Roll a cart into a local grocery store, and you’ll find yourself in the center of a political battleground where your wallet is the biggest casualty.

Probably nowhere else in American life are the high prices of goods so in our faces — and so vital to survival. When interest rates and costs go up, people put off buying a home, or a car. But you can’t avoid the supermarket.

No one offers a satisfying answer for just why everything is so expensive. The war in Ukraine, previously called Europe’s breadbasket, has played a role, as have avian flu outbreaks.

President Donald Trump won the recent election in part on his promises to “make America affordable again.” Never mind that economists say his plans could actually make the problem worse, leaving the burden on shoppers to strategize and strain to stay within budget.

It can be astonishing how much your grocery bill total depends on just where you shop. As we did two years ago, The Baltimore Banner set out to compare prices at some local stores, looking for some common items: whole milk, bananas, iceberg lettuce, ground beef, chicken, bread and eggs. Here are some of our takeaways.

Have prices gone up in two years? Well…

Inflation peaked in 2022 at just over 9%, a historically high jump. Even though that rate has come down in the last two years, prices are still elevated for the everyday consumer.

But a few things have gotten cheaper — at least a little.

When we compare six commonly found grocery store items such as butter, bananas, milk, eggs, bread and ground beef, four have seen prices remain roughly unchanged, or even saw their cost drop. Milk, bread, butter and bananas all are either cheaper than they were two years ago or about the same price. Butter had the steepest drop, from a high average of $5.53 per pound in 2022 to a low of $4.14 this year.

But when prices rise, as they have for eggs and beef, they tend to go up a lot.

Beef prices have risen locally almost 19% since 2022 thanks to historically low cattle inventory, while egg prices are up nearly 36% since we last checked, largely due to avian flu.

Avian flu is affecting your local store

The bare shelves at Whole Foods were accompanied by an apologetic sign: The Amazon-owned retailer is “currently experiencing difficulty sourcing eggs that meet our strict animal welfare standards.” The only two cartons available in the Mount Washington branch Tuesday evening were organic and pasture-raised, with a $9.99 price tag to match. That was more than twice the cost of a carton of white eggs at Giant, and far above the $2.79 per dozen we paid at Costco. But having pricey eggs may be better than having no eggs at all — our local Trader Joe’s was completely out of them.

Even those relatively lower numbers are still nearly twice the national average for the item in 2020. The main culprit behind the continued rise in price is bird flu, which since 2022 has affected more than 100 million chickens and other poultry. Cases have been found in dairy cows as well.

Got a quarter? It’s worth it to head to Aldi.

At Whole Foods, high egg prices pushed the total bill to $37.72, nearly twice what we spent at the cheapest store. That was also more than we spent at upmarket local retailer Graul’s Market, and over $10 more than our checkout total at Target.

Even as discount retailer Target is aiming to slash prices, the chain ranked in the top three most expensive stores we looked at. It was higher than grocery store Giant, and also more than Trader Joe’s.

As a card-carrying Costco Executive member, I noticed with smug satisfaction that the wholesale chain also offers some of the area’s lowest prices. But take those savings with a few caveats. Customers must pay annual membership fees that start at $65, and pretty everything comes in bulk. You may wind up playing Tetris in your freezer to ensure you have enough space for their affordably priced beef, or worse, end up wasting food that spoils.

The champion of cheap: Aldi — which ranked as the most affordable store in our 2022 roundup — is back with the lowest cart total. As it continues to expand its footprint in the U.S., the Europe-based chain has aggressively worked to undercut even its cheapest competitors, including Walmart. For Thanksgiving, Aldi is advertising a $47 “inflation-busting” meal. Like Costco, the chain keeps prices low by ditching amenities like bagging for groceries. But they also take things a step further by requiring customers to deposit a quarter to use a cart at one of their stores. One workaround? Order online.

Baltimore Banner reporters Matti Gellman, Rona Kobell, Danny Nguyen, Cody Boteler and Jess Nocera contributed to this article.