Missouri
Cities Offer Up
Some of the Best Bargains
Missouri cities were some of the least expensive places to purchase items in the Cost of Living Survey produced by ACCRA for the 2nd quarter of 2005. Prices were collected for 57 items in 281 cities in the United States. Seven Missouri cities participated in the survey in the 2nd quarter: Cape Girardeau, Columbia, Jefferson City, Joplin, Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield. At least one of these cities ranked 10th or better for the lowest price on 21 different items.
For
the night's dinner, one could have purchased a T-bone steak for
$6.48 per pound in Joplin (8th lowest price), ground beef for $1.65
per pound in Columbia (ranked 9th), or a can of tuna in Jefferson
City for $0.52 (ranked 4th).
Side
dishes could have been potatoes from Springfield for $1.59 for a 10
pound bag (ranked 4th), a can of sweet peas from Jefferson City for
$0.61 (ranked 9th), a head of lettuce from Joplin for $0.92 (ranked
7th), or a bag of potato chips from Jefferson City, the least
expensive city in the survey for chips at $1.50.
Or
if one prefers not to cook, a frozen meal in Joplin was only $1.55
(ranked 5th) and pizza in Springfield was just $8.24 (ranked 4th).
When
it's time to shop for household items, Kansas City is the place to
start with toothpaste for $1.75 (ranked 2nd), while Jefferson City
had $0.87 bottles of shampoo (ranked 5th) and Joplin had ibuprofen
for $4.60 (ranked 10th).
For
recreation, look no further than Cape Girardeau with tennis balls
for $1.84 (ranked 4th).
Before
starting on this journey around the state in search of the cheapest
prices, be sure to have the front tires balanced in Joplin for $5.17
each (ranked 4th) and fill up the gas tank in St. Louis where the
price of gas during the survey was $2.06, the 8th lowest price at
the time.
Read the Department of Economic Development's press
release.
