Posted on 06/02/2025 12:00:48 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Campbell’s has seen customers prepare their own meals at the highest rate in about half a decade, offering the latest sign of everyday people tightening their wallets amid economic concerns.
“Consumers are cooking at home at the highest levels since early 2020,” Campbell’s CEO Mick Beekhuizen said Monday, adding that consumption has increased among all income brackets in the meals and beverages category.
Beekhuizen drew parallels between today and the time when Americans were facing the early stages of what would become a global pandemic. It was a period of broad economic uncertainty as the Covid virus affected every aspect of everyday life and caused massive shakeups in spending and employments trends.
The trends seen by the Pepperidge Farm and V-8 maker comes as Wall Street and economists wonder what’s next for the U.S. economy after President Donald Trump’s tariff policy raised recession fears and battered consumer sentiment.
More meals at home could mean people are eating out less, showing Americans tightening their belts. That can spell bad news for gross domestic product, two thirds of which relies on consumer spending. A recession is commonly defined as two straight quarters of the GDP shrinking.
It can also underscore the souring outlook of everyday Americans on the national economy. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index last month fell to one of its lowest levels on record.
Campbell’s remarks came after the soup maker beat Wall Street expectations in its fiscal third quarter. The Goldfish and Rao’s parent earned 73 cents per share, excluding one-time items, on $2.48 billion in revenue, while analysts polled by FactSet anticipated 65 cents and $2.43 billion, respectively.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
So that’s why Cream of Mushroom soup is usually sold out.
Restaurants, including fast food, have basically doubled the prices. Food and low-end labor has gone way up in the expense category, and that is reflected in cost of eating out.
If ground beef is $6/pound, it is no wonder that a Wendy’s Triple (3/4 pound) is $8 and change.
An interview I heard had a woman talking about trends in types of meals. She mentioned a percentage of mothers who prepare meals for their children.
Then the interviewer asked about frozen meals in the microwave.
She said the fact that the mother prepares them by cooking them in the microwave instead of serving something made and cooked elsewhere makes them “cooked by the mother” in the statistics.
By the way, the fathers are probably drinking beer and eating pretzels and potato chips and watching TV-—if it’s not a father absent home.
Inflation is down.
Wages are up.
Stock Market is up.
Taxes are decreasing.
Is this the Great Depression?
LOL...what would Campbell’s soup know about HOME cooking?
If they’re having more meals at home, let’s hope they’re eating out less!
Why do they make it sound like a bad thing? Home cooked meals are usually better for you and cheaper.
Just like grandma used to open!
Stolen from Broadcast corn beef hash.
Yeah...that’s what I was thinking
There is also the added bonus of seeing all of the "dissing" taking place at restaurants and the subsequent reactions. Eating out has become less of a pleasant experience thanks to other patrons ruining it.
>So that’s why Cream of Mushroom soup is usually sold out
Naw, just people picking up their favorite can of “contains: bioengineered food ingredients. The ingredients from canola, corn and soy in this product come from genetically modified crops” Says so right on the can! Sure makes me want to stock up it. Mmm Mmm good!
Campbells cream of mushroom soup is basically the universal solvent of crock-pot cooking.
It cost us about 100-150 to eat out with a family of four depending on where we go.
Do this once a week...and you basically have a car payment.
I cook at home...and it runs be a 12-20 bucks to feed dinner to the family on any given night.
There was an article earlier today about how Uber Eats drivers eat your food on the way to deliver it to you. No wonder people are cooking at home. Although someone is going to have to teach Gen Z how to operate the stove for this to work.
“the latest sign of everyday people tightening their wallets amid economic concerns.”
AND:
1. restaurant food prices have gone through the roof
2. restaurant food degrades in quality almost on a daily basis
3. increasing awareness of how unhealthy most restaurant food is
4. increasing awareness of the importance of high quality food is for good health
It's bad for the economy because it indicates people are cutting back on spending.
Could be other than economic. Unless you’re very high end quality isn’t great. Home meals taste far better.
As is Campbell’s Cream of Chicken
As is Campbell’s Cream of Chicken
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