ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — It’s been 32 years since Kevin McCallister, played by Macaulay Culkin, made a trip to the supermarket for supplies in the 1990 film “Home Alone.”
Kevin’s outing cost him $19.83 for milk, bread, toilet paper, laundry detergent, fabric softener, cling wrap, macaroni and cheese, a turkey TV dinner, orange juice and a bag of plastic Army men.
TikTok user Rochelle Chalmers decided to duplicate the order by selecting items from the Kroger website. Her total in 2022 dollars was $44.40.
A test of Rochelle’s experiment at a local food store yielded some interesting results.
While supply chain struggles are still leaving some shelves bare, we were able to grab all but one item Kevin bought in the film at the Rockford Schnucks location on Charles Street in Rockford, Illinois, roughly 90 miles outside Chicago (where the film is set).
The store was completely out of Snuggle dryer sheets, which the chain sells for $6.09, so we grabbed a bottle of Snuggle Blue Sparkle fabric softener for $7.49 to keep branding as consistent as possible.
Kevin bought a four-roll pack of Quilted Northern toilet paper in “Home Alone,” but a four-pack was nowhere to be found in any brand. The Quilted Northern six-roll pack Schnucks sells for $6.09 was also out, so we chose a six-pack of Essential Everyday Ultra Soft TP for $9.84.
Schnucks doesn’t carry Wonder Bread at the moment, so we opted for a loaf of Butternut white for $2.79.
Here’s the rest of our order: 52-ounce jug of Tropicana orange juice, $5.14; half-gallon of Prairie Farms whole milk, $4.29; Glad cling wrap, $2.64; 46-ounce Tide original detergent, $10.64; Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, $1.69; and a Stouffer’s Roast Turkey frozen dinner for $3.
Our subtotal was $47.52, $50.20 with tax. Add the bag of Army men we ordered from Amazon and we gave a total of $57.27. That’s not too far off how the U.S. Inflation Calculator has tracked price increases over the last 30 years.
According to the calculator, goods that cost $19.83 in 1990 are $45.03 today.
NewsNation’s Nick Smith also tested this experiment at a local Chicago grocery store, Happy Foods. The total cost of Kevin’s goods in Chicago came out to be $72.28 with tax, a difference of $52.45 from 1990.
Economists say food prices could continue to creep up even higher as the holidays approach. The Consumer Price Index shows that all food has increased by 0.7 percent from August to September of this year while prices are 11.2 percent higher than they were in September 2021.
The United States Department of Agriculture reported in October that food prices are expected to increase between 3 and 4 percent in 2023.
NewsNation’s Devan Markham contributed to this report.