Posted on 05/23/2022 10:37:10 PM PDT by blam
With inflation standing at 8.3% year-over-year in April, everyday items are becoming pricier for U.S. consumers. As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, food prices in particular took some significant steps up, as seen in the example of shopping for hamburger ingredients.
You will find more infographics at Statista
Meats experienced some of the highest price increases among food items: Ground beef now costs almost 15 percent more than in April 2021 and bacon is 17.7 percent more expensive than one year ago.
On the other hand, the price of tomatoes was up just 0.4 percent over the course of one year, showing that some item suffered less inflation than others.
At a 6.2 percent price increase, fresh vegetables as a whole saw the lowest rate of inflation of any food category.
Energy – the most volatile item in the Consumer Price Index together with foods – drove overall price increases even more. In short supply following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and ensuing sanctions, energy costs rose by 30.3 percent since April 2021. This increase is independent of the base effect as energy prices had already reached pre-pandemic levels again one year ago.
Inflation had already started to rise in 2021 in the aftermath of Covid-19 lockdowns that continue to affect global supply chains. It was further pushed up by the Russian invasion of Ukraine that saw energy supply disrupted by sanctions and Ukrainian products missing from world markets. As a result, inflation is reaching an increasingly broad range of products. For example, while the price of used cars and trucks had already skyrocketed in 2021, new vehicles have now also become 13 percent more expensive than they had been a year ago.
Given the high price of gas and cars, inflation is indirectly encouraging another behavior – using public transportation. The category became 2.7 percent more expensive over the past year.
we just need to stop eating out so much.
That still doesn’t explain why my $0.99 McDonald’s cheeseburger is $1.79 to as much as $2.79 at area McDonalds.
Your a party pooper.
I grill my own. Better than any place I would go to eat.
I lost a ton of weight eating 2 of those for lunch in the eighties. At 49 cents each, a cheap lunch!
I remember that family of four for under 5 dollars ad. Didn’t run long.
Oh...the other part is due to the $15+/hr your surly counter employee is now making. Thats an increase of almost 100%.
Odd. The $0 I spent on McDonald’s hamburgers last year has not gone up at all.
“we just need to stop eating out so much.”
Agree. I priced out my $7.00 Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese using my Sam’s Club ingredients. It’s about $2.25 including energy costs, plus water and soap costs (to wash the dishes)...also, no sales tax.
I doubt many do the math, but with $15/hour (minimum) labor costs, we’re quickly going to be like the rest of the world, where eating out is something done very rarely.
I remember when McDonald’s burgers were 19 cents. You could get a better burger at just about any other hamburger stand at four or five for $1.
I still miss George And John’s burgers in Farmington NM back in 1974! Best burgers ever!
Can’t stand McDonalds anymore. Their food has really gone down. Won’t eat there.
Costs for everything to make a hamburger goes up and the “entrepreneur” astutely and simply raises the price. But if labor goes up even just 10% it is an existential crisis.
They were already advertising well over $15 an hour at local McDonald’s several years ago, $18 if I recall correctly, so there is no recent wage increase.
The McDonalds in the Bay area (Casper inc), are offering $14.50 to start.
5.56mm
I miss the .39cent Hamburger Stands. Cheeseburgers were .49 and fries were .50 cents They were good and as thick as 2 mcD’s burgers and were very tasty.
Those were the good ‘ole Days
True...but all the increases are cumulative.
For one thing, I don't use all that disgusting glop (condiments) that the fast food chains use. Probably to disguise the fact that the burger itself is a tasteless disc that was probably sitting in a freezer warehouse somewhere for five years.
I make 8 ounce patties and all I season them with is a little bit of salt and pepper. Six minutes one side, flip, six minutes on the other. Perfect medium-rare.
Put on a brioche bun and add a thick slice or two of your favorite cheese.
That's it. No need for mustard, ketchup, pickles, wilted lettuce and all that other stuff.
What you get is a perfect juicy burger. And all you need is one.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.