Canada's favourite lunch items got costlier over two years, but one went down in price

As Canadians return to the office, they’re going out to buy lunch more, but those lunch bills have spiked compared to the pre-pandemic days.

On March 16, Statistics Canada revealed that Canadian consumer prices increased 5.7% year over year, up from a 5.1% gain in January — the largest gain since August, 1991.

But new research from technology provider Square has determined that the lunch bill is now outpacing inflation, even with Canada seeing one of its worst inflation periods ever.

They’re calling it the “lunchflation” trend. Some of the country’s favourite lunch items are rising much faster than the average cost of all other items.

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Square studied market data in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa and Saskatoon. The data consists of payment transactions from quick-service restaurants within Canada on March 1, 2020, March 1, 2021, and March 1, 2022, and the analysis is based on the price of the lunch items on a 28-day rolling average.

What they found may not be shocking since we’re the ones paying these lunch prices every day, but when compared to 2020, it sure looks jarring.

Square revealed that hamburger prices have gone up 26% from an average of $8.61 to $10.96. Goodbye, sweet days of under-$10 lunches.

Salads are up 25% ($10.11 to $12.63), soup prices have risen 24% ($6.13 to $7.60), and wraps now cost 15% more ($8.90 to $10.26).

But there’s one favourite that has truly been the people’s lunch item: the taco.

The report revealed that the average price of tacos had been decreasing since before the pandemic, but had gone down a further 16% since March 2020.

It might be a good idea to head over to your local Mexican restaurant and order some fresh tacos. After all, they’ve been there for us during these bad, money-stricken times.

Good thing tacos are gangbusters delicious.