The Brief

What brings Greg Reyes to this Walmart south of Savannah are the low prices. He and his wife keep a close eye on their limited budget; she's retired and he's disabled. Their grocery list is always the same. But the prices have been changing.

"I used to pay like $40 a year ago, and now we're paying like $60," Reyes says. In his bags today are some chicken, turkey and beef. Other things simply had to go. "We don't buy ice cream no more because it's expensive," Reyes says. "It's kind of sad, but we have to do it like that."

The cost of living in the U.S. rose 2.7% in December compared with a year before, according to Tuesday's federal data. That's a steady slowdown after a yearslong stretch of intense inflation, but still painful. The past year also brought a global trade war, as President Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on nearly all imports. And the world continued to grapple with extreme weather, from droughts to downpours.

All of this is showing up in our shopping carts.

Since 2018, NPR has tracked the prices of dozens of items at this suburban Walmart superstore. Walmart is America's most popular retailer and the world's largest, which gives it the power to negotiate with suppliers for some of the lowest and most stable prices.

Here's what we learned on our latest price-check visit, in December. (Or skip the analysis to see the full details of NPR's shopping cart.)

Prices in NPR's basket rose 5% on average last year

Almost half the items on NPR's shopping list got more expensive in 2025, including shrimp, Oreo cookies, Coca-Cola and Dove soap. Some price increases, notably on items made in China and Vietnam, appear to be tariff related. Other price hikes had to do with weather events affecting harvests of crops such as cacao and coffee beans.

Just under a quarter of the items on NPR's list got cheaper, including eggs, milk and Cheerios. And many packaged foods stayed the same after years of price hikes.

As affordability became Americans' top concern, big brands began to worry about shoppers switching to store-label competitors or skipping some purchases altogether. To entice weary shoppers, NPR found, Walmart offered more discounts in December than it had in previous years.

A few disclaimers about our method:

• We went through almost every aisle in this Walmart to come up with the 114 items. (The full table is below.) To account for possible changes in package sizes, we focused on the price per unit, whether it was an ounce of salsa or a square foot of aluminum foil.
  
• NPR reached out to the producers of all the items on our list that changed in price. Most companies did not respond. The few that did — including Kikkoman and Campbell's — noted that Walmart, as the retailer, has ultimate control over the prices that shoppers see on shelves.
  
• A Walmart spokesperson said in a statement: "We remain dedicated to providing our customers Every Day low prices, with the goal of having the lowest price on a basket of goods over time." A store, for example, might extract deals from suppliers or charge slightly more for several items in order to sell something else at a break-even price or even below cost.

Tariffs loom over store shelves

With tariffs being the biggest story in retail in 2025, signs of their impact inevitably showed up in Walmart's aisles. Though it's hard to pin any price increase on tariffs with certainty, the through line was noticeable.

Some of the biggest price jumps were on items imported from countries saddled with hefty tariffs: Walmart's store-brand paper folders made in China (up 46%), swai fish fillets from Vietnam (up 34%), Farberware's plastic measuring spoons made in China (up 19%) and Schwinn's infant bike helmet, which used to be made in China but is now made in Vietnam (up 18%).

Walmart, Farberware and Schwinn did not comment on the impact of tariffs to NPR, but several other companies did. Dole, whose canned pineapple from Southeast Asia got 25% more expensive, cited weather-related crop shortages and tariffs on goods imported from the region.

Reynolds Wrap, whose aluminum foil rose in price by 13%, called out "historic and sustained cost increases over the past year, driven by tariffs, global supply pressures, rising energy costs, and limited availability." Much of U.S. aluminum comes from Canada, and these imports now face a 50% tax.

Walmart in May warned that new tariffs would lead to higher prices, as Trump threatened 145% tariffs on goods from China. The White House later paused, changed up and even rolled back some of its trade plans, namely on food items. By August, Walmart officials said tariff costs were rising "each week," although the company was able to mitigate many of them. In November, incoming Walmart CEO John Furner said tariffs brought "less impact" than expected early in the year.

Climate chaos roiled many industries

Some of the items with the worst price hikes are repeat offenders: coffee, beef and chocolate. They, too, were affected by tariffs — such as beef and coffee coming from Brazil — but the main culprit was the weather.

At this Walmart, the price of Maxwell House ground Colombian coffee rose by 46% in 2025 and its breakfast K-Cups by 34%. The costs of Hershey's and Lindt chocolates jumped around 26%. A pound of ground beef went up 30%, and the store now prominently displays a cheaper option: a blend of beef and ground pork.

