The article presses only a single hypothesis (food input costs going up), but I don't think the article addresses the other side of balancing the books: it may

The article presses only a single hypothesis (food input costs going up), but I don't think the article addresses the other side of balancing the books: it may just be a substantial drop in customer traffic to restaurants, even before price changes. It does seem that publicly-traded restaurants are being impacted far more than meat suppliers: https://totalrealreturns.com/s/TSN,CMG,MCD,QSR,DRI,BLMN https://totalrealreturns.com/s/TSN,CMG,MCD,QSR,DRI,BLMN I think the "Total Real Drawdowns" chart is decently instructive. See the huge dip in March 2020, then the general hopeful recovery of June 2021. Compare the red line (Tyson Foods, from the article) versus all the restaurants. With the exception of McDonald's, the restaurants are fairing worse. Would have to dig into fundamentals to get a better sense of why.