Fast-casual meal deals are upon us
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What are fast-casual meal deals and why are they trending?
uncertainty has been the economic buzzword for some time now. Will it continue to be the way we describe the economy in the months to come? From American Public Media, this is Marketplace.
In New York, I'm Kristen Schwab. And for Kai Risdahl, it's Friday, February 27th. It's good to be here with you. As always on Fridays, we cover seven days of this economy in seven-ish minutes. With us today is Anna Swanson, who covers trade and economics at The New York Times. Also, Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. Hello, you two.
Happy Friday.
Happy Friday. So, Anna, I guess unsurprisingly, I want to start with tariffs. Since the Supreme Court ruling last week, President Trump created a patchwork of tariffs to keep his policies going. Can you update us on where things stand right now?
Yeah, it's been quite a ride over here in tariff land. So last Friday, of course, while I was trying to be on vacation, the Supreme Court overturned the president's tariffs, which was Just a really dramatic rebuke of a central policy for the president. Trump, you know, then immediately replaced those old tariffs with a new 10 percent global tariff. He has threatened to raise that to 15 percent, but that has not actually come to pass at this point. So for now, it's 10 percent. But that tariff has an expiration date. It only lasts for 150 days without congressional approval, which seems kind of unlikely at this point with the midterms approaching and people concerned about tariffs increasing prices.
So the administration is working on a variety of other new tariffs that could come into effect potentially this summer to replace it. So it's been a really dramatically shifting landscape for companies, you know, trying to figure out what these new tariffs could be. And these terms of trade translate into a lot of money for them. So they're watching it very closely, obviously.
Yeah, Ana, I think, you know, at first we weren't sure what companies were going to do about this, how intensely they would kind of proceed forward with lawsuits. And it seems like a lot of them have filed.
Yeah, I think that is an insurance policy right now. So you are seeing high profile companies like Costco, FedEx, you know, going to court to sued to try to preserve a refund. Of course, doing this brings you into the firing line for the Trump administration. Companies are also kind of wary of raising their hand. And, you know, someone was telling me being perceived as dancing on the grave of the Trump administration's You know, tariff policy right after it has failed. So there are upsides and downsides to this. I think there's just a lot of uncertainty about the refund process, whether or not companies even need to do this to ensure that refund. But for them, there's a lot of money at stake, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars potentially.
Well, tariffs are certainly a big part of the uncertainty picture that we're seeing in the economy right now.
How are inflation and rising costs affecting consumer behavior?
There's also geopolitical tensions, you know, a new headline about AI almost every day, it feels like. Heather, I'm wondering if you feel like the level of uncertainty is higher or lower than it was six or so months ago. And in real terms, what does that mean for the economy?
Go ahead.
Yeah, it's a hard time to be an economist. You can make a prediction on Friday that could be obsolete by Monday. So don't forget private credit is also in the mix there. I mean, look, is it higher than six months ago? I think it's hard to say it's really come down a lot. And it's no surprise that we're in a hiring recession, that companies are pretty hesitant to hire an environment like this and hesitant to invest much outside of artificial intelligence. But let me throw one more interesting twist in the mix, Kristen. You know, look, 2026 from an economic perspective, it kind of looks like a toddler on a sugar high.
Yeah.
There's just a lot of things that are juicing the economy up right now. The tax refunds, the lower interest rates. We're at a four-year low for the mortgage rates at Navy Federal.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are fast-casual meal deals and why are they trending?
0:01–3:18
2
How are inflation and rising costs affecting consumer behavior?
3:18–5:58
3
What impact do new tariffs have on the economy?
5:58–9:10
4
How is data center construction influencing GDP growth?
9:10–13:14
5
What are the risks of Rent Now, Pay Later services?
13:14–16:46
6
How do meal deals compare across different restaurant chains?
16:46–20:17
7
What strategies are restaurants using to retain customers?
20:17–23:55
8
How is AI being integrated into the restaurant industry?
23:55–25:33