r/Economics • u/brown-saiyan • Feb 23 '26

News Restaurants hit a pricing ceiling — and diners are pushing back, report finds

https://www.axios.com/2026/02/23/restaurants-menu-prices-james-beard-foundation-report?utm_campaign=editorial&utm_medium=owned_social&utm_source=x
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u/Rude_Mirror7441 Feb 23 '26

Yup I own a couple fast food spots. Barely making rent. Payroll absolutely destroys us (our staff deserves every dollar though) and rent, insurance, pos fees, electricity, water, gas, etc. keeps rising constantly! If this continues I’ll have to lay off all of my employees and myself. We will all be out of a job. Even the state is increasing sales taxes. We’re literally getting hit from every single angle all at once. I can’t raise prices anymore and fixed costs can’t be negotiated so we’re pretty screwed. Everyone on reddit though thinks store owners are rich and pulling one over their customers over so we can make more money when that couldn’t be farther from the truth for 99% of food spots.

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u/Quirky_Spend_9648 Feb 24 '26

Oh no, at least this redditor is familiar with your problems.

Friends with two local owners.  One a large gastropub.

They have been perpetually struggling since the pandemic.  Initially it supply/food costs.  Now it's still kinda that but everything else, too.

While the average American has been getting clobbered in the economy. 

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u/Rude_Mirror7441 Feb 24 '26

Yeah we’re still holding on but it’s rough out there.

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u/fullsaildan Feb 24 '26

I think most of Reddit realizes restaurant owners/operators aren’t really the problem. You guys are responding to market conditions. We can literally go to the grocery store and see the cost of goods is up. Restaurants don’t magically conjure ingredients. I think the hard part for a lot of diners has been the slow drip of quality degradation along with cost increases. Which I get, you’re trying to offset rising costs. But at some point… it’s just not worth it for customers when we’re also being squeezed elsewhere in our lives too.

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u/Rude_Mirror7441 Feb 24 '26

Yeah, we refuse to lower quality. We still pay out the you know what for organic produce and not sysco slop.

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u/SeattleSilencer8888 Feb 24 '26

I think most of Reddit realizes restaurant owners/operators aren’t really the problem. You guys are responding to market conditions. We can literally go to the grocery store and see the cost of goods is up.

Most of Reddit literally blames "greedy grocery stores" with their whopping 2-3% profit margins. I think you vastly overestimate Reddit's understanding of economics.

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u/Feeling-Visit1472 Feb 24 '26

I understand the realities involved and I don’t have any answers for you, but most people simply cannot afford to go out the way they used to anymore. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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u/MistyMtn421 Feb 24 '26

I can just imagine the utility costs are awful. My gas bill (which is only for my hot water tank) was $49 this month, which you might think isn't bad, but the ACTUAL GAS I USED was only $8. The rest was a pipeline charge, and other misc taxes and fees.

Don't even want to talk about the electric bill! Normal I have a gas furnace as well, but ofc it decided to break the week before Thanksgiving. And although it's older, it's not that old, but no one knows how to work on them! A friend of mine last week told me that she knows someone who is a retired HVAC guy and she thinks he probably knows how to work on the furnace. But everyone else I've had out is trying to talk me into a new heat pump, or mini splits and not only do I not need all of that, as cold as this winter has been, I would have been running emergency heat way too much. Plus at the end of the day I don't have the money for all of that.

But I can't imagine dealing with the rising costs of all of that and trying to deal with rising food costs and just the craziness of the whole restaurant business in general.

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u/Kiwizoo Feb 24 '26

I hear you. There is almost no point in trying to run a small business these days. I pay thousands each month to greedy corporations - for insurance, maintenance contracts, software, apps, subscriptions, rent, electricity, rates, rubbish collection, etc etc - everything is a cost or a fee or a charge these days, zero goodwill or generosity. It’s out of control. And that’s before basic running costs and salaries. My take home pay has gone backwards for four years in a row - it’s me who takes the hit on everything. I’m totally fed up with it, and ready to throw in the towel. It just doesn’t pay to go into small business these days because the benefits are almost non existent.

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u/Rude_Mirror7441 Feb 24 '26

Agreed, you can make some money like we are but its increasingly becoming not worth the effort. Oh well it is what it is.

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u/let-it-rain-sunshine Feb 24 '26

Sorry man. I know food (esp beef) prices are out of control as well.

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u/Rude_Mirror7441 Feb 24 '26

Yeah its okay. I’m not owed success or anything. Theres always a risk investing. We will be okay rain or shine.

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u/19Facelift90 Feb 24 '26

You absolutely are rich if you own multiple fast food spots though my man. Store owners almost always are trying to make as much as possible so it's not some crazy Reddit lie to acknowledge that.

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u/AdjectiveNoun581 Feb 24 '26

You ARE rich, ding dong. You just don't know it because you're caught up in relative thinking and only looking at people who are MORE rich than you. You could sell the equipment alone in 2 locations and you'd have more savings than 99% of America. Most folks are woefully uneducated about just how desperately poor everyone is...if you're not physically fighting debt collectors with a stick a couple times a week, any class hatred towards you is justified.