Here’s Where a Spicy Tuna Roll Will Cost You the Most
- New York remains priciest, Bloomberg Sushinomics Index shows
- New Orleans sushi prices lowest; Houston, Wilmington decline
A spicy tuna roll
Photographer: Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images
America’s overall inflation may be tepid, but sushi aficionados aren’t feeling it.
The cost of a basic sushi roll has risen 2.3 percent over the past year to $6.99, with some of the steepest increases in sunny Florida, Silicon Valley and the nation’s capital, according to Bloomberg’s Sushinomics Index, which tracks the average cost of California and spicy tuna rolls in 25 major U.S. cities. The gains far outstrip the 0.9 percent year-over-year inflation the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported nationally for food in general, and it’s stronger than the 1.9 percent overall consumer price gain in the 12 months through May.
The tab for a basic roll in Miami rose 10 percent to $8.15, the largest among the 25 cities, followed by an 8.7 percent increase in San Jose, California, to $6.52. New York remains the priciest at $8.72.
The price discrepancies demonstrate that consumer inflation isn’t monolithic: someone in Philadelphia, where the cost of basic rolls had stayed flat in the past five years, is having a different experience than a spicy-tuna lover in San Jose. While sushi is just one item in a broad price index and it’s responsive to conditions in the fish market, it’s also a loose proxy for how far a dollar is going in different cities across the nation.