[hkarthik]

It feels like a straw man argument. Food is a basic necessity, and there is a threshold where you grumble but still open your wallet to pay up, rather than walk away. Overtime you get de-sensitized to the higher price and the fact that the everything on the dollar menu actually cost $1.29 doesn't phase you.

I think the restaurant industry should look more holistically at options for dynamic pricing ala Uber. These could increase their margins enough to actually address the labor costs more effectively.

[CocaKoala]

Well, food is a basic necessity but restaurants aren't. Prices going up at a restaurant doesn't necessarily mean that the local Safeway needs to raise their prices as well.