in 1997 was $155.34. But after Dippel posted a video of her find on TikTok, she decided to find out how much the same order would cost now. Her two videos about receipts from 1997 have gone viral, with a combined 3.4 million views as of January 16th.
She discovered that the same order would have cost $504.11 with HEB’s curbside pickup.
“It’s just crazy to me,” Dippel said of the price hike.
Dippel told USA TODAY that the exercise made him question how people will be able to buy basic necessities. The issue has taken center stage in politics following the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent period of inflation.
“I think about people who don’t have the privilege of going to college and having a good career,” Dippel said. “I think about people who work in, say, fast food restaurants or HEBs or grocery stores. I think about them making $15 an hour. I think, ‘How can people survive?’
What was on the receipt?
Dippel provided USA TODAY with a spreadsheet showing a comparison between 1997 receipts and modern-day curbside pickup orders. She said she couldn’t find an exact match for each item, but looked for the closest equivalent if necessary.
Notable price increases include a nearly $8 price increase on frozen corn dogs and a jar of baby food from 55 cents to $1.97. A package of 78 Pampers diapers more than doubled in price from $12.99 to $31.47. Folgers French Roast Coffee is now $14.57, down from $7.99. And kids applesauce went from 45 cents to $2.07.
USA TODAY reached out to HEB for comment but did not receive a response.
How have food prices changed?
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Inflation Calculator, $1 in June 1997 will have the same purchasing power as $2.02 in December 2025, the last month for which the calculator is available. This is a difference of 102% from 1997 to 2025. Dippel’s latest calculations show a 224% increase in costs from $155.34 in 1997 to $504.11 today.
The all-category grocery price index compiled by Datasembly fell 5% year-over-year in the week ending Jan. 10, but was still 28% higher than before the pandemic, according to USA TODAY’s grocery tracker.
In a Swiftly survey conducted last month, 68% of shoppers said they were struggling to buy groceries. Over the past 12 months, household food spending increased by 2.4%.
Household food costs rose 0.7% in December, higher than the most recent monthly increases of 0.3% in September and 0.6% in August, according to the latest Consumer Price Index report.
Cardiff founder and CEO William Stern said in a memo to USA TODAY that politicians may “score a victory” with lower-than-expected inflation, but that “only means prices have stopped rising.”
“They never came down…and the family feels that way every time they check out,” he said.
Contributed by: Rachel Barber – USA TODAY
