Sticker Shock data and methodology

Where Sticker Shock’s prices come from: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics average price data and CPI-U, with how annual averages are built.

Where the prices come from

Every price in Sticker Shock comes from the Average Price Data published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Each month the Bureau collects prices for common foods, household fuels and motor fuel in cities across the country and publishes a U.S. city average for each item. We use those national averages, not prices from any single store or region.

How yearly prices are calculated

For each item and year we take the average of the monthly prices from January through December. A year is included only when at least nine months of data exist, so a year with gaps does not produce a misleading number. Prices are rounded to the cent, except prices under one dollar, which keep a third decimal place so small unit prices such as electricity per kilowatt-hour stay meaningful.

Which items and years are included

The game uses about forty everyday items with a long price history, covering the years 1980 through 2025. Earlier Bureau series are not directly comparable with modern ones, so we start in 1980. An item is included only if it has at least fifteen valid yearly prices. As a basic quality check, any year whose price jumps to more than three times or falls below a third of the previous year is left out.

Today’s dollars

To show what an old price means now, we adjust it with the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), using its annual averages. A price from a given year is multiplied by the ratio of the 2025 index to that year’s index. This reflects overall inflation, not the specific history of the item, which is exactly why comparing the adjusted price with the item’s current price is interesting.

Limitations

National averages hide large regional differences. Items and package sizes change over time, and the Bureau occasionally revises or discontinues series. Some items stop before 2025; for those, the most recent year shown is the last year with data. Likewise, some items start after 1980 because the Bureau began publishing them later, such as whole milk from 1996 and navel oranges from 2003. Those are the first years with at least nine months of Bureau prices; the Bureau collected some of these items earlier, in too few months to make a yearly average. The numbers are suitable for learning and play, but they may contain errors.

Every price the game uses is published year by year, with charts and inflation-adjusted values, on the historical price pages.

Updates and fairness

The set of items chosen for a published puzzle never changes. Figures may be refreshed when the dataset is updated. To report a problem, email hello@guessday.com with the puzzle number.

Attribution and independence

Price and inflation data are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a United States government agency, and are in the public domain. Guessday is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Bureau or any retailer. Nothing on this site is financial advice.