In a recent study conducted on Yelp, more customers than ever are writing reviews mentioning higher costs of prices at their favorite restaurants. In the first quarter of 2022, inflation hit record highs since the 1980’s. Many restaurants are reporting having to increase the prices of their menu items or cut back on portion size offerings; however, the restaurants are seeing little to no decline in the amount of pushback they are receiving from customers. People are continuing to go out and buy what they want and understand that the higher prices are due to the state of our economy.

The article noted “the higher prices don’t seem to have caused consumers to go looking for cheaper options. In fact, searches for lower-priced restaurants (designated by a single “$” on Yelp) decreased by 13 percentage points in Q1 compared to the same quarter in 2019, according to the report. Meanwhile, searches for higher-priced restaurants ($$$ or $$$$) have increased over that period and made up 43% of queries in the first quarter, Yelp said.”

At some point, inflation may start affecting the consumer behavior to cut back on things they enjoy, however, people still want to go out and enjoy a nice meal. This study is very reassuring during these turbulent and unforeseen times.

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Consumers are venting about menu prices, but not always acting on it (restaurantbusinessonline.com)