Midday Woes
There's no such thing as a free lunch, and that's never been as painfully true as it is now. Prices for midday meals like sandwiches and salads have outpaced price increases on most other foods since the start of the pandemic, according to a new "lunchflation" report from digital-payment platform Square. The average cost of lunch jumped 7% in just a year thanks to restaurant-industry woes like inflation, labor shortages, and supply-chain disruptions. Still, many items are hitting wallets even harder, based on 28-day rolling averages in major cities across the U.S.
Related: Record Inflation Continues to Bust Consumers' Budgets