How pricing works.
Every dollar figure in CheckOut is an estimate built from real public data. No retailer publishes live item-level prices to third-party apps, so we don't pretend they do.
The two layers behind every price
- Base price. National average retail prices from USDA and BLS public datasets, refreshed on the same monthly cadence BLS uses.
- Store multiplier. A documented, citable index per store per category (Costco, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Market Basket, Aldi, Stop & Shop, Target, Walmart), sourced from Consumer Reports supermarket comparisons and published retail-pricing coverage. Reviewable, editable, dated.
When you enter a zip code, we also apply the BLS regional CPI multiplier for Northeast, Midwest, South, or West so estimates reflect where you actually shop.
Sources we use
Category-level national average retail food prices, updated monthly.
Quarterly retail prices by food group for extended pantry coverage.
Current national average prices for tracked staples (eggs, milk, bread, ground beef, and more).
Regional cost-of-living multipliers so prices reflect where you live when you supply a zip code.
Nutrition data (calories, protein, key nutrients) for every recipe ingredient.
What we do not do
- We do not call any retailer's live pricing API. None exist publicly.
- We do not fabricate specific dollar amounts to look precise.
- We do not silently substitute stale numbers when data is unavailable — we show the last successfully refreshed date.
Actual prices vary by location, season, and in-store promotions. Your plan is designed to land within the variance you choose, not to be a guaranteed final total.