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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)

#91

Post by cheriot »

laidoffamazon wrote: post #85
cheriot wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. There's a lot of smart people on HN, but the economics commentary is consistently not great.

Might be the political characteristics of the tech worker crowd. Big split between the libertarians who have claimed high inflation even when America had objectively low inflation (usually as a justification for crypto), the conspiratorial far-right that thinks that the administration is falsifying economic data because they want to end democracy, and the far-left aligned folks that have to say the economy is bad for…

I think that's a lot of it. Even the way econ/finance interpretations of surveys has changed because responses are now driven by politics. People will say their own finances are great, but the economy is horrible.

Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#92

Post by paxys »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #84
paxys wrote: post #38

> 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'm not so sure about this. Cooking at home means going to the supermarket (or going online and ordering from the SM). If you have to cook for more than yourself, then you probably need to also put sometime into planning the meals for the week. And then of course there's the time to cook the meals. There's also cleanup. Also, let's not forget that there are plenty of people who never really learned to cook and now fe…

Everything follows economics. If you can't cook but don't have the money to eat out you will learn to cook. If you don't have the time you will cut back on some other activity.

Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#94

Post by neogodless »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #84
paxys wrote: post #38

> 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'm not so sure about this. Cooking at home means going to the supermarket (or going online and ordering from the SM). If you have to cook for more than yourself, then you probably need to also put sometime into planning the meals for the week. And then of course there's the time to cook the meals. There's also cleanup. Also, let's not forget that there are plenty of people who never really learned to cook and now fe…

> Cooking at home means going to the supermarket (or going online and ordering from the SM). If you have to cook for more than yourself, then you probably need to also put sometime into planning the meals for the week. And then of course there's the time to cook the meals. There's also cleanup. Also, let's not forget that there are plenty of people who never really learned to cook and now fear the kitchen.

There's a sort of gut instinct that going out is easier. After all, the sitting and ordering is a lot more passive than the prepping and cooking.

But time wise, it seems like getting in a car, driving, finding parking, walking, waiting for a table, and then the slow drawn out steps of getting drinks, appetizers and a meal over a long period of time, before repeating all the travel again... adds up to even more time!

Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#95

Post by danShumway »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #81
danShumway wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> but I do think it's something that can be difficult even for neurotypical people if they're not used to it. Based on the percent of people who were able to do it before there were fast food restaurants everywhere, I think people will manage to figure it out. The only reason they have not is due to lack of incentive (sufficiently cheap food at restaurants).

Yes, that is exactly what OP said:

> 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.

Nobody is saying people can't cook. They're saying it'll take a little while for people who aren't used to cooking to change their habits and pick up some planning/organizing/cooking skills again that they might have lost. And they're saying that price (a lack of sufficiently cheap food at restaurants) will be the driving force behind that change.

Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#96

Post by lotsofpulp »

danShumway wrote: post #95
lotsofpulp wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I do think it's something that can be difficult even for neurotypical people if they're not used to it. Based on the percent of people who were able to do it before there were fast food restaurants everywhere, I think people will manage to figure it out. The only reason they have not is due to lack of incentive (sufficiently cheap food at restaurants).

Yes, that is exactly what OP said: > 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. Nobody is saying people can't cook. They're saying it'll take a little while for people who aren't used to cooking to change their habits and pick up some plannin…

Oh, I interpreted it as it takes time to learn. Which, I was trying to say that the habit can be quick and easy to break, people just need the incentive.

For example, if restaurant or prepared food prices went up 5x today, basically everyone (with space and appliance to cook) has the capability to buy a pan, spatula, bowl, fork, eggs, salt, pepper, and start making scrambled eggs for dinner.

And then they would watch a YouTube video and try lentils, and rice, and etc. And in a few weeks they would have a bunch of dishes under their belt.

Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#97

Post by TaylorAlexander »

SoftTalker wrote: post #25
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #12

Earlier 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.

We aren't sitting around waiting for food we are frantically trying to get everything else done in that time.

Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#98

Post by mensetmanusman »

jeffbee wrote: post #4
Dig1t wrote: post #3

Everyone knows they are spending way more on food. The CPI inflation numbers feel like a lie.

But that's not what's happening in this article. The Food Away From Home share has hit an all-time high, and FAFH costs more (because it contains more internalized labor than groceries). Americans eat out a lot because they are unbelievably rich.

FAFH should be separated out, because it is becoming more a service than fuel for the day.

Covid destroyed the restaurant work force, so it is no surprise fafh has skyrocketed as they struggle to compete for the shrinking workforce.

Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#99

Post by hateful »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #84
paxys wrote: post #38

> 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'm not so sure about this. Cooking at home means going to the supermarket (or going online and ordering from the SM). If you have to cook for more than yourself, then you probably need to also put sometime into planning the meals for the week. And then of course there's the time to cook the meals. There's also cleanup. Also, let's not forget that there are plenty of people who never really learned to cook and now fe…

My wife and I both work full time jobs. It's easy to do meal planning when one member of the family doesn't work - but when everyone [has to] work - planning a meal every night of the week is nearly impossible.

Currently we're trying to eat at home 3 nights a week, and even that's hard. We don't want to eat the same thing for multiple days. If neither of us has time to cook, then a lot of time the ingredients are perishable and get thrown out (so now instead of spending money to go out, we're spending money on food to cook AND going out - it's a gamble).

I would even add, that I think, as a society we should move to towards eating out and delivery being the norm - It's like anything else, I specialize in Programming, my wife specializes in Medicine. When we order food - they specialize in that. It's way more efficient than us having to do it.

Re: U.S. Consumers Spent More on Food in 2022 Than Ever Before (Inflation Adjusted)

#100

Post by ne0flex »

paxys wrote: post #38

> 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…

Towards the end of 2021, I began cooking at home and bringing my lunch to save money. My wife and I used to eat out a lot, and I would usually buy lunch. Cooking food resulted in close to 600-$700 in savings per month. Also, cooking for myself also resulted in me eating healthier (due to me being lazy and opting for simple dishes such as cooking chicken in butter and steaming vegetables) and I ended up losing close to 40lbs over the span of a few months.
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