The cost of coffee beans has soared as climate change has brought erratic rainfall patterns, floods and droughts to farmlands. Cacao harvests, too, have come up short for three years straight; West African farmers, who grow most of the world's supply, have dealt with extreme weather, changing climate patterns and disease in their aging trees. And the U.S. beef supply is at its lowest in decades, driving cattle prices to record highs, in part because of drought.

Kraft Heinz (which owns Maxwell House), Hershey and Lindt & Sprüngli in statements all cited the unprecedented higher costs of key raw materials, adding that they've also absorbed or offset part of those costs.

Shrinkflation continues in the laundry aisle

When inflation peaked after the COVID-19 pandemic, some manufacturers stealthily raised prices by shrinking their products — shampoo, paper towels, chips and candy — while charging the same or slightly more. In 2022, for example, NPR's Walmart visit found that Dove soap bars had shrunk by a quarter of an ounce, while rising in price by a few cents. (Dove maker Unilever did not comment.)

Last month, NPR spotted one case of shrinkflation: Tide laundry detergent. But the company says it's actually efficiency.

NPR first spotted Tide selling less laundry detergent per bottle in 2022: The amount of liquid had shrunk to 92 ounces from 100 ounces before the pandemic, and the price had risen by a dollar. After that, the cost stayed the same, but the contents shrank to 84 ounces in 2024 and then to 80 ounces in December.

The label continuously promised enough detergent for 64 loads of laundry.

Procter & Gamble, which makes Tide as well as Head & Shoulders shampoo (whose price rose almost 18%), told NPR that both products saw "meaningful upgrades" in the past year. Tide specifically got the "most significant upgrade to its liquid formula in over 20 years," according to the company, with a "boosted" level of active cleaning ingredients and updated dosage instructions.

"The result is superior cleaning performance in a smaller dose," a Procter & Gamble representative said.

Good news! Some things are cheaper

The biggest price drop finally came for eggs after record highs earlier in the year due to the persistent bird flu. By December, the price of a dozen eggs at Walmart dropped 30%. The cost of butter also dipped, by almost 16%, thanks to a glut in dairy production.

And as inflation-weary shoppers tighten their belts, brands have started doing something they rarely do: lowering prices. PepsiCo (maker of Lay's, Cheetos and Tostitos) last month said it would cut prices to boost sales. General Mills (maker of Cheerios, Betty Crocker and Annie's) also confirmed it plans to discount roughly two-thirds of its offerings. NPR's price check found Cheerios costing 19% less than a year ago.

A Walmart spokesperson also told NPR that the chain has added more discounts (or "rollbacks," in Walmart parlance) than it had in the past two years. The company cited 13,000 of them in the first three quarters of 2025, of which about 2,000 became permanent price cuts.

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If you're online, anywhere adjacent to the World Cup, you'll see that the Argentina team, which will play England in the semifinals Wednesday, is attracting a lot of criticism.

It can be largely grouped into two categories: soccer and culture. In soccer, Argentina’s comeback win against Egypt last week prompted accusations, including from Egypt’s head coach, that the FIFA referees in that match favored Argentina.

Meanwhile, cultural clichés online accuse Argentines of being arrogant and looking down on other Latin Americans.

“I get sad,  I must say, that when I see that, it hurts me a little bit, to be honest,” said San Fernando Valley resident Roxana Lissa. She was born and raised in Argentina and moved to the U.S. more than 30 years ago.

But she's used to it.

“The thing about Argentines is we have such thick skin,” Lissa said.

California’s Argentine population has grown in the past couple of decades. The state is now home to the second-largest concentration of Argentines in the U.S. after Florida.

Exclusion by other Latinos

The negative comments are not new, but social media has fueled them into a firestorm.

Some Argentines in Southern California say they’ve not seen negativity this bad against their culture before.

Mariana Ferrero, who moved to the U.S. from Argentina when she was 13 years old, said the comments are opening old wounds of exclusion by other Latino immigrants in Southern California.

“What bothers me is [the criticism] goes beyond soccer. It's more of saying, "Oh, you're Argentinian. You're not a real Latina,'” Ferrero said.

She says many Latinos assume she’s privileged because she’s lighter skinned.

But Ferrero says her background is not like that at all. Argentina’s struggling economy led Ferrero’s parents to leave their home, their language and their country.

“We packed up. We came here. We lived with nothing in a tiny one-bedroom apartment, worked really hard, odd jobs,” she said.

Ferrero has some explanation for the hostility, however.

“I think some of it is just a perception that we come from a country that tends to be proud and tends to be loud and tends to be boisterous about our wins and about our accomplishments. And let me tell you, there's not many of them,” Ferrero said.

