Additional Coverage:
- Woman compares a 1997 grocery receipt to today’s prices — she was not ready for it (marketrealist.com)
TikToker Stunned by 1997 Grocery Bill: A Trip Down Memory Lane Reveals Jaw-Dropping Price Hikes
A recent TikTok video has sent shockwaves across the internet, offering a stark reminder of how much grocery prices have skyrocketed in the last few decades. Creator Zoe Dippel (@zoedippel) unearthed a grocery receipt from 1997, revealing a haul of 122 items that cost a mere $155 – a price tag that left her family and millions of viewers longing for the “good old days.”
The video, which has amassed over 2 million views, features Dippel’s mother-in-law examining the decades-old receipt from H-E-B, a beloved Texas grocery chain. The receipt, dated June 20, 1997, was discovered tucked away in an old baby book.
As Dippel read off the prices, the sheer affordability of everyday staples became immediately apparent. Fruits and vegetables were priced around 25 cents, bread cost about a dollar, and essentials like baby food, diapers, and disinfectants were similarly inexpensive.
The grand total for 122 items was an almost unimaginable $155.
“We were immediately shocked!” Dippel shared with Today. “As we started reading off the prices, our jaws dropped… It wasn’t until that moment that I truly realized how much the world has changed in nearly 30 years.”
The sentiment was echoed by countless commenters, many of whom expressed their own disbelief. “$155 now is shampoo, conditioner, pads, frozen chicken nuggets, deodorant, spaghetti, and some Oreo cookies,” lamented one user, @perfectandalwaysright. Another, @ijennnni, jokingly added, “The economy I was promised when being an adult 😭😭😭.”
Prompted by hundreds of requests, Dippel followed up with a second video, meticulously re-creating the 1997 shopping list using H-E-B’s app and curbside pickup feature to calculate today’s equivalent cost. The results were startling.
Little Debbie’s brownies, a bargain at $1.09 in 1997, now cost $5.75. A bag of coffee jumped from $2.47 to $9.43, and diapers, once $12.99, are now a hefty $31.47.
After accounting for minor price differences due to the pickup order, the total for the same 122 items came out to a staggering $500 – a 220% increase from the original receipt.
While the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Inflation Calculator suggests that $1 in 1997 is equivalent to $2.02 in November 2025 (a 102% rise), Dippel’s grocery experiment reveals that the cost of these specific items has surged at a significantly higher rate. Furthermore, while the minimum wage has risen from $4.75 in 1997 to $7.52 in 2025, experts suggest that a minimum wage of $15.30 an hour would be necessary to truly keep pace with today’s inflated prices.
This viral TikTok moment serves as a powerful, albeit disheartening, illustration of the dramatic shift in consumer purchasing power over the past three decades, leaving many to wonder if the “good old days” of grocery shopping will ever return.