Price tags · Puzzle #29 · Wednesday, October 28

Price tags: the answers

Four questions, each with one true number. Here they are with their answers, how to reason each one out, and where the number comes from. Play today's Price tags.

1. 1. A July 4th cookout for 10: What did a classic Fourth of July cookout for 10 people cost in 2026, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation's survey?

   

   On the menu

   Cheeseburgers, chicken, pork chops, chips, potato salad, lemonade and ice cream

   The answer: about $74. That made it the priciest July 4th cookout since the Farm Bureau began the survey in 2016.

   1. 10guests at the cookout
   2. ×$8of food each

   ≈$80

   The answer comes to about $74 (American Farm Bureau Federation). To reason it out, take 10 guests at the cookout, times $8 of food each, and you get about $80. The estimate is 1.1 times too high, close enough to score 9.7 out of 10. Because only the ratio counts, anything between $37 and $150 was worth 7.0 or more.

   Source: American Farm Bureau Federation, Fourth of July Cookout Costs Reflect Inflation

2. 2. A day at Kroger: How much did Kroger and its sister supermarkets sell on an average day in 2025?

   Stores

   About 2,700, under names like Kroger, Ralphs, Fred Meyer and King Soopers

   Counts

   Groceries, pharmacy and fuel

   The answer: about $405 million. Kroger delivered more than $16 billion of its 2025 sales through eCommerce.

   1. 2,700stores in all
   2. ×2,000shoppers a store each day
   3. ×$60a cart

   ≈$324M

   The true figure is about $405 million (The Kroger Co.). Without looking anything up, take 2,700 stores in all, times 2,000 shoppers a store each day, times $60 a cart, and you get about $320 million. It's 1.3 times too low, which as a guess would still have scored 9.0 out of 10. The target is wider than it looks: every guess between $200 million and $810 million scores at least 7.0.

   Source: The Kroger Co. (press release via PR Newswire), Kroger Reports Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2025 Results and Announces Guidance for 2026

3. 3. Monet's Meules (Haystacks): What did Claude Monet's 1890 painting Meules (Haystacks) sell for at Sotheby's in New York in May 2019?

   

   What

   One of 25 paintings in Monet's Haystacks series, completed in 1890

   Rarity

   One of the few in the series still in private hands

   Sold

   Sotheby's, New York, May 2019

   The answer: $110.7 million. Sotheby's said it was the first Impressionist work to sell for more than $100 million at auction.

   Napkin math: Monet is the most famous Impressionist, and the Haystacks are his signature series, so somewhere around $100 million is plausible.

   The real answer is $110.7 million (CNBC, as of May 2019). With no neat arithmetic to lean on, start with the order of magnitude: this one is in the hundreds of millions. Because only the ratio counts, anything between $55 million and $220 million was worth 7.0 or more.

   Source: CNBC, Monet 'Meules' painting sells for record $110.7 million at auction

4. 4. A year of America's food: How much did Americans spend on food in 2025, counting groceries and restaurants, according to the USDA?

   

   Counts spending by

   Consumers, businesses and government

   Bigger share

   Food away from home

   The answer: about $2.51 trillion. Food away from home made up $1.41 trillion of it, more than the $1.10 trillion spent on food at home.

   1. 330Mpeople in the US
   2. ×$15of food each a day
   3. ×365days a year

   ≈$1.81T

   The answer comes to about $2.51 trillion (USDA Economic Research Service). Without looking anything up, take 330 million people in the US, times $15 of food each a day, times 365 days a year, and you get about $1.8 trillion. That comes out 1.4 times too low, and a guess that far off still scores 8.6 out of 10. The target is wider than it looks: every guess between $1.3 trillion and $5 trillion scores at least 7.0.

   Source: USDA Economic Research Service, Total food spending reached $2.51 trillion in 2025

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