MINOT, N.D. – From the grocery store to your favorite restaurant, many are noticing that some items are just not available. Supply shortages are having a major impact on local restaurants across Minot, including their suppliers.
Minot Restaurant Supply serves up to 90% of restaurants in the Minot area and with recent supply chain backlogs, owner Dave Forthun said they have seen many challenges.
“Everything I got has just gone crazy because of freight and you’re out of things. You never know from one day to the next what you can get, and I feel bad. Everything is going up and up in price,” said Forthun.
Mike Kelly, the director of operations for local Qdoba restaurants, said it’s something they have been dealing with over the past year.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say, ‘Yeah.’ We’ve had some issues, mostly it’s from manufacturers getting the product to our distribution centers,” said Kelly.
Things like matching cups, lids, straws and other paper and foam materials are a rare find these days.
“For three weeks, you’ll be able to get the right cup and the right lid, then all of a sudden the lids aren’t available and if you can’t get lids, the cups aren’t any good,” said Forthun.
But many customers don’t seem to mind getting their food in different containers.
“For a while, we didn’t have lids for our bowls, so we were covering them with aluminum foil and everybody’s like, ‘Okay, I get it because of the supply issues.’ So, everybody was very understanding,” said Kelly.
Many of the restaurants are willing to help each other out.
“One of the nice things in Minot is we have Minot Restaurant Supply and with some of our connections with the different restaurants our companies have owned like Applebee’s and some of the other ones, we can share products,” said Kelly.
Both Kelly and Forthun said they are feeling hopeful about the coming months as orders slowly are getting back to normal.
Kelly said they have not seen any supply shortages with their food products as they are made within the country versus paper products from overseas.
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