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HUNGRY FOR LUNCH IN THE SKYWAY BUT NEED TO KEEP YOUR BUDGET BALANCED?
A meal can be had for $10 or less. but it was not easy to find.
Downtown Minneapolis workers heading back to the office this summer are discovering that the price of lunch -- like most other things these days -- has gone up.
Kira Brown did a double take when she came back from parental leave in April and her lunch of a burger, fries and a drink from Five Guys rang up to almost $20.
"I've definitely noticed the prices have gone up," she said one day after finishing lunch at another eatery.
Before the pandemic, she estimates she spent more like $10 to $11 on lunch most days. So now she tries to bring lunch from home, or she pares back on things like ordering fries when she does eat out.
In the Twin Cities metro, food away from home -- in other words, food at restaurants -- spiked 8.5% in the past year. That's roughly on par with the overall level of price increases residents are facing on a whole host of prices.
With the inflation in food prices, we hit the skyways in downtown Minneapolis on a recent day to see if we could still find some lunch options for under that traditional sweet spot of $10 -- after tax. It wasn't impossible to do, but was it definitely easier to find if you don't add a drink.
Salads at the skyway hot spot Green + The Grain...