Since soccer prowess is one of those few wins, she says she and other Argentines are going to take this World Cup as an opportunity to be loud and proud.

IRL people love Argentines

Ferrero and Lissa say people who’ve visited Argentina gush to them about the warmth and hospitality of its people and the country’s beauty. And few people question that Argentina soccer star Lionel Messi is one of the greatest soccer players of all time.

“I was wearing my Argentina jersey,” Lissa said of a visit during the World Cup to L.A.’s Guelaguetza Oaxacan restaurant to watch Mexico play.

“People were coming to me and saying, 'I love Messi. I love Messi.' And I felt for the first time, 'Damn, I'm not being criticized,'” she said.

Pablo Baler, a professor of Latin American literature at CSU L.A., says the disconnect during this World Cup may be that people don’t believe Argentina represents the underdog soccer nations of Latin America anymore.

“At times, [the team] can feel more like a corporation than a national team, but the country it represents was in many ways the victim of the same imperial powers now competing for the title: France, England and Spain,” he said.

Baler grew up in Argentina and has many Latin American friends. He doesn’t believe the negativity against his homeland will tarnish its reputation. He said a Nicaraguan friend said to him this week that he’s proud Argentina made it to the World Cup semifinals because the team is “one of us.”

Topline

The background: In June, the City Council voted to establish the moratorium as city staff drafted a proposal for a permanent citywide ban. At the time, the moratorium was authorized for 45 days.

The issue first made its way to city hall earlier this year after a group of neighbors raised concerns that a proposed new In-N-Out in Culver City could hurt air quality and create safety issues for pedestrians.

Status of the proposed ban: Culver City staff wrote in a report to City Council this week that they’ve begun drafting a potential permanent ban on new drive-thrus citywide.

The proposal will first go to the city’s planning commission, a five-person body that makes recommendations to the City Council on development and zoning matters in the city, then head to the City Council for a final vote. Those dates have not yet been set.

One councilmember left door open for a different approach: At Monday’s meeting, Councilmember Albert Vera, who was among the four votes supporting the moratorium extension, said he would be open to seeing recommendations from the planning commission that don’t ban drive-thrus citywide outright.

The contractor building the long-awaited LAX People Mover project has filed a lawsuit alleging the city of L.A. breached its contract in several disputes.

In the suit, filed with the L.A. County Superior Court on July 9, LINXS alleges the city is misplacing blame in construction-related disputes and refusing to extend contract deadlines. LINXS also alleges it’s owed additional payment for the work as a result of the delays.

The project, a 2.25-mile-long elevated train designed to transport riders between airport terminals and local transit, is currently undergoing testing. Work on the train is scheduled to be complete “in a few months,” according to a June interview with Los Angeles World Airports CEO John Ackerman on the L.A. in a Minute podcast.

Chief among the disputes detailed in the lawsuit is one involving repairs to faulty electrical equipment in the system that powers the train, resulting in testing delays last year. LAist reported on this dispute last November and in April.

A spokesperson for LINXS said it has attempted to engage in “extensive good-faith efforts over the past two years” to resolve the ongoing contractual disputes.

A spokesperson for Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that manages LAX, said the agency does not comment on pending litigation. They added that the agency remains committed to “delivering a safe, durable and reliable” train as soon as possible.

The L.A. City Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In its lawsuit, LINXS said that by not granting the contractor’s compensation and time-extension requests, the city is attempting to evade accountability for the delayed train, which was once expected to open in 2023 and is nearly a billion dollars over budget.

The contractor warned in its lawsuit that without an extension of contract deadlines, it might be forced to repay lenders who financed the project as soon as this fall. In that case, the contractor said in its lawsuit that it could become “insolvent and unable to perform,” adding that possibility would have “catastrophic consequences.”

Dispute over metering cabinet

Last February, staff from Los Angeles World Airports and the city’s Department of Water and Power directed LINXS to repair equipment in a metering cabinet that had degraded due to moisture and debris, as LAist previously reported.

LINXS completed the repair work, which required power to be partially shut down between February and July 2025. That temporary power disruption delayed critical testing of the technology that allows for central control of the People Mover’s systems.

LINXS said last year, and also in the current lawsuit, that the repair work is not in its scope of work. As a result, the contractor has said it's owed compensation and a minimum of a 141-day extension to complete construction.

“Since then, [Los Angeles World Airports] has stonewalled the discussions of [LINXS’] compensation and a time extension,” the contractor alleges in its lawsuit.

LINXS, citing information it received from a public records request, alleges the issue stemmed from an instance where LADWP opened the metering cabinet in September 2024 to rectify design issues with the equipment contained in it.

