PHOENIX — It might be the luck of the Irish, but even with high inflation the traditional St. Patrick’s Day dinner is only up modestly this year.
Americans love celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with a traditional Irish Dinner.
The cost for dinner items is only up modestly compared to last year, according to the grocery store tracking company Datassembly.com.
On average, Americans are spending about $85 in total on St. Patrick’s Day dinner. It's only a 3% increase compared to 2022. About half of inflation as a whole and more than a third lower than the inflation rate for “food at home” published this week by the Labor Department.
St. Patrick’s Day food items are not bank breaking for most.
Americans will spend on average less than $20 on food. Corned beef brisket is typically the star of the show and whatever the size it costs an average of twelve percent more than last year. The total for all food items is up almost ten percent. Just under the food at home inflation rate.
The rate is brought down substantially by any alcohol being purchased.
Datassembly found the price for Irish Cream liqueur is down by 2%. Irish Whiskey is up, but only a modest 3%.
Guinness stout, the traditional Irish beer, came in with the highest inflation of alcohol products at 4%.
There is a popular saying “we are all Irish on St. Patrick’s Day.” While that may be true for one day, about 1-in-4 Arizonans report to the U.S. Census Bureau they have some Irish ancestry.
Counties reporting the highest share of people hailing from the Emerald Isle include Gila, La Paz, and Yavapai.
