Local restaurant feels impact of rising inflation: ‘It’s a struggle right now’
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Happening this week – a critical meeting for the federal reserve. By Wednesday the Central Bank is expected to announce plans to pull back on its $120-billion monthly stimulus program. It was first put in place to help the nation’s economy through the pandemic. But now the worry is it’s contributing to our rising inflation.
From gas to food to grocery prices – there’s no doubt you’ve seen the impact on your wallet. One way we’ve seen this is through a grocery price tracker from NBC news. It shows just how much prices have jumped over the last year. Right now your eggs are up 24 cents going for about $2.57 a dozen. Your ground beef is at $5.78 a pound up 71 cents from last year. And your bacon is seeing the biggest jump. 16 ounces for about $6.30. That’s up almost a full dollar. And it’s not just your grocery bill that’s hurting.
Local business Alexander’s Great Barbeque on Deans Bridge Road is feeling these rising costs first-hand.
Owner Robert Williams said anything from chicken to cleaning supplies is hard to find and even when you find it you’re paying top dollar for it. He says it’s been a really challenging finding ways to keep down prices to keep customers coming in while still paying the bills.
“It’s a struggle you know we work towards it every day it’s a struggle right now,” he said.
The annual inflation rate for the U.S. has gone up 5.4 percent over the past year. Basically, the purchasing power of $20 compared to 2019 is now $21.13.
“Different pans that we use, plates that we use, cups everything it’s hard to get now or the prices have increased to the point where you really can’t afford them,” said Williams.
The biggest problem with supply chain issues – not having enough employees willing to work for lower wages. So employers are starting to pay more but that has an extreme trickle-down effect.
“It’s been kind of a shock so a lot of people who are making more money right now because maybe they went from one job that was paying $10 an hour and now they’re making $15 an hour those costs for those goods they were buying has gone up tremendously and it’s probably really eating into that additional money I mean that’s just inflation,” said Mark Butler, Commissioner of Georgia Department of Labor.
It’s not that there aren’t enough chickens for William’s wings but there are not enough people to process the chicken, ship it out, deliver it, so on and so forth.
“We’ve had to go up on our prices which the customer has probably started to notice that it has decreased our sales some so we’re trying to adjust with that but we’ve noticed it because our customer base is starting to decrease some,” said Williams.
So how do we fix it? Commissioner Butler says it’s going to take some time.
“This isn’t a months-long problem I think this is going to be years to fix. The way to combat that is we have got to increase peoples skill sets so they can get jobs that pay even more,” said Butler.
Commissioner Butler says now is a great time for you to apply for these higher skill jobs because a lot of them will train you so you can get the skills and paycheck.
The next inflation update will be released on November 10th but the New York Times reports investors expect inflation to average about 3 percent a year for the next five years. Higher than any time in the decade before the pandemic hit.
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