It's not just SF. The $10 lunch of 2015 is now $15. Default tipping of 20% on things that we never tipped on in 2015 (takeout, fast food) is also adding alot to the total cost.
I don't know how people are affording the various delivery services and their fees on top of it.
A random stall by the road in LA will charge you $10 flat and the same one in SF will ask for $20. Neither will have a screen for tips. THAT would make your SF purchases simply stratospheric. I have lived in Jersey City, NJ and New Orleans, LA. Neither one holds a candle to LA prices outside some random roadside vendors. Walmarts in greater LA are vastly more expensive than those in NOLA. But grocery shopping in SF is straight up nightmare where they dont seem to respect Murican money all that much if at all. LA could never.
I see a lot of references to a “K-shaped” economy where there happens to be enough well-off people who are continuing to spend to push prices further upward, even though more people are forced to cut back since they can’t afford higher prices. There’s still enough people ordering $14 burritos and having them delivered in order to sustain both $14 burritos and the delivery companies.
It’s the same with the RAM situation. Prices will continue to skyrocket as long as there are enough buyers paying whatever prices the sellers set.
I don't know how people are affording the various delivery services and their fees on top of it.