JOEL ROSE, HOST:
It's hard to escape inflation these days, even at the state fair. This is opening weekend for the Minnesota State Fair, and an economist in St. Paul, Minnesota, has been tracking the cost of corn dogs and funnel cakes to compile what he calls the on-a-stick price index. This is the kind of hard-hitting investigation that makes NPR's Scott Horsley salivate, and he joins us now in the studio. Hey, Scott.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Hey, Joel. Good to be with you.
ROSE: So a lot of economic reporting this week was focused on Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where the Federal Reserve chairman gave a closely watched speech about inflation. But this cost-of-living story takes place about 1,100 miles east. Take us there.
HORSLEY: Yeah. Just about the time central bankers and economists were converging on the Jackson Lake Lodge in Wyoming, Minnesotans were making their way to the state fairgrounds to see some 4-H exhibits and ride the Ferris wheel and, of course, eat some fried food. Tyler Schipper, who is an economist at the University of St. Thomas, has been monitoring annual price changes at the fair, along with a team of students. They're called the Purple Price Trackers for the school's colors, and Schipper says they fan out across the fairgrounds, record the price of food and attractions and do a little snacking.
TYLER SCHIPPER: They have more or less carte blanche to buy food while they're there at the fair. But they get hot, and they get tired. And they're ready to leave the fair before they get their full fair food in.
HORSLEY: Funnel cake prices jumped pretty sharply this year, but the price of all-you-can-drink milk was the same as last year. And the price of soft drinks, or pop, as people say in Minnesota, was actually down just a little bit.
ROSE: OK. But we promised the on-a-stick index here. So what is happening with corn dogs?
HORSLEY: Yeah. This is very interesting. Schipper's price index makes a distinction between Minnesota's brand-name sausage-on-a-stick, Pronto Pups, and the more generic corn dogs.
SCHIPPER: Pronto Pups are much more associated with being a Minnesota State Fair staple. Hence, it gets its own item in our index. But people get hungry, and there's lots more corn dog openings, and so we wanted to include corn dogs in the index as well.
HORSLEY: And the prices have diverged. Corn dog prices were actually down a bit this year, but the price of Pronto Pups was up about 7%. So unlike what we're seeing in supermarkets around the country, people don't seem to be trading down from the brand name to generics when it comes to corn dogs. Now, I will say Pronto Pup prices had not changed at all for the last couple of years, so there may be a little catch-up going on there.
ROSE: OK. Well, take us up to the top of the Ferris wheel and give us the big picture. What is happening with fair prices overall?
HORSLEY: Yeah. The price for a ride on the Ferris field (ph) actually hasn't changed since 2023. It's just kind of circling in place. But the overall cost of living on a stick was up 3.1% this year. That's a smaller price hike than the last couple of years at the fairground. So inflation at the fair is cooling a bit, just as it is with the cost of living overall. However you measure it, though, inflation is still higher than most people would like. Schipper says affordability remains a big concern for a lot of people throughout the year, even if they do splurge a little bit when they're at the state fair.
SCHIPPER: A lot of the people that we talk to are like, you know, when we go to the fair, we're not trying to think about - we can afford this corn dog but not that Pronto Pup, or can we get the big bucket or not? It's kind of a special event. And so people are generally opening their wallets when they get to the fair. But we did have some of those repeat goers saying that it's gotten more expensive, and they just don't go as much as they used to.
HORSLEY: Schipper told me he's actually going back to the fair tomorrow to do some important follow-up research, including a check on the size of those giant turkey legs. And if you want to do some research of your own, the Minnesota State Fair runs through Labor Day.
ROSE: That is NPR's Scott Horsley. Thank you, Scott.
HORSLEY: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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