Steak is sometimes thought of as a special treat, a fancy dinner, or simply out of reach. Since the price of steak has risen more than 40% since 2020, according to Visual Capitalist, that may seem like a safe assessment. But one reason prices are so high is simple supply and demand — people still want steak for dinner, special treat or not. But even though beef is increasingly in demand, U.S. cattle herds he diminished in size and drought has hurt supply — thus driving higher prices.
The gold standard is to support your local farm or rancher. Buying from the source means reinvesting in growing herds, boosting supply, and ultimately, driving down costs. That said, if you're unable to source from your local farmer, there are a multitude of options at the grocery store. You can still snag quality steaks if you know where to look.
The national erage for steak in U.S. grocery stores is $12.26 per pound, but of course, this erages higher-end cuts like ribeye and strip with lower-end cuts like chuck and round and doesn't account for regional differences. So we did a deep dive and checked out prices across several popular grocery stores to find the cheapest cuts of steak. We looked at price per pound across each store's regional locations, factored each store's national erage, and then compared them to see where you can get the cheapest cuts.
Prices are as of the date of publication and may vary based on region.