Food · Single item chart

Potatoes.

White · per pound · US city average · all available data

Potatoes vs. official inflation, 1939–2025

Indexed: 1986 = 100 · Three lines, three measures of inflation: what consumers actually paid (retail), the BLS CPI subindex for this category, and overall CPI-U All Items

Potatoes, retail price (BLS APU0000712112, 1986+) Potatoes, CPI subindex (BLS, 1939+) CPI-U All Items (BLS, 1947+)

Reading the chart. White potatoes are one of the most volatile retail staples in the American grocery basket. The BLS APU dollar series begins in 1986; from 1986 to 2025 the price grew 3.82x while CPI grew 2.94x in the same window — meaning potatoes ran 30% faster than headline CPI. The CPI subindex extends to 1939 and shows that potato prices were a small fraction of their current level before 1970, before fuel costs, packaging, distribution, and processed-potato premium pricing pushed retail dollar prices higher.