Tag / Food

by Hoosier Econ

Are Pork Prices About to Become Cheaper?

In January I blogged about hog numbers expanding. Now more expansion has happened within the state and nationally. That is good news on the supply side which hopefully equates to some lower prices.

Here is more from HoosierAgToday.com –

Indiana’s total hog and pig inventory on March 1 was estimated at 3.65 million head, up 300,000 head from a year ago, according to Greg Matli, State Statistician, of the USDA, NASS, Indiana Field Office.

United States inventory of all hogs and pigs on March 1, 2015 was 65.9 million head. This was up 7 percent from March 1, 2014, but down slightly from December 1, 2014. Breeding inventory, at 5.98 million head, was up 2 percent from last year, and up 1 percent from the previous quarter.

by Hoosier Econ

2015 Easter Retail Sales

Easter retail season is upon the United States and sales should spike this week. Here is what the National Retail Federation has projected for Easter sales:

80% of Americans said they plan to celebrate the Easter holiday this year by doling out an average $140.62 per person, up 2.3% from a year ago. Spending this Easter is expected to top $16.4 billion, up from $15.8 billion last year.

Here is a breakdown of the spending:

New clothes – $2.9 billion
Food – $5.3 billion
Candy – $2.2 billion
Gifts – $2.4 billion
Flowers – $1.1 billion
Decorations – $998 million
Greeting cards – $695 million

To this blogger, here is what my money will be spent on….

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H\T TheCityWire.com

by Hoosier Econ

Top 2014 Restaurant Franchise Sales Statistics

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New sales stats have been released for the top 50 franchise restaurants of 2014. Good numbers to look at if you are thinking about investing in one. I’m only posting the top 25, so visit StatisticBrain.com for the rest of the list. (Statistics are total sales / average store sales)

McDonald’s $35,600,000,000 / $2,600,000
Subway $12,100,000,000 / $481,000
Starbucks $10,600,000,000 / $1,223,000
Wendy’s $8,600,000,000 / $1,483,800
Burger King $8,587,000,000 / $1,195,000
Taco Bell $7,478,000,000 / $1,363,000
Dunkin’ Donuts $6,264,200,000 / $857,400
Pizza Hut $5,666,000,000 / $883,000
Chick-Fil-A $4,621,100,000 / $3,157,900
KFC $4,459,000,000 / $957,000
Panera Bread $3,861,000,000 / $2,427,200
Sonic Drive-In $3,790,700,000 / $1,074,000
Domino’s Pizza $3,500,000,000 / $710,200
Jack in the Box $3,084,900,000 / $1,379,000
Arby’s $2,992,000,000 / $993,200
Chipotle Mexican Grill $2,731,200,000 / $2,113,000
Papa John’s $2,402,400,000 / $829,000
Dairy Queen $2,300,000,000 / $545,000
Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen $2,253,000,000 / $1,242,000
Hardee’s $1,900,000,000 / $1,145,000
Panda Express $1,797,400,000 / $1,237,000
Little Caesars $1,684,000,000 / $465,000
Whataburger $1,476,800,000 / $1,996,000
Carl’s Jr. $1,400,000,000 / $1,470,000
Jimmy John’s $1,262,800,000 / $878,800

by Hoosier Econ

Beer Sales Spike When Food Stamps Received

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A study of food stamp recipients led to an interesting find for one group of college professors. Here is what they found:

When monthly food-stamp distributions fall on a weekend, beer sales to that population jump – by up to 7%.

When food stamp funds are distributed on Saturday or Sunday, monthly sales of beer jump as much as 51 ounces more a month among those eligible for food stamps, the study found. That could be a lot of booze: Close to 23 million households receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, widely known as food stamps, according to the latest government data.

Their research was very extensive and spanned several years.

This jump in beer-buying only appears for food-stamp-eligible households and not for the non-eligible households, according to the report titled “One More Saturday Night: Food Stamp Timing and Monthly Consumption Patterns.”

