Restaurants are in a stronger financial position now than they were before the pandemic.

This week’s episode of A Deeper Dive features Michael Swanson, an agricultural economist and consultant for Wells Fargo.

Swanson has been on the podcast before and talks about the current and future state of food costs. Commodity price inflation hammered the industry last year. Those costs have started to ease already and Swanson talks about what to expect come 2023.

We also talk about the state of the industry after the pandemic. Restaurants that survived the pandemic are in better shape. Profits actually soared in 2021, thanks to the combination of government assistance and improving sales. And though margins were squeezed in 2022 because of inflation, it still puts the industry in a better position heading into a potential recession.

In addition, Swanson talks about why consumers remain reluctant to cut much from their food spending in a downturn.