Cost of eggs, essentials has diners, bakeries scrambling
Wholesale food costs up 14.7% at the national level, economist says
It used to be the humble egg was considered a budget-savvy way to put protein on the plate. Now the perennial symbol of life has become an icon of inflation, not just on kitchen tables but restaurant tables and bakery counters as well.
Wholesale food costs are up 14.7% at the national level, according to an economist for the National Restaurant Association. The omelet at Great Lakes Cafe in the 200 block of Mississippi Street in an industrial section of Gary is a good example. Manager Cindy Klidaras recently raised the price from $10 to $13 after the price of eggs went up 30%.
She said the price increase is affecting what customers are ordering. “For the dine-in part of my business, yes, I’ve seen an effect,” Klidaras said. “Probably about 20% less.” She said business had already been slow because of the pandemic prior to that loss.
And it’s not just eggs wreaking havoc on her menu. Klidaras has gone from paying $1.98 to $5 for a head of lettuce at Gordon Food Service. For this ingredient she’s opted to raise the price of sandwiches by just 10%, and also use less.
Valparaiso resident Jim Adkins is paying around $9 for his daily breakfast of two
eggs and sausage at the Viking Chili Bowl in Valparaiso. “They’ve gone up a dollar,” he said. “If they go up another dollar, I’m going to McDonald’s.”
He and the large, round table full of seniors he eats breakfast with daily say the Senior Breakfast has gone up a dollar as well, but concede, “It’s still the cheapest one in town.”
Across town at Designer Desserts, manager Vanessa Sands says butter and heavy cream have joined eggs on the list of skyrocketing prices. “It’s been an ongoing issue for a while, as we use eggs in everything that we do here,” she said.
They had already raised the prices of cookies and brownies recently, and just increased the price of their signature jumbo cupcakes from $5 to $5.50 at the start of the year. Six-inch round cakes have increased in price from $35 to $45.
“I overall would say we were expecting complaints, but no complaints have happened,” Sands said. “It’s just a treat here and there and they’re OK with it.”
That’s how Robyn Renfro of Valparaiso felt as she turned away from the counter with a Pepto-Bismol pink box holding a single cupcake. She said the 10% increase won’t stop her from treating herself, “it being a treat and they only raised it 50 cents.”
Price increases haven’t hit the menu at Jelly’s Pancake House in the 900 block of Joliet Street in Dyer, but they are in the works, according to manager Gianna Capporelli. “It’s been varying,” she said of the price increases to ingredients. “It goes item to item. Prior to eggs it was chicken. It seems like every month it’s something new.”
They had to remove skirt steak from the menu after the price jumped from $4 or $5
a pound to $11 a pound. “It’s definitely something people ask for quite a lot and restaurants aren’t really carrying it anymore,” Capporelli said.
Now the restaurant is steering customers toward other cuts of meat — and planning a full menu revamp that’s been in the works since the end of December.
They hope to have the new menus, complete with northward prices, ready in the next two months.
“For the most part people have been understanding,” Capporelli said. “Everywhere you go there’s surcharges, there’s menu changes, there’s labor shortages.”
Indeed, the National Restaurant Association says 87% of its member restaurants polled have increased menu prices, while 59% have changed the food and beverage items they offer. “Also, it’s important to note for most operators, it’s not just the cost of food that’s going up — but also operating costs like rent, and labor costs,” wrote the National Restaurant Association’s director of media relations Vanessa Sink in an email. “For businesses that run on tight margins of just 3 to 5% in good times, these increases are difficult to manage.”
All of this, of course, is on top of a comeback restaurants were staging after the receding of the pandemic. “I think it’s definitely kept people from eating out more than they used to,” Capporelli said.
For the diners who are still coming in Klidaras has a request: “Just to be kind to us, because it’s not our fault. We’re doing our best to do what we can, but it’s really not our fault.”