CPI: food away from home
Also called: food away from home · cpi restaurant
Food away from home is the Consumer Price Index component tracking what consumers pay at restaurants. Food at home tracks groceries. The two diverge regularly, and the gap explains a lot of guest reaction to menu prices.
For an operator it has one very practical use: it is the answer to "how does my price increase compare to everyone else's?" If restaurant prices generally rose and yours didn't, you have room. If yours rose faster, you're the one guests will notice.
| Series | Measures | Use it to |
|---|---|---|
| Food away from home | Menu prices consumers pay at restaurants | Judge whether your increase is in line with the market |
| Food at home | Grocery prices | Understand guest price sensitivity — a grocery spike changes dining-out behaviour |
| PPI, food inputs | Wholesale prices producers charge | See cost pressure before it reaches your invoice |
| BLS average price series | Actual dollar prices for specific foods | Benchmark a single ingredient against the national level |
The gap between the first two is the one worth watching. When groceries rise faster than restaurant menus, dining out looks relatively better value and traffic tends to hold; when the reverse happens, guests trade down. Neither is something you control, and both change what a price increase costs you.
The guide that works it through
How to Raise Menu Prices Without Losing Regulars
Which dishes to raise, by how much, when to do it, and how to communicate it — plus the break-even volume math that shows how much room you actually have.
Related terms
Commodity index
A tracked measure of what a food commodity costs nationally — the benchmark that separates a market move from a vendor move.
Price creep
Small, frequent supplier price increases that individually look ignorable and collectively remove several points of margin a year.
Menu price
The price a dish is sold at — set from plate cost, target margin, and what the dish is worth in the room.