Whereas past disputes between LINXS and the airport were resolved through settlements that have so far totaled hundreds of millions of dollars and resulted in schedule extensions, the dispute over maintaining electrical equipment has been uniquely contentious.

“Other relief events that we’ve dealt with up to this point … we could agree there were some things that were not totally within LINXS’ control,” Jake Adams, an airport executive who is overseeing $5.5 billion in LAX upgrades, said in an interview with LAist in April. “This relief event is very different. We believe there is absolutely no merit to this claim.”

The lawsuit also alleges that the contractor is owed additional time and money for several other ongoing disputes, including that Los Angeles World Airports is refusing to sign a power agreement with LADWP for solar panels installed as part of the People Mover project and that workers on separate airport projects have “demolished” work LINXS completed for the train.

What’s the status of the People Mover?

The People Mover is operating in a testing phase where it simulates how the train will operate when it begins shuttling travelers between airport terminals and the L.A. Metro system.

The testing of the train won’t be impacted by the lawsuit, a spokesperson for Los Angeles World Airports told LAist.

A hearing on the case filed last week has been scheduled for December, according to the L.A. County Superior Court’s website.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will pause non-urgent vehicle stops after two deadly shootings in less than a week, Maine Sen. Angus King's office tells NPR.

King spokesman Matthew Felling says the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the policy shift. Maine Sen. Susan Collins also posted Tuesday on X that she had called for change.

"I spoke with DHS Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin last night and urged him to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops," she wrote.

DHS told NPR in a statement that it will not "disclose or discuss law enforcement tactics," and it's unclear what this change will look like in practice.

The most recent death happened Monday in Biddeford, Maine, where ICE agents tried to pull over the car of 26-year-old Joan Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national.

"The vehicle attempted to flee the scene, and fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon," DHS said in a statement. However, the agency has not provided any evidence to back the claims. The agents were not wearing body cameras.

Last week, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot by agents in Houston after they attempted to pull him over. The Department of Homeland Security says Salgado Araujo tried to use his van as a weapon, prompting an agent to fire their weapon. But passengers in the van have disputed this account.

Paul Hunker, the former chief counsel of ICE in Dallas, told NPR the standards and principles of when to discharge a firearm are clear.

"I was an attorney for the officers — the person has to pose an imminent threat of harm to use deadly force," Hunker said.

He said whether the person poses an imminent threat is always from the perspective of the officer.

DHS policy

The Department of Homeland Security's policy says deadly force cannot be used solely to prevent someone from fleeing … unless the person poses a significant threat of death or serious physical harm to the agent or others.

DHS accused Salgado Araujo of weaponizing his car against the ICE officer. In Maine, the agency said Durán Guerrero posed a public safety threat.

But in these cases, there hasn't been video evidence to back up those allegations.

The latest development has been welcomed by former DHS officials who said a reset is needed in order to regain the trust of the public and ensure no more lives are lost.

"That person could flee and present a big danger to people around them … that's one of the reasons I think there are few vehicle chases because of the danger and the harm that could happen if one of those goes bad." Hunker said.

He said in the past, ICE's preference has been to assume custody of the undocumented immigrants who were already in jails, making it safer for the agents.

Sarah Saldaña, a former ICE acting director under President Barack Obama, said the shift in policy is a good start.

"I think it's a very practical thing to do until the agency can get its officers more properly trained and attuned to what their effort is," Saldaña said. "Immigration enforcement should not be a deadly endeavor — it should be a method by which to make sure that people are complying with the law."

Despite the shift in policy, there are a lot of outstanding questions about what led to the fatal shootings of Salgado Araujo in Houston last week, and of Durán Guerrero in Maine this week.

None of the federal immigration agents were wearing body cameras, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

After the shooting of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January, DHS vowed to quickly deploy body cameras to federal immigration agents nationwide.

But that hasn't happened.

The agency is blaming Democrats in Congress and the partial government shutdowns for this. But it is, again, vowing to deploy body cameras for all agents in the next 60 days.

That footage would have been key to knowing whether the agents followed protocol or not, and to hold the agents accountable, said Lauren Bonds, the executive director of the nonprofit National Police Accountability Project.

"Luckily in both instances there were witnesses, independent witnesses, that observed some things and were able to share some information," Bonds said. "But it's really hard to be able to hold ICE agents accountable in any manner if all we're getting from DHS right now is kind of vague statements about the car being used in a way that was either threatening the ICE agents or, in the case of Maine, threatening the public."

Bonds said the public needs to keep demanding answers and independent investigations to create a change in policy — like the pause on traffic stops made public Tuesday.

NPR's Meg Anderson contributed reporting.