In this section we pick up where we left off on in our analysis for consumer prices. Here we look at the year on year change in the consumer price indexfor all items in the New York metropolitan area versus the change in the consumer price in the for food far from home. When we examine this data for thepast 12 years beginning in 1998 we find that the change for both these indices are reasonably corelated, in that they both have been increasing albeitat slightly different paces over the years. During some years like in 1998 the annual change in the CPI for all items was 1.6% and for the CPI for food away from home for the New York metropolitan area was 2.7%, but on the whole the average change over the years in both these indices has beenthe same - 3%.

It is important to understand that over the long run the consumer prices for any one component of the consumer price index will most probably followthe index itself, but in any one given year there may be substantial differences in the change of these prices. We at A Taste for Tuscany always look atthe consumer price index for all items to understand what kind of pressure our consumers are facing but also look at the more specific and pertinentconsumer price index for food away from home to determine our own pricing strategy. If we find that our competitors are raising prices, we may chooseto keep our prices the same or often specials and discounts in different packaging to keep the volume of traffic flowing while maintaining lower margins especially in sluggish economic times.

Quick Links:

1. Go to the Corresponding Template section for this industry.
2. Go to the Corresponding Questionnaire section for this industry.