Actually, I can find 38% food cost believable right now. Buying, selling and running food service and similar businesses is a side interest of mine, and I've no

Actually, I can find 38% food cost believable right now. Buying, selling and running food service and similar businesses is a side interest of mine, and I've noticed that the reported food cost of businesses for sale in the LA area have been rising in the past couple years. What used to be as low as 25% or lower is now much closer to 38% than to 25% and businesses that report lower tend to be omitting their 2010/2011 invoices from the calculation (like someone's not going to notice?). Rent and wages and people not spending as much money aren't what's cutting into profit today, it's the food cost. For example the other day, a family friend that runs a small burger/sandwich joint raised all her prices by $2 ($5 hot sandwich -> $7, combo meal $7 -> $9) because the meat she buys went from costing $40 a year ago to $100 today for the same amount of meat. That's just an extreme example, but the prices she pays for cases of lettuce and tomato and such have risen and every little bit ends up counting towards that percentage.