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FILE — In this Sept. 30, 2020 file photo, tables are spaced allowing for proper social distancing as customers lunch at Katz’s Delicatessen, in New York. New York City restaurants will be able to reopen for indoor dining at one-quarter capacity by Valentine’s Day and big weddings can return statewide in March if infection rates continue to drop, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday, Jan. 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) – From sticker shock at the supermarket to the soaring prices at restaurants, everyone is paying more for just about everything.
According to the Consumer Price Index, the cost of food has increased an average of 3.6-percent — that’s the biggest increase since 1979. The hike in prices is having an impact on local restaurants across the Southern Tier, including Elmira’s Barb’s Soup’s On Cafe.
“Prices have not just gone up 10 or 15-percent, things have gone up anywhere from 20-percent to double [the price],” Barb’s Soup’s owner Barbara McClure said.
The biggest increase pertains to meat, which is up nearly nine-percent. It’s not just the price of food increasing, the cost of things like takeout containers have doubled in some cases.
The rising costs are forcing some local restaurants, like Barb’s to consider hiking their prices.
“We don’t wanna scare anybody away by raising the prices, but on the other hand we really should,” McClure told 18 News.
McClure said the lack of food, as a result of supply chain issues, could also force her business to increase prices.
“We don’t have the things we need to make for some of our important soups,” she said. “For two months I haven’t been able to get the main ingredient for [one of the soups].”
Experts say the supply chain is experiencing a crisis not seen in decades, and it could be a while because things bounce back.
“It’s definitely one we haven’t seen in 30, 40, maybe 50 years,” Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Elmira College Matthew Burr said “I don’t think we’ve seen the end of inflation quite yet. I think it’s going to probably continue to ripple through 2022.”
