Reminder this thread is in the cafe. Please start a new thread about the politics of inflation in the PF. Thank you!
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So from around 9-10 percent to 11.3 percent. An increase to be sure but not monumental.
Americans are fattening themselves. But agree, if your point is/was that folks can save money and inflation by not buying junk food.
9% to 11.3% is a 25% increase. Rather significant if it hasnt’ been than high in 30 years.
That said, it appears the big increase is in Dining out, which folks can easily control. (I woudl think?)
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Clearly there was a big drop in dining out in 2020 when restaurants were closed. But I’d be more concerned for those poorer people who can’t afford to dine out at all, since the cost of groceries has gone from 5% to 5.7% of average disposable income, a 14% increase. And those people were likely spending a lot more than 5% of their disposable income in the first place.
This isn’t a 30 year high in grocery spending, more back to the level of the late 1990s, but spending on groceries had been falling for years (partly because many people were eating out more) and now we have both restaurant and grocery costs increasing sharply.
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Agree that it’s wise to avoid junk foods. But I do worry about families that don’t have the money and/or access for affordable produce, meat, dairy.
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And even worse, the closing of local grocery stores creating larger food deserts.
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Although there’s often confusion about the direction of causation here: poor people tend not to buy healthy food which means supermarkets selling healthy food don’t want to set up in poor areas. It’s not a lack of supermarkets forcing people to eat unhealthy food.
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yes, I’m aware. Add in theft/crime, and supermarkets can’t make a profit on urban stores.
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Wasn’t lobster considered the cockroach of the sea and cost pennies at the turn of the century - it was prisoner food. My what marketing can do!!! Yikes, I better clarify that statement since we’ve had another “turn of the century”…I meant the late 1800s/early 1900s.
They did the same thing with soy meat. That used to be a staple for prisons, until it was rebranded into vegan “impossible” burgers. 
That’s the reason Kroger has had so much success with their robot delivery fulfillment centers. They opened a number of centers in the southern states “food desert” areas. Less overhead means there’s less food to throw out and costs are much lower. It kinda sucks that you can’t run to the supermarket very easily, but there’s more low cost options.
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I guess this goes here?
I posted a thread on this earlier.
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Went to Wendy’s yesterday. I have the app and it advertised $1 singles. Husband and I ordered 2 singles, the app wouldn’t work and we were charged $5.79 per cheeseburger!
I can’t imagine what they think surge pricing is going to help.
It’s already a very expensive fast food option
I’m trying to understand the thought process here.
Is this to incentivize people to come at off hours?
Is this to persuade people to make different choices of what they get to eat?
Is this purely to profit and Wendy’s has research that shows people won’t leave the store or the line without buying during surge pricing (aka their customers are ‘locked in’)?
I mean, I understand surge pricing for an Uber [sort of], but trying to imagine Wendy’s being considered the ‘only show in town’ for enough people to make this work and not change customer behavior negatively towards Wendy’s.
Lots of questions…
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This surge pricing idea makes me feel like an old irritated person. I’d definitely avoid Wendy’s.
I think my cooking may improve in the future bc of all the reasons to avoid going out as often.
(Granted I’ve not stopped at a Wendy’s in probably 5 years.
So they won’t be missing my business anyhow.)
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When I think of surge pricing I think that there’s a base and sometimes it’s lower and sometimes it’s higher. Something tells me that Wendy’s is never going to go below the base.
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