Posted on 11/03/2011 8:26:01 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
A surge in food prices this year is impacting local grocery stores and restaurants, which in turn affects the people buying food from these places.
But in many cases, owners of eateries and shopping venues say they have little choice but to raise prices to keep up with costs.
“Oh yeah, prices have gone up like crazy,” said Mike Hetelekides, owner of The Villager Restaurant and Diner in Canandaigua. “We can’t keep up.”
The U.S. Agriculture Department said last week that it expects retail food prices to increase 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent this year, after climbing just 0.8 percent in 2010.
Jo Natale, the director of media relations at Wegmans, said a couple factors have led to the increase.
“Higher commodity costs, higher energy costs and a greater demand for food globally has contributed to driving food costs up,” said Natale. “Cost increases are pretty consistent across the board.”
She said that specific commodity costs that have increased include wheat, corn, soy and anything that feeds on those three foods. Transportation costs are also up, she added, which factors into the pricing.
For restaurants, there are other things to consider, aside from just the price of the food specifically.
Hetelekides said his establishment changed its menus — and prices — just over a year ago, and as a result, hasn’t raised the prices again to keep up with the more recent inflating food costs. That’s mostly because it would cost too much to change the menus, he said.
But with the steady rise in flour, bread, meat and especially coffee prices, he fears they’ll have to change those menus sooner, rather than later.
“There’s nothing else you can do,” he said. “It’s easier for distributors to raise prices, but restaurants have to deal with customers.”
Some customers may still go to their favorite spots even with a slight increase in cost.
“We changed prices (over a year ago) because of the economy, but it didn’t take that much of a toll on our business,” said Helen Hendershot, a waitress at The Villager in Canandaigua. “We still have our regulars.”
Hetelekides said a majority of customers will understand why restaurants need to adjust pricing.
“Most people understand,” he said. “They’ll see the changes for themselves at the supermarket.”
However, some supermarkets — like Wegmans — have taken measures to combat those changes.
“We committed in February to keeping prices of 40 items frozen, and to keep those prizes frozen through 2011,” Natale said referring to “everyday items” like bananas, ground beef, baby-cut carrots and some coffee products. Spread out through different categories, flavors and varieties, this impacted about 200 products, she said.
Natale said she didn’t know where the prices on those products would stand after 2011.
“Beyond that, we do our best to consider prices for customers,” she said. “We check competitors’ prices regularly as well.”
Yeh, that Picture looks like it. Your welcome.
I need to stretch my coffee too.
We watched “Great Depression Cooking with Clara” on YouTube. Since then, my girls are looking to nature for salad. Now I can add Chicory to the list of things they should get.
We have also collected wild blackberries, persimmons, rose hips, butternuts and walnuts. I think it’s really neat. All these years we had this stuff, but never really took advantage of it.
When we started clearing out our vacant lot, to put in a garden, we discovered all this other stuff. Who knew what was hiding in the briar patch? LOL. I think it is great that your girls are taking an interest in this.
You could also add dandelion greens (high in vitamin C) to your list. Actually my husband about 35 years ago read Euell Gibbons books, and went around for several months eating wild plants and flowers. Then he lost interest, but I still have the books somewhere, so I need to try and find them.LOL.
Reducing portion sizes is a common way for manufacturers/producers to hide price increases. However, it still shows in inflation calculations.
Yeah, food’s rising. Tell me bout it...shesh....higher than a hawks nest.
I just went to the store this morning ( actually 2 different ones to hit the sales ) and spent way over 100 bucks , used ***a lot*** of coupons and went to put stuff away and I said to myself WTF did I get ?
Good think the hubby dont go because he’d die right there in the isle of total shock. He dont believe me how much food has risen, even in just 6 months to a year.
Good thing for coupons I tell ya. I saved almost 60 bucks today with them. Would have saved even mmore but some of the things I wanted/needed and had coupons for, were out of stock.
You mentioned Dandelion greens. That caught my attention and wanted to let ya know of a “Dandy burger” recipe my friend often fixes in the Spring during our re-enactment events.
I thought they’d be disgusting but I came home that weekend and made some myself. They are delicious and I’m not into that kind of stuff.
You take just the yellow part of the dandelions, mix some chopped onion with it and some flour and a weensy bit of milk to make them “sticky”.
Then you pat them into burger sizes and fry them.
Dip them in ranch dressing or in a mix that my friend makes with sour cream and sweet N sour dressing. OMG mouthwatering.
Oh, and salt and pepper to taste.
You need a GOB of the dandelion heads. You dont want any of the greens in this mix because it’ll make it bitter tasting.
But can save the green leaves for other things.
Gotta try this next spring. I highly recommend it.
You’re lying; TV said there was no inflation, and so it must be true.../s
“One candy bar downsized and had the audacity to advertise “Less Fat”.”
That’s great; Newspeak for the Khmer Rouge diet.
Obama’s October surprise right before the election: the average American has lost 75 pounds due to his wookie’s crusade, and no Americans smoke anymore because Obama led the way in quitting (officially, that is).
Inflation is caused by to many dollars chasing to few goods. Having said that, all of the stimulus is aimed ant unemployment/WIC/food stamps/EBT etc. is free money. It’s value has greatly diminished basically free money for the poor so they are having a field day with it, jacking up the prices and demand.
Your hard earned dollars are competing with the “poors” free government dollars to buy food.
When our town got a Wal-Mart years ago people were afraid the “hardware store on Main Street” would close; I believe they’ll actually close our Shop-Rite and Pathmark as well. Their prices are the best in town for groceries, though you’re up to your armpits in welfare recipients.
These people are lying. Food prices have already risen by double-digits. The books are being cooked. The next President will find that after his first day in office, unemployment will have risen to 14% and inflation will have risen to 12%. The truth will eventually catch up with you.
And as we all know, the government’s “solution” isn’t going to be the logical thing (like scaling back the government and doing things to try and strengthen the dollar), but more of the same thing that caused it. Wonder how long it’ll be before we see rationing, registration of food supplies and lovely commercials glorifying the whole shebang.
Isn’t government great?/s
True, which the media never really delves into, the more self reliant (see Conservative, with a capital “C”) realized this and planted gardens in Spring 2011.
And some switched to bike commuting, like I have.
“Economy: The rising cost of eating”
Just added a couple of steers to the farm. Now two steers, 12 chickens and two turkeys although the turkeys will be gone by Christmas ;-)
Going to add on a couple of milk cows in the spring (tax return investment) and still considering rabbits for white meat.
1/3 acre garden gets planted in May and harvested and canned in September.
Food will not be an issue here next year. Power bills? that could end up dinging us a bit.
Remember all the “shortages” that popped up in the Carter era? I think we’re starting to see these in the Baraqqi era too.
Big agriculture is exporting more food to Asia and other areas—especially beef.
How many of the people who come up with these numbers do you think actually goes grocery sopping themselves? Anyone who actually buys groceries knows that these government numbers are bogus.
We’re planting and canning. Greenhouse is next. I don’t think many people realize how bad things are going to get!
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