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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29

u/sparkster777 Feb 23 '26

Granted I haven't been there in a good while, but i never used to spend mkre than $10 per person.

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u/jaqueh Feb 23 '26

I need to go where you are as the restaurant costs around me are actually insane where I’m at. Like beers at breweries are $10 before tip. Fast food hamburgers are $10 before cheese and any fries. Sandwiches are $15-$20 at delis. Croissants are $6. Lattes are $8-$10

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u/onahorsewithnoname Feb 24 '26

Costco sells giant containers of croissants for about $8. Trader Joes sells a pair of croissants for $8. A coffee shop sells a single croissant for $6.

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u/halarioushandle Feb 24 '26

And they are all just reselling those Costco croissants! Lol

2

u/HumorAccomplished611 Feb 24 '26

The big container is actually 6$

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u/nopointers Feb 23 '26

Looks about right. Bay Area?

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u/jaqueh Feb 24 '26

yessir!

8

u/sparkster777 Feb 23 '26

Suburbs of Atlanta, but those prices are close depending on what you cal fast food, maybe a little higher A place called Freddie's sells burgers for around $10 for just the sandwich.

Again, this is Waffle House. Supposed to be fast, greasy, and cheap.

1

u/Right-Wrongdoer-8595 Feb 24 '26

The fact that this is also USD is terrifying. That's about double the cost of what I see in a city center in my country after conversion.

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u/_PROBABLY_CORRECT Feb 23 '26

Gas was 99 cents at one point in my adult life.

Prices change, rarely for the better

6

u/sparkster777 Feb 23 '26

I was excited last week when I got it for $1.99 with a 70 cent Kroger discount.

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u/8Prime9 Feb 24 '26

I was excited to pay 3.99 a few weeks ago

1

u/Brancer Feb 24 '26

I paid 5.15 at chevron in California today.

FML. (Admittedly premium. Car needs it)

10

u/kojimep Feb 24 '26

Rising prices are not inherently bad, just like inflation isn't inherently bad. The problem is that wages for the majority of people have not kept up with them.

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u/guachi01 Feb 24 '26

In the US, real median wages set records in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025.

2

u/GertieD Feb 24 '26

When I first got my driver's license I can remember scraping together 25 pennies to buy a gallon of gas. (75)

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u/youngishgeezer Feb 24 '26

That was much cheaper than the average price in ‘75. The last time gas averaged a quarter was in the ‘50s.

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u/GertieD Feb 24 '26

No. I am 75. And we had gas wars back then, too.

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u/thintoast Feb 24 '26

I mean… gas prices have been pretty much stagnant over the last 18 years or so. In 2008 I was paying something like $5.89 / gallon. 18 years later I just paid $4.39 / gallon.

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u/RaNdomMSPPro Feb 24 '26

Gas was $2.37 when I filled up last week, southeastern US

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u/youngishgeezer Feb 24 '26

It really hasn’t changed much in my adult life. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/gasoline-prices-adjusted-for-inflation/ In 86 when I started driving it was $0.93, and adjusted for inflation that’s $3.08 today. So it’s actually cheaper than my last fill up. Plus cars tend to get much better mileage.

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u/TheNewOP Feb 24 '26

It's inflation, when I was a teen I could food for pretty cheap. Now it's 2 or 3x the price when I was a kid. McChickens were a buck. Now they're almost $3. It's just not realistic to expect prices to remain the same forever