Hamburger Helper Sales Rise as Americans Try to Stretch Their Food Dollars

The New York Times ^ | Sept. 20, 2025 | Julie Creswell

[Trump20162020]

In the 1970s, Hamburger Helper became a staple on American dinner tables as families, strained by inflation and soaring beef prices, looked to turn a pound of ground beef into an entire meal.

These days, those same pressures are why the flavored pasta mix is coming to the rescue again.

While most food companies are seeing declines in consumer demand for their products, sales of Hamburger Helper are up 14.5 percent in the year through August, getting an extra bump from its appearance on an episode of “The Bear” in June, according to the company that owns the brand, Eagle Foods.

[logi_cal869]

Homemade stroganoff mm-hmm.

There ya go, reminding me of a favorite childhood dish I've not made in my entire adult life at home. /s

On the list for winter comfort food...

[HYPOCRACY]

Wait until Mamdani has NYC own all the grocery stores. That’ll fix everything.

[logi_cal869]

Nice. Good post.

[logi_cal869]

Yup. See my first comment.

[Who is John Galt?]

Is there Shredded Paper Helper or Packing Peanuts Helper?

You can probably find those next to the Refried Beans Helper, in government-run supermarkets in Blue cities & states...

;^)

[waterhill]

I’ve got everything you mentioned in pantry.

Also powdered cheese. ;^)

[Danie_2023]

Hamburger helper is just a seasoning mix to add ground beef to. What’s not to like? There used to be a helper type product that came with rice instead of pasta, and it was taco-flavored. It was so good... I was positively addicted to it, but then they stopped making it... natch. I then had to learn how to season my own dishes at that point. But it was nice to have something that was easy, cheap and also really good to make for dinner after a long, hard day at work.

[Jim W N]

THERE is where your hard-earned money is going. In the federal gov't rocket ship to nowhere.

NUKE THE 80%+, $5+ TRILLION UNCONSTITUTIONAL PORTION OF THE FEDERAL GOV'T!!!!

LESS GOV'T, MORE PROSPERITY.

Either we prosper or the massive gov't prospers. You can't have both.

"Choose this day who you will serve" - God or man and his gov't.

[PIF]

original hamburger helper was finely chopped inexpensive onion and the white bits from Wonder Bread kneaded into the burger.

[Shady]

Rrrrrrrrrrubbber Biscuit!

[Shady]

And it does!

[frank ballenger]

RE: a sandwich where you have two slices of bread...and you wish you had some meat....

When the US Navy Blue Angel pilot and later self-help best selling author Dr. Denis Waitley (Psychology of Winning was developed after his work counseling Olympic athletes and US military snipers in concentration and visualization techniques) was a child his family was so poor his mother fed the family bread slices with butter, salt and pepper when they couldn’t afford meat. She said to imagine it was filled and this helped start him on the visualization idea when he became a psychologist later on.

He just passed away June 7, 2025 at age 92.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

When you are living by yourself having the powders available so you do not have fresh food going bad is quite handy. And it saves on space.

If you have get together with some friends and buy in bulk it can be very economical.

[marktwain]

The headline could just as easily be: Americans can afford more hamburger!

[coloradan]

More Orange Man Bad propaganda from the Gray Whore.

How did Hamburger Helper sales do during the Potato administration?

[mewzilla]

Is it inflation...

Or have people just not learned how to cook...

Decided they can’t be bothered...

[Dr. Sivana]

The only thing worse than Hamburger Helper is Tuna Helper.

We tried it when it first came out. I was 9 years old, and went bowling after that horrible meal. It was so bad, I bowled a 17 (I was usually good for 90 in those days).

[Lazamataz]

That’s nothing. I had a Ricochet Biscuit for breakfast.

[ansel12]

I just bought 36 cans of Campbell’s Condensed Beefy Mushroom Soup for $25, that should help for lazy dinners.

[Dr. Sivana]

She’s always ONE Milk Bone away from perishing,

I hope you gave her one! You wouldn't want your dog to starve to death. Our dog is jealous' of the cat food our cats get.