TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Jeff Baker is the owner of Urban Pita and has a passion for serving his customers.
“We’re doing what we can because we love it. Not because we’re tying to get rich,” Baker said.
However, he’s had to make some tough financial decisions with the inflation rate going up this year for many months.
“Things are changing week to week and it’s been quite difficult,” Baker said.
He said products like chicken eggs, and lettuce have gone up the most. Baker said he has had to pay $90 for a case of lettuce when it used to be 16 dollars.
“We also only use halal products so that narrows our scope of what we can purchase as well,” he said.
Moreover, paying more for products means he’s making less in profit.
“We’ve done more in sales this year and profited less than previous years,” Baker said.
He said he has increased his prices but it isn’t a reflection of the prices he’s paying.
“Things would have had to gone up, 40, 50, 60 sometimes even 100 percent across the board and I can’t rightfully double my prices,” he said.
Inflation is also impacting Highwire Tucson in Downtown not just when it comes to food, but also things like cups and straws.
John Hardin is one of the owners and said products like chicken, fruits and vegetables and alcohol have all gone up in prices the most.
“A really big impact for us this year was opening our new kitchen and the cost of food increasing,” Hardin said.
When expanding their business, they had to increase the prices they were expecting and Hardin said costs for the new addition also went up.
He said lumber, tile, glue and paint have all gone up in price and said they are already preparing for next year if inflation goes up again.
“I’ve seen in years past of running bars is that prices go up. They don’t always come back down,” Hardin said.
Rocco’s Little Chicago is also preparing for next year.
“Usually pre-load all your price increases so that you don’t have to do it when everybody’s stressed out, but the prices keep going up,” owner Rocco DiGrazia said.
He said that makes prices unpredictable and said he had to start buying smaller eggs.
However, he said products like chicken wings have gone down in price a little after being expensive for a long time.
“We’re using the same suppliers but still there’s, all of a sudden I can’t get cardboard boxes like this size and I have to go to a different one,” DiGrazia said.
He said luckily this is his busiest week of the entire year.
“Everybody’s in from out of town. Our old customers are back visiting and people are brining their friends to one of their favorite places,” he said.
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Andrew Christiansen is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before joining the team, Andrew reported in Corpus Christi, Texas for KRIS6 News, Action 10 News and guest reported in Spanish for Telemundo Corpus Christi. Share your story ideas with Andrew by emailing andrew.christiansen@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
