Inflation comes for your oysters

Experts say the buck-an-oyster deal of yore is all but dead, with some noting restaurants have hiked prices as high as $2.50 apiece.

Americans are shelling out more for oyster happy hours. Experts say the buck-an-oyster deal of yore is all but dead, with some noting restaurants have hiked prices as high as $2.50 apiece. Oyster happy hours are just the latest piece of American life that’s gotten more expensive as prices have muscled higher in recent years. While the US Federal Reserve has made progress in beating back the rate of price increases, inflation has remained stubbornly above target, and Americans have been paying more for everything from groceries to rent to, yes, hanging out at their neighborhood bar for an oyster deal with friends. Wholesale oyster prices soared to triple digit highs in 2022 and only began coming down late last year. But general inflation forced retailers to raise store prices to avoid losses on their excess oyster stock, even as sales and wholesale costs trended downwards, according to Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute’s most recent report. In decades past, oysters were plentiful and (relatively) cheap — a good combination for bar food. “Historically, Americans would consume a lot of wild oysters, and because they were so abundant, they were at such a low price,” said Julie Qiu, co-founder of the Oyster Master Guild, a New York City-based organization focused on oyster education. “People kind of anchored their perception of oysters being a cheap food until all the wild oysters pretty much went away.”