Staggering amount Kevin’s grocery shop in Home Alone would cost today
Joe Yates
Featured Image Credit: 20th Century Studios
If you needed another reminder that everything is wildly more expensive these days, Home Alone has got you covered.
With Christmas creeping up fast, people are once again settling in for a festive rewatch of the 1990 classic.
The film, which first hit screens 35 years ago, stars a baby-faced Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister - an eight-year-old accidentally left home alone who somehow survives a break-in using household items and pure chaos.
Most fans remember Home Alone for the outrageous traps Kevin sets for unlucky burglars Harry and Marv (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern). Paint cans, blowtorches, irons to the face - the list goes on. But one much quieter scene has been catching people’s attention each year, and it has nothing to do with physical pain.
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It’s Kevin’s trip to the supermarket.
Early in the film, Kevin confidently heads out to buy groceries, chats with the cashier like a grown adult, hands over a coupon and walks away feeling victorious. At the time, it just felt like a fun moment showing how independent he’d become. Watching it back now? Not so much.
Kevin’s shopping list is incredibly normal. We’re talking a TV dinner, a loaf of bread, frozen mac and cheese, cling film, half a gallon of milk, half a gallon of orange juice, laundry detergent, dryer sheets and a pack of toy army soldiers. Not exactly a massive weekly shop - just basics, plus a small treat.
After using a $1 coupon, Kevin pays $19.83 - and even just adjusted for inflation, that amount would land $36.94 in 2025.
USA Today has crunched the numbers and its calculations reveal that the amount to purchase each item would be $52.95 before tax - an eye-watering 167 percent increase in 35 years.
Now, while that's pricey, it's still cheaper than what TikToker Geoffrey Lyons worked out when he marked up the exact same items in a supermarket back in 2023.
Running through the list, he revealed: “What does that come down to? The grand total of $63.73. Add on tax - $5.25 - and put it together, you get $68.99.”
Take away Kevin’s dollar coupon and you’re still looking at just under $68 for the same groceries - that’s nearly three and a half times what Kevin paid in the film.
So if you're out there, Mr Lyons, we need you to price up the same items from the same supermarket you visited two years ago and let us know what we're dealing with!