Augusta resident Sharon Scott doesn't notice a big change in grocery prices during her frequent travels to Florida.
"Maybe a few cents or so. It's not a whole lot of difference," Ms. Scott said as she loaded groceries into her car at the Kroger supermarket on 15th Street.
But a recent study says that Augusta prices are higher, about 3.6 percent above the national average, according to ACCRA, an Arlington, Va.-based cost-of-living analysis firm.
Grocers and industry analysts doubt those findings , though, and say that the market's healthy competition and geographic location should make prices in Augusta lower than the national average.
"In general, the Southeast would not be one of the more expensive regions," said Ephraim Leibtag, a food price analyst for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service.
ACCRA, which compiles price data on a multitude of goods and services, said the area's overall cost of living, despite grocery prices, is nearly 10 percent below the national average.
The quarterly study creates a grocery index by price-checking 27 grocery items for three days.
Erol Yildirim, an ACCRA project manager, said he couldn't explain why Augusta's grocery index conflicts with its overall cost of living but speculated that timing could be a factor.
"If the item is on sale, it might make a difference," Mr. Yildirim said. "Most groceries go on sale from time to time."
Grocers and food price analysts say it is highly unlikely Augusta-Aiken residents are paying above-average prices for groceries.
"Augusta is probably one of the more competitive, and one of the lower-priced, markets in the Southeast," said Ken Clark, a regional price analyst for Cincinnati -based Kroger. "You have to put a question mark on that study."
Aside from Kroger, the area has four other major grocery chains competing with one an other: Bi-Lo, Food Lion, Winn-Dixie and Publix.
There's also Wal-Mart's Supercenter and Sam's Club stores, which exert major price pressure on the traditional grocery chains.
"The more Wal-Marts, the lower the average price for food in a market," Mr. Liebtag said. "When you have a market with a lot of competition, you usually see some lower prices."
Augusta also is not far removed from food producers and distribution centers.
"Places that are really off the beaten path, there may be additional cost of getting product to the store. As far as I know, none of those things are involved in Augusta," said Jeff Lowrance, a spokesman for Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion.
Mr. Lowrance said he compared Augusta prices to weekly newspaper inserts from cities around the country and found local prices were comparable or cheaper in most cases.
Brenda Reid, the spokeswoman for Lakeland, Fla.-based Publix, was also surprised to hear the results of the ACCRA survey.
" I don't know where this is coming from," she said.
Joyce Smart, a spokeswoman for Greenville, S.C.-based Bi-Lo, said this is the first time she had ever heard of groceries costing more in Augusta.
"Prices in Augusta are a little bit lower than they are here in Greenville," she said.
According to ACCRA's third quarter 2004 study, the Augusta-Aiken area had the 77th-highest food prices out of 324 cities nationwide. Here are the top five and bottom five.
Highest:
1. Honolulu
2. San Jose, Calif.
3. Kodiak, Alaska
4. New York (Manhattan only)
5. San Francisco
Lowest:
324. Harlingen, Texas
323. Victoria, Texas
322. Corpus Christi, Texas
321. Seguin, Texas
320. San Marcos, Texas
Reach James Gallagher at (706) 823-3227 or james.gallagher@augustachronicle.com.
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