What you're making
A grocery price index is a fixed basket of everyday items priced the same way at every store, so the comparison is honest: where the identical cart is cheapest, where it costs the most, and by how much, across Bushwick, Ridgewood, and the blocks around them. Bushwick Daily ran versions of this in 2017 and 2021. You are building the 2026 edition — better sourced, more current, and tied to a live policy fight.
What a finished piece owes the reader is narrow and demanding: the same items measured the same way at every store, every number traceable to a photograph and a spreadsheet row, real voices — an owner, an economist — explaining why the gaps exist, and a clear takeaway about where to shop and what it means. Consistency is the whole game: same basket, same rules, same week, every store.
Why it matters right now
Grocery affordability is the local story of the year, and a good index drops hard numbers into it. Food prices across the New York metro have outrun the national rate; Mayor Mamdani is standing up city-owned grocery stores built around a "core basket of staples"; and Amazon is redrawing the grocery map — winding down Fresh and Go, expanding Whole Foods, and pushing same-day delivery. Your basket is a ground-level version of the "core staples" the city says it can make cheaper.
That paragraph is my answer, and I owe it to you because I'm the one assigning the question. But "why does this matter, right now" is not settled — it's the question your reporting has to answer. Treat what I wrote as a hypothesis to verify, sharpen, or throw out, not a conclusion to inherit. Your angle is yours to find.
Who does what
- The two of youResearch, report, collect the prices, run the analysis, write, and promote. Split the labor however you like — but review each other's work, because two sets of eyes are the cheapest error-check you have.
- The CoordinatorTeaches each phase, unblocks you, reviews every deliverable, and does the final edit and sign-off before anything publishes. One person is both your coach and your editor; everything routes to them.
How it works
Nine phases, in order. You plan a phase, submit it, and get it approved before the next one starts — the pitch and the methodology in particular are not skipped ahead of.
The Google Drive folder is the index. Submit each deliverable there and mark it done; the Coordinator reviews and approves, then you move on. (Drive link added here when the folder is live.)
The phases
Each phase has its own worksheet — open it, plan your work in it, and submit it. Everything you produce is listed below.