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Food inflation is taking its toll on both customers and restaurants
The Street
Follow
10/9/2024
Inflation might be leveling off, but the price of food is still higher than what both consumers and restaurateurs would like.
Category
🥇
Sports
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
Inflation is coming down, but food inflation is still a problem.
00:04
The cost of eating out is 4% higher than it was a year ago,
00:08
while eating in is up less than a full percent.
00:12
So we're out here asking people,
00:14
how is food inflation impacting their dining habits?
00:18
Well, we used to really enjoy going out to eat probably too much.
00:21
I don't go out to eat as often as I used to.
00:24
I spend as much as 40 bucks for, you know, something healthy.
00:28
We can't go out to eat too much. We have two kids.
00:30
So we stay, you know...
00:32
Very rarely do we go out anymore.
00:34
Yesterday I got a salad. It was like $15,
00:36
which is ridiculous to spend every single day.
00:38
I don't really spend a lot of money outside
00:40
because it's really expensive outside.
00:42
Life is short, so you got to pay the extra money.
00:45
It's just the VIG for living in New York.
00:47
And some diners are noticing
00:49
not only are restaurants going up on their prices,
00:52
they are also cutting back on the portions.
00:55
Portion sizes are down. Prices are up.
00:58
One thing I notice is that the quantity that you get,
01:02
I mean, each of the quantity is smaller than it used to be.
01:05
I just remember, like, years ago,
01:07
like, I would order something, like an appetizer.
01:09
An appetizer would be enough to feed, like, the whole entire table.
01:12
Now it's like an appetizer is so small,
01:14
it's like for one or two people.
01:16
You're not getting what you're actually paying for,
01:19
especially because everything is so expensive now.
01:21
Charge the same amount, give you less,
01:23
or keep the same amount, charge you more.
01:25
But that's capitalism, right? What are you going to do?
01:28
But food prices aren't just hurting the wallets of consumers.
01:31
The people serving up the food are feeling the pinch as well.
01:34
We went to Charles Pan Fried Chicken here in New York City
01:37
to speak with head chef Cui Slobart
01:39
about the tall rising food prices are taking on the business end.
01:45
So, as of right now, food prices are skyrocketing.
01:49
We are at Charles Pan Fried Chicken.
01:51
We are known for chicken, and that is like a roller coaster.
01:54
It starts off high, and then it goes high,
01:57
and it comes back down to being high, and it goes even higher.
02:00
It affected me how?
02:01
Because we are in the middle of Harlem.
02:03
This is 145th Street.
02:04
We do not want to raise the prices too much.
02:06
We want to make sure we feed the average family.
02:08
We want to make sure we feed the average consumer.
02:10
This is 145th Street.
02:11
We do not want to raise the prices too much.
02:13
We want to make sure we feed the average family.
02:15
So we just have to cut corners everywhere else.
02:17
And that's by meaning materials.
02:19
And here's Con Edison.
02:21
Make sure we cut the Lysol.
02:22
Something as simple as that.
02:23
Tissue.
02:24
Something as simple as that.
02:25
But we do not skip when it comes to the food and the ingredients.
02:27
We keep it the same way.
02:28
It affects everybody.
02:29
Labor.
02:30
We are very cautious in how we do labor,
02:32
and that's where we can control the most.
02:34
We can't control the rent, but we can control the labor.
02:36
We can control the food cost, meaning not ordering so much.
02:39
And we can actually control the supplies we purchase.
02:42
So being mindful on the other stuff that we can control,
02:45
because food prices are killing us.
02:48
How have you been forced to tweak the menu
02:53
in order to prevent you from having to raise prices?
02:57
Any high-priced items, we will still provide.
03:00
Like lamb chops.
03:01
I would love to have jerk lamb on our table every day,
03:03
but we just can't have it out because the normal person
03:06
won't come in and buy a lamb chop for $7.
03:09
We work in family all around us.
03:11
This is actually the community.
03:12
I can't sell you one lamb chop for $7,
03:14
and that's going to fill up food.
03:16
So that's the only tweak, so to say, we did.
03:19
If you want to say tweak.
03:24
So you have economies of scale, right?
03:26
Because you have three restaurants.
03:28
Yes, we do.
