Everyone knows the cost of food has soared in the past two years.

But an interesting take on the impact of that came this week from the Wall Street Journal, which looked at data from the US Department of Agriculture and found the share of foods costs versus disposable income reached a 30-year high of 11.3% on average in 2022, the most recent data available. (See graphic below.)

Source: Wall Street Journal

That share is almost certain to have risen to even higher levels in 2023.

The other bad news: “If you look historically after periods of inflation, there’s really no period you could point to where [food] prices go back down,” Steve Cahillane, chief executive of snack giant Kellanova, told the Journal in an interview. “They tend to be sticky.”

This trend course has all kinds of implications, including on demand and supply planning, margin management and more. Many consumers, for example, are moving to cheaper store brands and planning out meals weeks in advance.

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