CHICAGO, May 14, 2025 — Menu prices continued to climb in April as grocery prices fell by the steepest margin since 2020, according to newly released federal data, widening a gap that has the food-away-from-home business struggling to pull consumers out of their home kitchens.
The price of food prepared outside of homes rose by 0.4% during the month, leaving menu charges 3.9% above where they were at the end of April 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revealed Tuesday morning.
Supermarket prices, in contrast, fell by 0.4%, holding the year-over-year increase in the price of food prepared at home by 2%. BLS had not reported a decline of that magnitude for groceries since September 2020.
Overall inflation quickened slightly during the month, with the Consumer Price Index for all measured items inching upward by 0.2%. The increase for March was clocked at 0.1%.
However, BLS noted that the acceleration was largely due to significant increases in the prices of just a few fundamental consumer goods and services. The cost of housing, for instance, rose 0.3%, or enough to drive half the increase in the overall CPI, BLS said.
The steepest increases came in utility charges. The price of the piped gas that fuels ovens and heating systems jumped during the month by 3.7%, a quantum leap in CPI terms, leaving prices 15.7% above where they were a year earlier.
Electricity prices rose 0.8% in April, for a gap over the prior year of 3.6%.
April was the third consecutive month where food-away-from-home prices rose by 0.4%. In recently reporting their first-quarter financial results, a number of public restaurant companies attributed softening traffic to a surge in cooking at home, which they in turn tied to decelerating inflation in grocery prices. A drop in traffic was especially noticeable among lower-income clientele, several of the reporting brands attested.
As Managing Editor for IFMA The Food Away from Home Association, Romeo is responsible for generating the group's news and feature content. He brings more than 40 years of experience in covering restaurants to the position.
Cover image courtesy: Closed Loop Project