03:29
So you're able to go to your suppliers and be like,
03:31
hey, I'm supplying three restaurants here.
03:34
Give me the best price you got.
03:36
And this is what it is.
03:37
You have Starbucks.
03:40
You have McDonald's.
03:41
You have places like that that's all over.
03:44
So that's what they do.
03:45
And they get the lowest price of everything.
03:47
That's why the food is so cheap.
03:48
Now, mind you, we are Harlem.
03:50
We have three locations only.
03:51
So I'm using that same marketing manager style
03:54
to try to get a better price on everything.
03:56
Thank God for the community they are buying our food,
03:58
so we have that buying power right now.
04:00
But it's not as much.
04:01
It's not as much.
04:02
If you go to a Popeye's, they're all over.
04:05
If you go to KFC, they're all over.
04:06
So they're getting a better price than I'm getting
04:08
on chicken hands down.
04:10
But right now, we're scaling up.
04:12
We're buying more.
04:13
So I'm using our little buying power
04:15
to try to get the best deal.
04:16
So you mentioned McDonald's and Popeye's.
04:18
And even though you're not in the same segment
04:21
of the restaurant business or the food business,
04:25
when they go low, does that put pressure on you,
04:30
on restaurants like you, to match these low prices?
04:33
Our prices are set for our community.
04:35
You know what I mean?
04:36
You come in here, we have the lowest price in Harlem
04:38
when it comes to the plates.
04:39
Lowest price.
04:40
But we're even lower than that.
04:41
$18, you get three pieces of chicken,
04:43
two sides, and a cornbread.
04:44
We went to a $10 combo special.
04:47
Classic.
04:48
Not because of McDonald's, not because of what's going on.
04:50
It's because we want to make sure we feed our community
04:52
because not everybody can afford it.
04:53
So it was no competition.
04:54
When they do, they fight out of meals
04:55
because you're getting real food here.
04:58
So you mentioned little tweaks on the menu.
05:01
I'm wondering, in the overall business model,
05:04
have you had to make other changes?
05:05
Maybe you had to switch to a different kind of container
05:08
or a cheaper set of utensils.
05:11
It's not just the food inflation that's hitting you.
05:14
You're getting hit from all these other places as well.
05:17
Yes.
05:18
When it comes to the clam folds,
05:20
it was a month-long debate on what we were going to do
05:23
when it comes to the cost of goods.
05:25
You know, we have the cups.
05:26
We have the biodegradable of this.
05:28
We have this, we have that.
05:29
We have paper, we have plastic.
05:30
Honestly, if we went all plastic,
05:33
it would have been way cheaper.
05:34
But bad for the community, bad for the environment.
05:36
So we actually have the biodegradable clam folds.
05:39
We actually have paper bags.
05:41
You know what I mean?
05:42
Try to give back.
05:43
The little two cents that we spend more
05:45
will help out our world.
05:46
I know, I grew up watching Captain Planet,
05:48
so don't hurt me.
05:49
He was my hero.
05:50
So we actually spend this little extra
05:52
because in the long term, it's better.
05:54
You know, you go home, you get a cheap fork, it breaks.
05:57
It's horrible.
05:58
You get a box that just bends in and gets all watery.
06:01
You're not going to like it.
06:02
So it's a juggle when it comes to it.
06:04
So we did the best that we could
06:05
and got the best prices that we can.
06:07
So we keep it good.
06:08
We've got to keep the quality up there.
06:10
What's hurting us, that's what's hurting us.
06:14
Rent, that's what's hurting us.
06:15
For those things, you can't really change.
06:17
I was born in Harlem.
06:18
I was born in poverty.
06:20
I'm used to being tight.
06:21
My mom made it.
06:22
She had three kids, one job.
06:23
She made it happen.
06:24
And we're making it happen now.
06:25
So every dollar counts.
06:26
Everybody that comes through these doors
06:27
and buys something, amazing.
06:29
Thank you, because as you're seeing these questions,
06:31
I wish I could tell you a secret.
06:32
I wish I could tell you a trade.
06:33
No, we are living check by check in that sense.
06:37
That one person, I don't care what she buy.
06:39
I thank her for walking through those doors.
06:41
This is the process, literally.
06:43
Put the chicken in, and we constantly turn as we cook it.
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