How much would you pay for a quality burger? Some say the price is rising too high

Are consumers turning away from high-priced burgers? Some people think so, says a recent article in the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal found that lunch traffic at quick serve hamburger restaurants dropped 5 percent last year – that’s the largest year-over-year decline that market-research firm NPD Group Inc. has recorded.

Analysts say the trend of creating fancy hamburgers and rising labor costs have contributed to rising prices and a drop in customers at some restaurants. And people are eating at home more often. The NPD Group found that the average lunch burger tab, including fries and a drink, has jumped 22 percent over the past several years.

“It’s not sustainable for them to expect people to show up and spend $13 on a burger on a consistent basis,” Kurt Kane, chief concept officer at Wendy’s Co. told the Wall Street Journal.

Americans have always loved hamburgers. But starting in the 2000s, the trend of building a better burger began to take off, especially among chains like Shake Shack, Smashburger and BurgerFi. The Wall Street Journal wrote that since 2005 the number of quick-serve restaurants has nearly quadrupled to more than 2,700.

A testament to that growth has been the rise of Five Guys, which recently dethroned In-N-Out as the top burger joint, according to The Harris Poll's annual EquiTrend Study. There is a Five Guys restaurant in the Riverpark shopping center in north Fresno.

Higher-end, sit-down restaurants have also joined the burger trend. These days you can find a burger with everything from bone marrow to fig marmalade. And it isn’t unusual to pay $12 to $15 for a gourmet burger.

In the Fresno-area, over-the-top burgers remain a hot food trend. Social media is frequently buzzing about the burgers at Eureka! Fresno, Rev’s in Clovis, House of JuJu in Clovis and the Annex Kitchen in Fresno.

This story was originally published May 31, 2017 at 6:09 PM with the headline "How much would you pay for a quality burger? Some say the price is rising too high."