TRACKING TIME SERIES PRICE VARIATION IS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE TO GOVERNMENTS, INDUSTRIES, RESEARCHERS AND CONSUMERS FOR INFLATION SURVEILLANCE, AND COST-OF-LIVING (COL) ADJUSTMENTS TO SALARY AND WAGE, PUBLIC SAFETY NET PROGRAM PAYMENTS, AND OTHER INCOME PAYMENTS. OF EQUAL IMPORTANCE IS THE WITHIN-COUNTRY COMPARISON OF PRICES ACROSS LOCATIONS. HOWEVER, THE LATTER IS DONE LESS OFTEN BECAUSE OF A PREVIOUS LACK OF PROPER DATA. THE ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE OF SPATIAL PRICE DIFFERENCE HAS BEEN DEMONSTRATED FOR FEDERAL TAX DISTORTION (ALBOUY 2009), POVERTY RANKING (JOLLIFFE 2006), AND PURCHASING POWER OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLE VOUCHER UNDER THE WOMEN, INFANTS, AND CHILDREN (WIC) PROGRAM (?AKIR ET AL. 2018) AND FOOD BENEFIT UNDER THE SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP) (ZHEN ET AL. 2018A). A COL INDEX - THE TYPE ECONOMISTS ARE MOST INTERESTED IN - IS AN INDEX THAT TRACKS CHANGES IN THE COST OF MAINTAINING A FIXED STANDARD OF LIVING. A PANEL INDEX TRACKS TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL COST VARIATIONS SIMULTANEOUSLY.THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO DEVELOP A PUBLIC-USE PANEL PRICE DATABASE AT THE USDA FOOD CODE LEVEL FOR SMALL AREAS IN THE CONTIGUOUS UNITED STATES OVER THE 2008&MINUS;2017 PERIOD. TO THIS END, WE WILL LEVERAGE BIG DATA ON SALES AND PURCHASES OF 450,000 FOOD BARCODES AT OVER 40,000 FOOD RETAILERS AND BY 60,000 HOUSEHOLDS, THE CONSUMER EXPENDITURE SURVEY (CES), SURVEY SAMPLING METHODS, STATE-OF-THE-ART SCANNER DATA-BASED PANEL PRICE INDEXES, AND ADVANCED GIS TOOLS. THE PRICE DATABASE WILL BE POSITIONED TO SUPPORT A BROAD SPECTRUM OF RESEARCH ON FOOD AND NUTRITION POLICY, FOOD MARKET AND PRICE, AND CONSUMER DEMAND. AS A PUBLIC GOOD, THIS DATABASE WILL BE A VALUABLE ADDITION TO, BUT NOT A DUPLICATE OF, EXISTING FOOD PRICE STATISTICS REPORTED BY THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS (BLS), BUREAU OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS (BEA), ECONOMIC RESEARCH SERVICE (ERS), AND COUNCIL FOR COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH (C2ER). WE WILL DEMONSTRATE THE UTILITY OF THE DATABASE WITH AN APPLICATION TO TESTING CONSISTENT AGGREGATION OF FOOD CODES INTO FEWER FOOD GROUPS FOR CONSUMER DEMAND ANALYSIS.