Are prices lower in stores compared to a year ago?

Overall, no — prices in stores are generally still higher than a year ago, though the pace of increase has slowed and some specific items have gotten cheaper.

The big picture (overall inflation):
Recent BLS data shows the all items index rose 3.4 percent for the 12 months ending August as it did for the 12 months ending July. That means, broadly speaking, things cost more than a year ago, not less.

Groceries specifically:
Grocery/food-at-home prices are also up year-over-year, just at a slower pace than the 2022 inflation spike. As of mid-2026, the food-at-home CPI was unchanged from June 2026 to July 2026 and 2.7 percent higher than in July 2025. Similarly, other data shows grocery store food prices increased 2.1% from January 2025 to January 2026 – the product with the biggest jump, ground beef, went up more than 21%.

But it's a mixed bag — some items ARE cheaper:
Not everything is more expensive. The latest Consumer Price Index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that several everyday grocery staples now cost less than they did a year ago. Most notably, eggs have seen dramatic drops — one tracker noted eggs were down nearly 53% versus a year ago, based on Biggest Faller · Eggs · ▼ −52.9% vs last year. Other items that fell in price year-over-year, according to a January 2026 report, included eggs, tomatoes, potatoes, bread and chicken, which were all cheaper as of January 2026 than a year prior — egg prices decreased the most (-48.0%), followed by tomatoes (-12.6%), potatoes (-10.5%), bread (-4.3%), and chicken (-1.0%).

However, other items are notably more expensive:
Coffee and beef have seen sharp increases. One tracker found coffee up nearly 19% year-over-year, while another report noted particularly sharp increases since September 2024 in the prices of coffee (up 18.9%) and beef and veal (up 14.7%).

Bottom line: If you're asking about the economy as a whole, prices are higher than a year ago — inflation has just slowed rather than reversed. At the grocery store specifically, it depends heavily on what you're buying: eggs, chicken, and some produce have gotten notably cheaper, while coffee, beef, and several other categories continue climbing. As one analyst put it, "All of this conversation about inflation still involves prices going up just slower than they might otherwise be or had been".