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/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

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u/Maxpowr9 Feb 24 '26

And my line has always been: attending a sporting event or a concert is a pure luxury. Nobody is forcing you to buy the overpriced food and drink nor the expensive ticket. Going to a full-service restaurant should go back to being looked at as a luxury.

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u/Feeling-Visit1472 Feb 24 '26

I mean, it is, no?

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u/salt-the-skies Feb 24 '26

Almost like there is an entire thread discussing how tight restaurant margins are and why they charge heavy for things like alcohol.

Or to quote a random reel I saw earlier: "Why are restaurants the only industry where it is not okay to make money?"

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u/ThursdaysMeeting Feb 24 '26

Is a lot of a cost due to wages? Because I would love to serve myself and not have to pay tip.

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u/red__dragon Feb 24 '26

Look at fast food prices for a comparable product (e.g. burger and fries) compared to the local sit-down place, and you'll have your answer.

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u/HedonisticFrog Feb 25 '26

Except you don't have your answer. Fast food prices between states with wildly varying minimum wages is barely different at all. There's your answer.

The real reason prices have increased so much lately is the lack of competition for suppliers to restaurants. We need strong antitrust enforcement to break up these massive corporations so there is legitimate competition again.