Posted on 06/26/2021 4:57:55 PM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
Food prices are surging in grocery stores and restaurants, hitting small businesses very hard.
“They haven’t gone up. They’ve almost doubled,” said Nick Rando, owner of an Italian restaurant in Natick, Massachusetts. Rando said that in January, red meat and steak cost him $7.35 a pound. “Last week, it was $13.20 a pound.”
People in Massachusetts have been complaining about the rising costs of other food products like produce, meat and prepared foods. But this phenomenon isn’t just happening in one state. According to the National Bureau of Labor Statistics, the price of cereal and bakery items have risen by five percent. Fruit and vegetable prices have risen by one percent and dairy products are up by 0.6 percent.
Restaurant owners like Rando buy their products in bulk, and they can see the rising costs when everything is added up. “You see it at the register, but when you’re buying like 300 pounds a week and all, then it starts to hurt,” said Rando.
Restaurants forced to raise prices to remain profitable To avoid operating at a loss, Rando has had to raise the prices on his restaurant’s menu. This is something that’s happening at restaurants all over the country.
Chipotle Mexican Grill recently raised its prices by as much as four percent across the menu to help offset rising food and labor costs. The restaurant chain recently hiked the hourly pay for its workers up to $15 an hour.
“There are some inflation pressures that we’re all feeling, the whole industry is feeling, even outside our industry is feeling – right now it’s labor,” said Chipotle Chief Financial Officer Jack Hartung. “If you lose the staffing game in this business, it’s not going to end well.”
Other nationwide restaurant chains have also shown their willingness to increase menu prices. McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said he was willing to cover the rise in labor costs with “judicious pricing on the menu.” McDonald’s recently raised hourly wages at company-owned stores by 10 percent.
Other restaurant chains like KFC and Wendy’s are rolling back their discounted combo and value meal options. Instead, these chains are promoting their costlier menu items to boost sales and offset the increasing cost of food and labor.
“We have seen prices that we’ve never seen before,” said Jim Tselikis, the co-owner of seafood restaurant chain Cousins Maine Lobster.
“We’re just seeing this continuing ramp-up of demand on the lobster system,” said Annie Tselikis, Jim’s sister and the other co-owner.
Rise in food prices reflect global breakdown of supply chains Food prices in the U.S. are rising in tandem with a broader inflation trend. Labor, vehicle and fuel costs have all risen. This has affected the price of consumer goods.
In May, consumer prices in America hit their highest level in 13 years after they rose five percent from the previous year.
“We are in a period of unprecedented commodity inflation,” said Unilever CEO Alan Jope.
Global supply chains have also been breaking down. Severe drought, shipping delays, the aforementioned labor shortage and other issues have made food and other key commodity items more difficult to obtain.
The drought in countries like Brazil and Argentina has driven up the prices of food products like soybeans, corn and coffee. The shipping delays have been caused mostly by a global shortage of shipping containers. This shortage has made it more difficult to transport goods, causing delays. These delays have made transportation costs surge, which in turn has affected virtually every commodity in the U.S.
As restaurants continue to hike their prices, experts believe the prices will only begin evening out when the problems plaguing the supply chain disappear. But no one knows how long the crisis will last.
The regular Wendys hamburger now looks like the kids size.
The bag of chips I used to eat went from 2.5 oz down to 1.95 oz
Now we have Biden and real incompetency.
How's that working out for you democRATS?
Making everyone suck air with this loser in the Oval Office.
POTUS Trump was far from perfect but I do believe the Trump era could have been the greatest years of America in my lifetime (born in 1969). I can easily say the * years are absolutely the worst and for which I never thought could happen.
Time to buy oil stocks.....100 dollars a barrel in the near future...
Will offset the 3.50 a gallon gas.... most have doubled in the last four months...
Cans of tuna are now starting to look like the same size as cat food tins.
Even the Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger or Double-Stack w/Cheese?
I used to pay $1.29 for the former and $1.99 for the latter.
Haven’t gone there in years though.
Time to break out the pressure canner again…..
Mr mm has been buying pipe for a propane hook up and the price of that has doubled in a week or two.
And the quality is terrible.
Mr. mm just bought a new chain saw and he had to search to find one that did NOT have computer chips in it.
He wanted something completely mechanical that he could repair himself and not have to replace if the components died.
Ooohh Yeah! Bought a friend breakfast at IHOP yesterday. I had an omelette and coffee. He had a basic egg/pancake breakfast and water. $28! I didnt look at the ticket but i bet they charged me like $3 for that cup of coffee.
Very good advice.
Why do young people still flock to the big cities?
At the grocery store here in Central TX, a head of iceberg lettuce was $3.09 this am. This was at the largest TX based grocery chain. Fancier head lettuce, Bibb, romaine, etc cost even more.
Thanks for posting...
“Time to buy oil stocks.....100 dollars a barrel in the near future...”
___________________________________________
I wouldn’t put all the money in oil stocks.
My portfolio has money in oil stocks and let me assure you that there are A WHOLE LOT OF IDIOTS in those boardrooms, as well.
I mean, there are days that I swear, they are out to sink their own companies.
Like, working for China would be their main gig and destroying the oil companies in this country FROM WITHIN is what China is paying them to do.
Sigh.
Off my soapbox.
I think it tasted a bit like soylent green. 😀
Probably smaller portions indeed.Where’s the beef?
Also perhaps a cost cutting method: little
machines on your table top to pay.Seen
them at Olive Garden and Applebees. You add the tip etc and use your card. May be quicker if you’re in a hurry and want to pay and head out.
Recently at a Cracker Barrell they apologized for having only one server in a huge room. Who wants to work?
Also there’s an option to pay on your
phone.
99 chain in New England: URL on your bill
with code to enter and use phone to pay.
Of course places like TGIFridays, 99 etc have loyalty programs to get free items.
Dominos pizza program, get a free one after getting 60 points.
IHOP does pancakes well. I don’t go there often but get the urge sometimes. Then
I get the bill and say to myself, ok I had omelette with pancakes and they were fairly good but expensive now...why did I
bother coming?
Recently I got the urge to do IHOP again
and went to a Revere MA location, a tiny
one that had been there a long time.
Sorry, 20 min wait but go to your car
(no wait space inside) and we’ll text you.
Once I got in service was fast, food
half decent, price a bit much...
Drought, crop failures, inflation, and everything else is starting to really weigh on businesses and people.
We get the gov’t we deserve.
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