When did fast food get so expensive? Or for that matter, when did gas, groceries, and everything else get so expensive? Is it incongruous to be paying $8-9 for a Burger King meal? Or is that just keeping in step with the rest of our skyrocketing inflation? If you compare how fast food prices have risen in the last ten years with consumer-price index averages supplied by the bureau of labor statistics, and try to apply all that statistics nonsense you forgot after sixth grade, some conclusions can emerge.Fast food does seem to be rising at higher margins than other foods, with the notable exception of Taco Bell, who have remained unflinchingly loyal to their brand of dirt cheapness. Fast food prices, as a whole, have risen roughly 50-60%, while common food necessities such as apples, oranges, milk, bread, only has risen 30-40%. And we can all exhale a sigh of relief that we don't have to drink gasoline, which has managed over a 120% price increase in ten years.
Before we begin hacking the fast food CEO's to pieces as a horde of greedy capitalist pigs, it's worth mentioning that ground beef has risen close to 60%, which would be on par with the chains so heavily dependent on it. The statistics still beg the question: why have prices risen do dramatically? And how will it affect how consumers view and use fast food?
