The prices of some of Salt Lake City’s most popular menu items have jumped more than 50% since 2020, according to an Axios analysis.
Why it matters: The cost of living, from food to housing, is skyrocketing, and wages aren’t keeping pace.
- The cost of restaurant food is up 3.8% in the West compared to last March, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The big picture: Many restaurants say they’ve been forced to hike prices because of rising labor and ingredient costs, reduced customer spending and thin profits.
- Yes, but: They’re hitting a pricing ceiling on how much they can charge.
- Restaurants that raised prices more than 10% last year saw profits dip, according to a James Beard Foundation report released earlier this year
How it works: We’ve felt sticker shock while dining out lately, so we decided to quantify just how much prices have gone up.
- We analyzed Yelp and Google reviews and online menus to compare 2020 prices with today for a dozen go-to items at some of the city’s busiest restaurants and bars.
Here’s what we found:
The steepest hikes
🍔 Lucky 13’s burger: $7 → $12 (+$72%)
🍩 A dozen Banbury Cross Donuts: $9.98 → $16.48 (+65%)…