High food prices driving people to cook?

[Jakea222]

So I am working on my inventory sheet price updates for the upcoming inventory on Mon. and some things are going way up and some are strangly going down. My produce has stayed the same and a few things have gone down because of the season - but it is certainly gone up as a whole - dairy WAY up. Cheese WAY up - my Bleu Cheese Dressing is up about 7$ from last year per recipe. Meat about the same a little increase in certain things. Delivery fees are around 8-10$ a pop. Bread was increased several months ago and up about 15% from last year...if that helps put anything into perspective for you guys

[CKatCook]

For some strange reason around where I live produce is expensive. The boxes and can foods are cheaper. I think people on the lower side of the econmic scale can't cook because for so long what you could afford came in a box or can. Case in point, box macaroni and cheese, kraft, around here is 69 cents. To make homemade macaroni and cheese is so much more expensive, even if you went with the cheapest of cheese. You couple that with time constraints and that is a bad mix.

Alot of people around here are cutting back. Alot of people that I talk to are having to make choices between paying to get to work and what they pay for the food budget. They eat what they can afford.

My hubby and I are not feeling the pinch, but I am sure if this trend continues we will be. We can easily spend 120 a week on groceries. Mostly because we don't eat processed food. Which is the cheaper option around here (processed food that is). Our bill used to be around 80-90 a week at the grocery store. It is almost crazy what you can pay for fresh food. A friend of mine paid 2 bucks for one tomato the other day! We are moving into a house so I can grow more...

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

For some strange reason around where I live produce is expensive. The boxes and can foods are cheaper. I think people on the lower side of the econmic scale can't cook because for so long what you could afford came in a box or can. Case in point, box macaroni and cheese, kraft, around here is 69 cents. To make homemade macaroni and cheese is so much more expensive, even if you went with the cheapest of cheese. You couple that with time constraints and that is a bad mix.

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That same box of Kraft Mac and Cheese at the local grocery store here is $1.50. The generic stuff is about 90 cents.

My parents were pretty poor when I was growing up, but the only canned veggie Mom used was corn. When she couldn't afford fresh veggies, she'd buy frozen over canned.

We had our share of stuff like instant mashed potatoes and Hamburger Helper on weeknights, but Mom was on her feet most the day at work, so I can't say I blame her for not wanting to spend an hour in the kitchen making dinner.

[Jason Campbell]

I'm speaking from a U.K. Perspective, but to a lesser or greater degree it might also apply to other Western countries.

By my reasoning people don't eat out exclusively (as a generalisation, I know some may). When the price of food staples goes up (be those staples microwave ready meals, bread or caviar) then people will either find substitute staples (cut down on the caviar) or cut back spending in other less essential areas. It's easier to substitute if your staples are things like caviar, but less easy if your staples are bread or ready meals. The choice then might logically be to eat out less, but if you eat out less then that also demands that you spend more on staples to replace 'restaurant' food, which in turn means you have less to spend on eating out.

In the short term restaurants can absorb food cost increases (and the large chains have greater leverage as they agree fixed price contracts, the smaller operators by saving on labour costs). But eventually many will have some hard decisions to make.

The supermarkets don't get it all their own way, not only do they have to compete with each other as normal, but with higher fuel prices they get less frequent opportunities to grab your custom as you visit less supermarkets less often to save on fuel costs. Equally they will have less to spend on advertising to try and draw consumers back, while high food prices will give producers of staples much greater bargaining power with the supermarkets/fast food companies than they have had for many decades.

None of this, of course, means a general return to cooking at home, only eating at home. They may just be eating a ready meal 7 times a week rather than 3 times a week. It also ignores the fact that the UK and the USA both have obesity problems, maybe everyone will just go on a diet and to aid their progress they might dig up their back yards and start planting food.

Unlikely, I know.

[AmyKay]

When we first moved to our current town a few years ago, we would leave town on the weekends and eat out for something special or fun. We still do that occasionally, but not every weekend and these trips are much more planful (ie - "What else do when need to do or get while we are in Denver/Boulder/Fort Collins?"). As mentioned upthread, this change is really more about high gas prices than food prices for us, but I think our general belt tightening is influenced on all sides.

I am definitely cooking at home more. And I have been paying more attention to the world's "peasant food", as mentioned previously. It does suck though, because I used to love eating out at interesting places but those days seem to be numbered. Also, because our town does not have much in the way of an international market, or even a really good American market, so cooking interesting things at home sometimes get frustrating.

[Fat Guy]

I think I recently saw mention in a legitimate news source of a statistical basis for a claim of increased home cooking, but now I can't find it.

[Pebs]

I've noticed a distinct change in my area. I live in a rural community that has a unique economy as we are a tourism destination for largely two to three day weekend getaways. We have only 3,400 residents but about 38 restaurants for that reason. Locals generally eat out only during the week during the high season because everything is so crowded on weekends, so you can tell how well the local economy is doing by how busy our restaurants are mid week. I'd say they are about a third less full than other summers. Since we don't have a lot of fast food options, they must be cooking at home more. Also, because I'm the finance director for our city, I can attest to the fact that our weekend visitor levels have remained about the same by looking at our hotel/motel tax collections. Restaurants have seen a town turn according to tax receipts.

For us, gas prices are making an impact on who visits here, but it hasn't affected locals all that much since most people have about a 5 to 10 minute commute each day. It's more about the screeching halt to new construction and, in our case, historic restoration because of the housing market and credit crisis. A huge amount of our local population works in construction and remodeling trades.

The area farmers markets are definately busier and a lot more of our local farms are selling produce directly from their farms. I sincerely believe that is because they are seeing an increase in demand from local residents, as most visitors aren't going to keep fresh food in their cars or B&B rooms till they go home on Sunday or Monday.

Cindy