The effects of money printing on display.
U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)
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Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)
#72> Real total food spending increased 11.4 percent in 2021 and 3.4 percent in 2022, driven by higher FAFH spending (up 19 percent in 2021 and 8 percent in 2022). Real FAH spending increased by 4 percent in 2021 but decreased by 2 percent in 2022. FAH = food at home FAFH = food away from home So, eating out is killing our wallets. Not really a surprise considering "dollar menu" items at McDonalds now cost $6 and a half…
> I fully expect that over time people are going to start cooking more and cutting back on restaurant visits and the industry is going to take a huge hit because of it.
We can hope, but it seems unlikely to me that it would go quite like that. I'm pretty sure that once people are used to budgeting a larger share of their income on food, processed food companies and their retailers will happily soak up whatever gets trimmed from restaurant spending. There might be a net savings for those early to transition, but if it becomes a cultural trend, supermarket prices will just creep up to match the customary food budget.
Restaurants may lose, but food manufacturers and supermarkets will likely claw back the difference before they let it go back to families.
Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)
#73> Real total food spending increased 11.4 percent in 2021 and 3.4 percent in 2022, driven by higher FAFH spending (up 19 percent in 2021 and 8 percent in 2022). Real FAH spending increased by 4 percent in 2021 but decreased by 2 percent in 2022. FAH = food at home FAFH = food away from home So, eating out is killing our wallets. Not really a surprise considering "dollar menu" items at McDonalds now cost $6 and a half…
I never eat out. I can tell you that food bought from grocery stores and farmers markets has gone up in price by 1/3 to 1/2 from Dec 2019. And some foods disappeared never to return during the start of the pandemic.
Eating at home is going to save you money compared to eating out. But eating at home costs have gone up a shocking amount as well.
Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)
#74> Real total food spending increased 11.4 percent in 2021 and 3.4 percent in 2022, driven by higher FAFH spending (up 19 percent in 2021 and 8 percent in 2022). Real FAH spending increased by 4 percent in 2021 but decreased by 2 percent in 2022. FAH = food at home FAFH = food away from home So, eating out is killing our wallets. Not really a surprise considering "dollar menu" items at McDonalds now cost $6 and a half…
>So, eating out is killing our wallets. Not really a surprise considering "dollar menu" items at McDonalds now cost $6 and a halfway decent lunch is upwards of $17-20.
Yea, it's crazy what eating out costs, and what having that same food delivered costs. It's damn convenient though.
>It's too hard to change habits in the short term, but I fully expect that over time people are going to start cooking more and cutting back on restaurant visits and the industry is going to take a huge hit because of it. Prices are simply out of control. Even more so considering the default tip expectation has crept up from 10% to now 20-25%.
I just bought stuff to make chicken quesadillas. It cost about $9 and I'll probably make at least 8 of them and have some chicken and tortilla left over after that. I can afford to eat out, but it seems like a ripoff and I just don't like getting ripped off.
Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes Americans are rich and are also very busy. Life seems to push so fast that I know a lot of people buy food away from home due to a sense that they don’t have time to cook. There must be rich individuals in other cultures who still eat at home because they have more freedom to take the time to do so. Americans on a global scale are rich but I expect that living expenses are so high too that many people who often e…
Eating at home takes less time than eating out. Maybe about the same if you include washing up and putting everything away. Getting prepared food via DoorDash, I guess might be quicker, but you're still sitting there for 30-60 minutes in most cases waiting for it to show up. You can roast a chicken and vegetables in the oven in that time.
, but you're still sitting there for 30-60 minutes in most cases waiting for it to show up.
But you aren't sitting! You are doing other things. Spending time with a child, scrolling the internet, watching tv, playing a game, doing housework, and so on.
If you roast a chicken, you still need to prepare it. This takes time. You gotta wait for the oven to heat, and you might need a side. You might need to put them in the oven at different times - that chicken is going to take 1.5 to 2 hours, after all. When everything is said and done, you then need to clean up the mess.
All in all, it will definitely take longer to cook yourself and you could use that time to do other things.
As a sidenote: This seems like a fancy meal. Its been some times since I ate meat or lived in the US, but I remember rotisserie chickens being cheaper than whole chickens from the frozen section at the store. Is it not still that way?
Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)
#76> Real total food spending increased 11.4 percent in 2021 and 3.4 percent in 2022, driven by higher FAFH spending (up 19 percent in 2021 and 8 percent in 2022). Real FAH spending increased by 4 percent in 2021 but decreased by 2 percent in 2022. FAH = food at home FAFH = food away from home So, eating out is killing our wallets. Not really a surprise considering "dollar menu" items at McDonalds now cost $6 and a half…
> It's too hard to change habits in the short term I don’t see how. Written and video recipes available for free online. Instant pot and a couple other items cost $100? Time and effort are the remaining ingredients.
Time, food variety, and cleanup. Most people don't want the majority of their food to come from an instant pot and they don't want to think about things like grocery shopping. There's a level of skill and management involved in making your own food even if you are talking about extremely simple recipes, and it becomes invisible once you get used to it, but I suspect some people don't have those skills or habits built up. I might be overestimating the difficulty because of ADHD, but I do think it's something that can be difficult even for neurotypical people if they're not used to it.
And of course, habits are also just... habitual. If it's a habit to get to 9PM at night and think, "crud I need food, let me just order something quickly", that habit will still be difficult to break even if everything else is easy.
It's of course doable -- I basically never eat out or order food, I cook everything. But I understand why people don't. Cooking is something I have to plan around. It's annoying to want to make something and then look in the fridge and realize I forgot to buy an ingredient. And I only cook for myself, I don't have to manage a full family and kids.
But it is of course way cheaper and (depending on how you approach it) can be much healthier.
Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is technically correct ("the best kind of correct!"), but the upward march of that inflation-adjusted trend graph is pretty clear. I'm not a doomer, just trying to be even-handed.
That's a reflection of a growing economy. Real incomes are higher so people have more to spend. Edit: add data Real personal income https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RPI Real GDP https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDPC1/
I think I'm getting the unit right on this graph. Food at home as a percentage of disposable income: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1aWLA
Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "dollar menu" items at McDonalds now cost $6 No need to exaggerate. It's called the "$1 $2 $3 Dollar Menu" now, and in my expensive urban area, the priciest item on it is $3.19 (McDouble). It's definitely not an actual dollar like it was twenty years ago, but it's sure not $6 either.
That is meaningless when they can move items in and out of the menu as they please. The McChicken sandwich was a dollar menu staple ~10 years ago. I just checked the nearest McDonalds and it now costs $4.70.
All I said was don't exaggerate. The $6 is going too far.
McChicken is $3.19 on my $1 $2 $3 menu, and my location is an expensive one.
Some stuff has gone 3x. More stuff has gone 1.5x or 2x. Nothing at McD's has gone up 6x in the past twenty years.
Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
The state of the economy is objectively good to great. 3.9% unemployment as of today. 5% GDP growth over the quarter.
Compare food and housing costs vs earnings now and what they were 5 years ago. In reality, you don’t have to. You know that even if you have been getting a raise at work it is nowhere near what real inflation has been. This is objective reality. The economy is shitty for most.
Real disposable personal incomes are up from 5 years ago. The spike in 2020 was because of a flood of government money and all of the low wage workers being ejected from the workforce.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DSPIC96
The economy being fine to good is literally the only evidence available. Nobody is acting or voting like the economy is actually bad.
We're seeing revealed preferences in action.
Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)
#80Because restaurants are doing literal highway robbery plus they need 20% tip on top
please look up the definition of "literal" before you use it.