Groceries with the Biggest Price Markups

With food prices expected to increase by 3% to 5% this year, grocery stores are going to be forced to pass some of the extra cost on to shoppers.

But what accounts for some of the highest markups in the grocery store aisles now? Perishables. Foods that easily spoil and must be thrown away before they go bad cut deeply into a grocery store's 2.5% profit margin, prompting stores to raise prices, says Timothy Richards, a professor of agribusiness at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. "They've got to have high margins [for these foods] just because of the loss that supermarkets have."

Besides perishables, what are the most overpriced products you'll find in a grocery store?

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