Grocery prices remain high and it’s prompting more Americans to choose a classic, shelf-stable and budget-friendly dinner: Hamburger Helper.
The boxed meals that have filled grocery store shelves since the ’70s are meant to be mixed with cooked ground meat and can feed a family for under $11.
“It’s something that you can stretch out and feed lots of people,” Virginia Tech economics professor Jadrian Wooten said. “It’s an easy dish for a lot of families to make.”
Right now, the United States is seeing record beef prices and Hamburger Helper can help make the expensive protein last longer.
Beef prices have soared to record levels in part after drought and years of low prices led to the smallest U.S. herd size in decades. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Brazil, a major beef exporter, have also curbed imports.
The convenient, affordable meal kits — which often contain pasta and seasonings — were popular in the 1980s and ’90s. According to Wooten, Hamburger Helper sales have gone up 15% since the start of this year, which is a large increase for a single grocery item.
He said this can be a signal of changing shopping habits and consumer confidence.
“The place that people are seeing the most stress is at the grocery store,” Wooten said. “Grocery prices have not been affordable for a while.”
The trend is not surprising. During times of financial stress, like the Great Recession in 2008, consumers typically reach for lower-cost products at the grocery store — including rice, beans, pasta and peanut butter. During the pandemic in 2020, sales also spiked briefly.
“There is this sort of nostalgia that goes with some of these items, but it’s not necessarily something that people want to eat day in and day out,” Wooten said. “It’s OK to stretch in the short term, but people would like to probably get back to their normal dinners.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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