$7 of gas to commute… and tack on a $17 salad to the “return to work” bill. Restaurant food prices are up 7% from last year, but go-tos like Chipotle and Starbucks saw strong sales last quarter as Americans proved willing to splurge. Sack lunches aren’t much better: prices on staples from eggs to Cheerios have soared, driving revenue for grocers like Kroger and Costco. Yet consumers may be growing resistant: grocery leader Walmart said some are switching from gallons of milk to half-gallons and trading name brands for cheaper private labels.
Sunny with a chance of blackouts… Summer forecast: hot and unstable. Fuel shortages, supply snags, and the climate crisis could prevent the US power grid from squeezing out enough juice during an extra-hot summer. Much of the country could be in for rolling blackouts. Think: brief power outages that make it hard to work and kill the A/C. Blackouts might also hit Asia, Africa, and Europe, hurting people and productivity. India’s economy may lose $100B this year from lost output during outages.