CNN – Restaurant prices are way up. You might want to head to the supermarket.
- “If you’re watching your budget, it might be time to skip the drive-thru and head to the supermarket.
- In the 12 months through October, higher restaurant prices drove food prices above overall inflation, even as grocery prices were relatively low.
- For the year, grocery prices rose 2.1%, according to Consumer Price Index data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But menu prices were up 5.4%, driven largely by a 6.2% rise at limited-service restaurants, which include fast food and fast casual spots. At full-service restaurants, where servers take your order at the table, prices were up 4.3% for the year, according to the BLS.
- Fast food and fast casual have hiked prices, such as CMG raised prices 13% annually, MCD 10%.
Food altogether rose 3.3%, just above an overall price increase of 3.2%.
Many fast food and fast casual places say they’ve seen some benefit from customers trading down from pricier options. For those businesses, higher prices have not led to lower sales.
Chipotle, for example, said in October that it would raise prices again. The year before, it had said prices were up about 13% annually. And when the company reported earnings later that month, it warned that it might raise prices yet again in California, blaming a new law that raises minimum wages for fast food and fast casual workers in the state.”
Skyrocketing restaurant prices outpace grocery costs: What it means for consumers
Restaurants are going bustpic.twitter.com/Y481ScRLf2
— Win Smart, CFA (@WinfieldSmart) November 20, 2023