The authors analyzed data from Nielsen Homescan Consumer Panel Dataset, which includes purchasing information from between 40,000 and 60,000 households in the years from 2004 to 2011. Because the households each use a scanning device, the data includes detailed information about the exact products in the consumer basket including beer and tobacco. What it doesn’t include is what’s spent at bars and restaurants.

You can read the rest of Wall Street Journal article here.

by Hoosier Econ

Percent of Fuel Cost in Your Grocery Store Bill

With fuel prices dropping over the last several months, many shoppers are asking why food prices have not shown corresponding drops in prices. The asnwer may surprise you in how much fuel costs affect grocery store bills.

Annemarie Kuhns with the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service is reporting that only 4.7 cents of every dollar spent at the supermarket goes toward food transportation costs

So less than 5% of your bill is attributed to fuel costs.

by Hoosier Econ

$43 Hot Dog

hot dog

CNBC reports as the financial elite meet at Davos for the World Economic Forum they are shelling out some hefty money to eat food. Appearently hot dogs are a big seller:

Full of global leaders, policymakers, business gurus and the odd music star, the attendees at the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos aren’t short of a dollar or two. But they might well be at the end of the week — with some of the food prices around town proving to be a little hard to stomach.

At the posh Steigenberger Grandhotel Belvédère, a conference hotspot, even humble menu items can be astronomically pricey. A hot dog with pickles, fried onions and mustard is priced at 38 Swiss francs (about $43.50). It’s 48 Swiss francs for a chicken Caesar salad with parmesan (about $55) and a draft beer at a local restaurant – in a pint-sized glass – can cost 6.50 Swiss francs, about $7.50.

I really don’t know how this yearly meeting of financial gurus does for the world economy. Probably a lot of it is nostalgia. But you do get a lot of lecturing of how to live your life from these people. This does remind me of a story related to Walmart. One year during their annual board meeting of directors the financial numbers weren’t too hot. The meeting was getting close to lunch and board members were getting ready for a big spread. The door opened and it was a Walmart associate with bread, lunch meat and some chips. The members looked stunned and the director said [paraphrasing] “If we are losing money, that means we have to cut expenses”.

I think I’ll buy my hot dogs at Walmart.

by Hoosier Econ

How Much Food Does it Take to Feed 2 College Football Teams

outback bowl
Outback Steakhouse sponsors the college football bowl game “Outback Bowl”. The Aubrun Tigers take on the Wisconsin Badgers and will be played on January 1, 2015. The two teams meet for dinner sponsored by Outback Steakhouse and here is how much food was there via the Bleacher Report:

Outback Bowl dinner for Auburn & Wisconsin: 750 pounds of steak, 900 lbs. of ribs, 750 lbs. of chicken, 1,600 shrimp, 1,200 lbs. cheese cake.

by Hoosier Econ

2014 Corn & Soybean Yields Explode

corn harvest
Harvest season is wrapping up across the nation. Here is some Indiana and national stats gathered up from various sources around the internet:

Corn for grain production will set a new record in 2014 at 14.5 billion bushels on fewer acres planted compared to 2013. World corn production is also setting new records.

Soybean farmers are now expected to harvest 3.96 billion bushels, up 31 million bushels from the October estimate. Fifteen states including Indiana, Missouri and South Dakota are expected to report records for the amount of soybeans grown per acre with the average yield at 47.5 bushels per acre. Area for harvest in the United States is forecast at a record 83.4 million acres, unchanged from last month.

(Indiana) Corn yield was unchanged from last month’s projection of 186 bushels per acre. This will be a record corn yield for Indiana if realized. Corn for grain harvested acres was 5.75 million acres. Total production is still expected to weigh in at a record-breaking 1.07 billion bushels. Soybean yield at 54.0 bushels per acre was unchanged from last month’s forecast. This yield if realized will be a record for soybean yield in Indiana. The soybean harvest is anticipated to rake in 296 million bushels, which would make 2014 a record production year.

H/T Hoosieragtoday.com for recent numbers