Tyler Schipper, an economics associate professor at the University of St. Thomas, was featured in media coverage discussing the latest results from the university’s annual On a Stick Index. Each year, Schipper and his students track the cost of attending the Minnesota State Fair, including admission, transportation, rides and popular fair foods, to measure how prices change over time.
The 2026 index found that State Fair prices rose about 3.1%, a significant slowdown from the previous year and more closely aligned with overall inflation. While many fair staples held steady in price, some food items saw increases, including the Turkey-to-Go turkey leg.
Schipper and the On a Stick Index were featured by:
NPR:
Joel Rose: OK. But we promised the on-a-stick index here. So what is happening with corn dogs?
Scott Horsley: 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 are 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: 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: The price for a ride on the Ferris wheel 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.
Axios:
By the numbers: The University of St. Thomas’ “On-A-Stick” fair inflation index was up 3.1% this year, much milder than last year’s 7.4% jump.
- This year’s rise is also much more comparable to the overall inflation rate of 3.4%. Last year, overall inflation hovered around 2.7%.
How it works: St. Thomas economics professor Tyler Schipper and his team of students calculate the index by tracking prices for admission, transportation, parking and rides.
- They also track the cost of 18 food and beverage staples, like the all-you-can-drink milk bar and Mouth Trap Cheese Curds.
Between the lines: Unlike last year – which saw price hikes of $2 per ticket and $5 for parking – the cost of most other items held more or less steady this year.
KSTP:
“What drew me into this project was the opportunity to connect classroom learning to real life, and especially a Minnesotan tradition like the State Fair,” Hidanshi, a University of St. Thomas student, said.
Another St. Thomas student, Vuyo, added: “It was so fun to have concepts from school and applying them to actual real-life situations, like calculating inflation at the State Fair and being able to publish some of that data and helping everyday individuals understand economics, understand what’s happening in their country, in their state and just able to be conscious about their spending at the State Fair and how that changes every year.”
WCCO Radio:
Jason DeRusha: Well, there are so many things. There are more than 2,000 things you can buy from vendors at the State Fair. So, are you tracking beer price?
Schipper: Yes. One beer price.
DeRusha: One beer price.
Schipper: There’s a mini-donut beer in there because when we had to decide on what to put in this index, that was always going to be controversial. That gave me nightmares ahead of time. How are we not going to offend Minnesotans by not including their thing in here?
So we did a survey. We asked people what’s the quintessential Minnesota State Fair thing, and I’m not a big beer drinker, but we had several people who filled out the survey say, “I always go for the mini-donut beer,” and we’re like, well, that’s a fun beer item to put in the index.
DeRusha: Makes sense.
Schipper: Hopefully, it moves overall with other beer prices, so that we’re not too far off. But you’re absolutely right that choosing what goes in here, how to deal with new products coming out, how to deal with people changing their behavior over time. Those are actually all the teachable moments that I get to have with the students each year. That we’re going to be talking about how to change these things over time.
So, right before we went on, one of the things we’re talking about is that if you’re like me and I’ve noticed what size lemonades everybody has, last year at the fair it was all 16-ounce lemonades. This year, everybody’s upgraded to 32-ounce lemonades.
So, we got to start figuring out how to shift over to measuring those 32-ounce lemonades instead of the 16-ounce, but also make sure that doesn’t lead to a one-time jump in the index. So next year we’ll start gathering the data. The year after that we’ll include an index and kind of keep going from there.
FOX 9:
This year, the report found that fair inflation rose 3% – a much milder increase compared to last year’s 7% jump. Admission and parking costs both remained the same from last year.
Researchers also tracked 18 food and beverage staples, and several of the most beloved options held their prices steady.
Sweet Martha’s Cookies, roasted corn and Dairy Barn Malts were all unchanged this year.
The one item that stung
Not everything stayed flat, however.
The turkey leg from Turkey to Go is up to $20 this year – one of the more noticeable price hikes at the fair. In 2025, it was $18.
KARE 11:
“The reason we saw such a high price increase in that category is because those prices might stay the same for several years and then they go from $6 to $7 in a year and that shows up as a 16% increase for that ride, but when you zoom out and average it out over several years the increase is more modest,” Schipper said.
He added that admission prices and parking rates are also affected by sudden price increases of a dollar or more at a time, and those larger increases can greatly affect the numbers.
This year the “On a Stick Index” project has expanded into other research projects that are led by students like sophomore Hitanshi Gaudani and senior Kaylee Cantelon.
“I’m looking into what makes a vendor price their product. We are also looking at Pronto Pups and how there are eight locations where you can purchase them at the fair, but we are seeing which stand is truly the most affordable when you consider how much time you have to wait in line to get them, because time is money, even though the actual price is the same across each stand,” Cantelon said.
