Cheap, but popular NJ breakfast item that slowly doubled in price

Price hikes are an unfortunate part of life in New Jersey. I wish I had different news to share about that but it's just how it works. Fortunately, we're better prepared to handle it thanks to our already high cost of living.

But when you add in the uncertainty of tariffs in today's political climate, most throughout the Garden State are especially anxious with what prices on everyday items will look like in the near future.

Here are just a few of those items that most living in New Jersey are keeping a very close eye on.

The expensive cheap breakfast foods

There's no telling quite yet what the prices for the above items are going to do long term. Eggs in particular have skyrocketed even before any tariffs potentially take hold.

But outside of that, sometimes it's the small, cheaper items that you really have to keep an eye on. Coffee is one of them, but there's another that recently caught my eye that has literally doubled in price over just a couple of years.

This example comes from Wawa, but they're not the only ones. Take a look at how much the fast food hashbrowns are nowadays.

Just a penny away from $2. But it wasn't that long ago when that price was just 99 cents.

The Hashbrown Companion

I think because the price of hashbrowns is so low to begin with that most people never realized that they actually have doubled in price.

I'm sure that's also the case with coffee. Not the fancy stuff, I'm talking about the basic everyday coffee.

Like the hashbrown, coffee was also around a dollar. Nowadays, it seems the only time it's ever that cheap is when there's a special promotion going on.

This Is Not OK

But bringing it back to the hashbrown, it's easy to see how this one's overlooked. Seldom would you ever hear of a special for just hashbrowns alone.

And since this particular breakfast item is still relatively cheap, most of us are probably still grabbing them and not giving it a second thought.

That is, until it hits you like a ton of bricks. In just a short few years, a simple fast food hashbrown has practically doubled in price, and that is not OK.

The above post reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 Sunday morning host & content contributor Mike Brant. Any opinions expressed are his own.