FORBES The Restaurant Industry Is Handing Grocery Retailers A Gift

Toast’s Menu Price Monitor, which draws on transaction data from more than 164,000 restaurant locations across the United States, tracks real menu pricing for the items Americans order most. The March 2026 data tells a clear and unambiguous story.

The median burger now costs $14.63, up 2.5% year-over-year. A burrito runs $13.50, up 1.8%. Cold brew coffee has climbed to $5.58, a 3.3%  annual increase. And regular drip coffee, the most mundane item on any menu, is now rising faster than everything else, up 5.4% % year-over-year to a median of $3.69. Read my Forbes column.