How people eat, shop, and work is constantly changing, and it’s changing differently from one community to the next. DoorDash’s marketplace data captures these shifts in unique detail, from what a cheeseburger meal costs to what’s going in the grocery cart.
Today, we’re releasing our second annual State of Local Commerce report. Drawing on DoorDash marketplace data from restaurants, grocers, and retailers, the report tracks affordability, new business openings, and how people live and shop, nationally and across the 100 largest U.S. cities.
“National averages are a useful starting point, but they don't tell you what people are experiencing in their own cities,” said Jessica Lachs, DoorDash’s Chief Analytics Officer. “The big picture is that restaurant price increases are slowing, some grocery and retail categories are moving in very different directions, and local businesses are remaining resilient. The interesting part is understanding how that’s playing out differently locally and where new signals on affordability are emerging, rather than averaging them away.”
Inflation has cooled at the restaurant counter
Restaurant prices are rising slower than this time a year ago. Our Restaurant Price Index, which tracks the price of the same menu items over time, rose 3.1% year over year in September, down from 3.5% a year earlier, and dollars are stretching even further for communities in Heartland and Sun Belt cities.
Prices also vary widely from city to city. Our Cheeseburger Index shows the most affordable meal in the top 100 cities in Laredo, TX ($12.75) is less than half as much as the most expensive in Anchorage, AK ($27.88).
The price divide on everyday goods
A basket of goods can tell a dramatically different story about the economy depending on what’s in it. Our Breakfast Basics basket averaged $3.95 in September, down 6.0% from last year, driven mostly by eggs: the cost of three eggs is down 14.8%, but the overall basket is relatively flat otherwise. Meanwhile, the ground meat in the grocery cart is up nearly 10% this year, while poultry is down 3%.
For consumer goods, a similar story of diverging prices across categories. As spending for consumers crests as the holidays, are approaching, we’re seeing that computers and accessories rose 7.5% year over year, while audio equipment fell 3.8%.
New businesses keep opening
Local businesses are showing staying power. Across the cities we track, new store growth averaged 18% over the past year, and our Restaurant Resilience Rate, representing the share of restaurants that stayed open, averaged nearly 93%. New store growth was highest in Jersey City, NJ (26%), Aurora, CO (26%), and Detroit, MI (26%), while Lincoln, NE had the highest resilience rate at 96%.
Where people live and work
More people are on the move. In September, 4.7% of consumers established an address in a new city, up from 4.5% a year earlier, and 2.8% moved to a new state, up from 2.6%. Office-day ordering is also shifting: in San Francisco, the share of orders delivered to offices is up nearly 30% from last year, the largest increase among the 100 cities.
About the data
The State of Local Commerce draws on anonymized, aggregated transaction data from DoorDash’s marketplace for restaurant, grocery, and retail merchants, and covers the national level and the 100 largest U.S. cities. Our full methodology is published alongside the report so economists, researchers, and anyone interested can learn more.
Explore the full report and downloadable data at https://doordash-local- commerce.com/
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