Millions of employees returning to the office after two years of working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic are finding everything from coffee to food and commuting more expensive – a phenomenon some have termed Lunchflation.
It begins with your morning commute.
As CNN reports, with gas prices hitting record highs recently, it's an expensive time to be filling up more frequently. According to AAA, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is now $4.60. In February 2020, it was $2.44.
Once you get to the office, some people like to begin with a nice up of Joe. Unfortunately, there’s more bad news.
Starbucks raised prices in the US earlier this year and in October 2021 – and prices could continue to rise, CNN reported.
“We have additional pricing actions planned through the balance of this year," said then-CEO Kevin Johnson during an analyst call in February, citing cost pressures such as inflation.
When it comes to lunch, things are little better. Especially if you’re planning on eating healthy.
Salad chain Sweetgreen raised its menu prices by 10 per cent since the start of 2021, the company said in its most recent earnings report.
"Lunchflation is 100% real, everything is more expensive," said Kelly Yau McClay, who lives in Potomac, Maryland. "Before, you could get lunch for $7 to $12. Now there is no way you can get a decent lunch for less than $15."
The hard data back up this assertion.
In April, The New York Times reported a recent analysis from technology company Square as putting the average price of wraps in March up 18 per cent from a year earlier, with sandwiches up 14 per cent and salads up 11 per cent.
Square analysed sales of popular lunchtime meals in the US over a two-year period, starting from 1 March, 2020m to 1 March, 2022, Business Insider reported.
The company examined data about increased lunch costs in major cities including San Francisco, Austin, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Seattle, and Washington DC.
The study was conducted to "understand how much consumers can expect to pay post-pandemic" for their midday meals. It "reveals a new trend of 'lunchflation,' with lunch item costs rising faster than the average cost across all other items," the company said, as per the report.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported that inflated lunch prices can prevent workers from eating out with their colleagues, putting a strain on working relationships.
Mariah Hagan, a worker interviewed by the Journal, said she has had to say no to colleagues who have asked her to join them for lunch due to financial constraints.
"It's been somewhat of a disappointment, because as food lunches have increased in price, our team lunches have decreased a little bit, so that's changed how we can meet each other," Hagan said.
As per the report, McClay had just started a job doing branding and marketing for a real estate company as everything was shutting down in April 2020. She had been working remotely full-time until October 2021. But now she's on a hybrid schedule, going in to the office three days a week, and estimates she spends around $30 to $35 a day on work-related expenses, like lunch, coffee and snack runs and parking.
Today.com quoted experts advising workers to bring their own lunches to save money. That despite groceries costing 8.6 per cent more than last year.
This comes in the backdrop of US inflation being the highest since February 1982, with the price hike affecting the cost of gas, food, and rent. The Consumer Price Index, a commonly watched measure of US inflation, surged 7.9 percent in the year through February 2022, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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