New data out Tuesday showed an index for “food at home” that measures the prices of major grocery store food groups decreased 0.2 percent. Meanwhile, food “away from home,” which measures food sold at places such as full-service and fast-food restaurants, ticked up 0.2 percent in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Over the past year, the contrast is even starker. Food at home declined 1.6 percent during this period with some proteins seeing sharp decreases: to the tune of a 10.2 percent drop for ground beef and 3.4 percent for chicken. During the same period, food away from home has risen 2.8 percent.
This is good news for grocery shoppers and bad news for fast food giants, who eye the metric closely.