Woman compares a 1997 grocery receipt to today’s prices — she was not ready for it
A blast from the past has been leaving people stunned on TikTok. A creator, Zoe Dippel (@zoedippel), took viewers back in time after coming across a grocery receipt from 1997. What was shocking was that the bill for a whopping 122 grocery items came out to be just $155, which left the creator's family and the viewers yearning for the good old times. Further analysis showed that the same items today cost $500, adding more contrast to the stark reality.
In her video, which has garnered over 2 million views on TikTok, Dippel showed her mother-in-law taking a look at her old grocery receipt, three decades later. The receipt was from H-E-B, a popular grocery chain in Texas. Dippel told Today that they found the receipt while going through an old baby book that her mother-in-law recently passed down to them. The receipt that seemed to be a mile long was dated June 20, 1997. She then read the list comprising various items like fruits and vegetables, all of which were about 25 cents. The bread cost about a dollar, and other items like baby food, diapers, disinfectants, and more. The time capsule revealed that the 122 everyday items cost just $155, which is almost unimaginable today.
“We were immediately shocked!" Dippel told the publication. "As we started reading off the prices, our jaws dropped…It wasn’t until that moment that I truly realized how much the world has changed in nearly 30 years," she added. The sentiment was shared by the netizens as well, many of whom took to the comments to share their shock and surprise. "$155 now is shampoo, conditioner, pads, frozen chicken nuggets, deodorant, spaghetti, and some Oreo cookies," commented @perfectandalwaysright. "The economy I was promised when being an adult 😭😭😭" joked @_ijennnni_.
Meanwhile, hundreds of commenters urged Dippel to make a fresh list and compare the cost of the items with 2025-26 prices. Dippel obliged, and in a follow-up video, she used H-E-B's app and the curbside pickup feature to add each item to her cart and find out the cost. She discovered that the price of Little Debbie’s brownies rose from $1.09 in 1997 to $5.75 today, while the price of a bag of coffee had jumped from $2.47 to $9.43. Diapers also rose sharply from $12.99 to $31.47. After accounting for the slight price difference for the pick-up order, the total came out to be a whopping $500, marking a 220% increase from the original receipt.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Inflation Calculator, the purchasing power of $1 in 1997 is equal to $2.02 as of November 2025. While that's a rise of only 102%, as per Today, the price of Dippel's grocery items rose at a much higher rate. The publication further noted that while the minimum wage rose from $4.75 in 1997 to $7.52 in 2025, to keep up with the prices, the minimum wage needs to be $15.30 an hour.
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