In the last twelve months, the rolling twelve-month average price of an iconic can of Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup went from $1.28 in January 2025 and hovered around that level through September 2025, but has since fallen to $1.21 per can as of January 2026. The price has fallen as several grocery stores and grocery-selling retailers have offered significantly discounted sale prices in recent months.

Roughly speaking, the average price in January 2026 is about twelve times what a can of Campbell's Tomato Soup cost when it was first launched into the American marketplace in January 1898. At ten cents a can, it held at or near that price all the way up through the 1960s and into the early 1970s. At least, until President Nixon's price controls on food in August 1971 were lifted in April 1974, after which its price exploded as it caught up to that era's high inflation. Inflation similar to that unleashed by the Biden administration in 2021.

Here are the retail prices available to U.S. consumers in January 2026 at ten of the nation's largest grocery-selling retailers and how they've changed since our October 2025 snapshot:

• Walmart: $1.07/each, decrease of $0.17 (-13.7%)
• Amazon: $1.00/each, decrease of $0.26 (-20.6%)
• Kroger: $1.00/each, decrease of $0.50 (-33.3%)
• Walgreens: $1.99/each, unchanged
• Target: $1.39/each, unchanged
• CVS: $2.49/each, unchanged
• Albertsons: $1.29/each, decrease of $0.40 (-23.7%)
• Food Lion: $1.25/each, unchanged
• H-E-B: $1.24/each, decrease of $0.07 (-5.3%)
• Meijer: $1.29/each, unchanged

These large price discounts are surprising. 2025 is a year in which tariffs were expected to contribute to inflation in the U.S. economy. For Campbell's Tomato Soup, that factor would have affected the price of the steel used to produce the soup cans for which The Campbell's Company (NYSE: CPB) has become famous, since they would be affected by the Trump administration's 25% tariff on imported steel.

But instead of increasing, the average price of a can of Campbell's condensed tomato soup remained largely steady until the last quarter of 2025. The Campbell's Company adjusted to the increased cost pressure from higher steel prices by seeking efficiencies throughout its production and supply chains. The end result of their efforts helped keep prices from rising as they might otherwise have in the absence of their cost reduction initiatives.

Our first chart presents our full price history for the retail price American consumers have encountered when shopping for a can of Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup from January 1898 through January 2026:
 

Since this chart spans an order of magnitude increase in the price of Campbell's Tomato Soup over its history, we have a chart showing how its price has changed over the last 128 years using a logarithmic scale, which makes it easier to see percentage changes over time.

Political Calculations has run a regular series about Campbell's Tomato Soup and how much it costs since 2015. We chose to research and flesh out the entire price history of this iconic product because it provides a unique window into how the effects of inflation have affected American consumers over time. What's more, you can follow this link" to find our most recent coverage, which if its more than three months after this article was first posted, will be much more recent than this article!

Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup is uniquely useful for assessing how inflation has affected prices over time because it has been consistently sold in grocery stores and supermarkets across the United States in the same size can ever since its introduction in January 1898. The company has sold its highly popular soup in a Number 1 (Picnic) size can that holds 10.75 fluid ounces throughout the product's history. Because it has, the effect of inflation on its cost to consumers cannot be hidden through marketing practices like shrinkflation, in which producers reduce the quantity of their product while keeping its shelf price the same.

It's also more than just the cost of soup on its own. Its cost includes the equipment to condense the soup by removing water without removing flavor so it can be cooked at consumer homes, which was vital to its commercial success. The steel and other materials that goes into the cans in which its packaged and preserved. The paper and ink for its trademark labeling. The specially developed tomatoes that make the base of the soup and the spices that flavor it. The fuel and vehicles it takes to transport it from where it's made to everywhere it's sold.

And of course, the ingenuity and labor of everyone from John T. Dorrance who invented the technology to make affordable condensed soups in 1897 to all the people who worked to make, distribute, sell, or who have invested their time and effort to improve and make it more efficiently in all the years since.

Because all these things go into making each of the 85 million cans of Campbell's Tomato Soup that American consumers buy every year, it also provides a window into seeing how things like steel tariffs affect how its price changes. Or how its price changes with recessions or pandemics.

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