How long have we been talking about a looming recession at this point? Eight months? A year? Senior food and beverage editor Bret Thorn certainly started bracing for one when banks started failing in March, but the economy actually seems to be chugging along pretty well.
It’s not doing awesomely, mind you. With Q2 earnings season well underway it’s clear that April-June was a mixed bag. Traffic is declining at many restaurants as consumers are apparently fed up with rising menu prices. But many economists seem to think that we’re not going to dip into a recession in 2023. Maybe next year, but who knows?
However, restaurant goers, particularly lower-income ones, are acting a bit recessiony, which means they’re responding more to “value pricing,” but less intuitively it also means that they’re interested in beef.