by Alina Selyukh
NPR
Higher prices have Americans reconsidering their dinner and coffee.
For the first time in years, people’s grocery hauls are getting bigger. And many are choosing to splurge a bit at the supermarket over going out to eat, prompting fast-food and other chains to step up deals and meal combos.
This week, McDonald’s reported its first decline in sales since the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns of 2020. Sales at Denny’s dipped 0.6%, and profit at Wendy’s declined in the latest quarter. Starbucks sales fell 2% in the U.S. as people came in less often.
“When [restaurant inflation is] still ahead of where grocery inflation is,” Denny’s CEO Kelli Valade told investors this week, “we definitely feel like people are probably still saying, ‘I should just cook at home a little bit more often.'”