As food prices around the world continue to soar, some Middletown businesses have been forced to increase their prices in an effort to stay afloat during a time of economic hardship.
According to a recent press release by the World Food Programme (WFP), “high food prices are creating the biggest challenge that WFP has faced in its 45-year history, a silent tsunami threatening to plunge more than 100 million people on every continent into hunger.”
The sharp increase in food costs resonates particularly well with Carmela Lockwood, who runs University-favorite Jerry’s Pizza with her family.
“We had to raise our prices,” Lockwood said. “As a business we love our customers, [and] a lot of them have been coming to us for generations. I don’t want to do that kind of thing to our customers.”
For Jerry’s Pizza, a steep rise in the cost of flour, cheese and paper products has made price increases unavoidable. According to Lockwood, whereas two months ago a bag of flour cost about nine to eleven dollars, now it costs as much as 31 dollars.
“The [price increase] is one of the main things that we had to do to make sure that we can still provide good, quality food and still be able to stay in business,” Lockwood said. “It is very hard with everything being as expensive as it is now.”
The cost of flour has also impacted Neon Deli owner Fran Galle.
“Bread prices have increased strictly because of an increase in flour prices,” Galle said.
Galle pointed to other economic factors as reasons for his price increases. He noted that, when it comes to his business, prices have mainly increased, not because of high food prices, but because of higher electric bills, greater fuel charges and more costly labor.
In an April publication entitled “Crop Prospects and Food Situation,” the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reported that between March 2007 and 2008, the Food Price Index, which represents the prices of worldwide food commodities, increased by 57 percent. From 2006 to 2007, the index increased by 23 percent.
The publication states that “Prices of nearly all food commodities have risen since the beginning of the year supported by a persistent, tight supply and demand situation.”
Owner of Brew Bakers Eloise Tencher has also responded to the skyrocketing cost of food by increasing prices.
“I have noticed that our food prices have gone up, and we have had to increase our [menu prices], but not by too much,” Tencher said. “We’re trying to keep it as low as we possibly can.”
Despite the price increase at both Jerry’s and Brew Bakers, Lockwood and Tencher claim that there are just as many customers as ever.
“People still come out,” Tencher said. “People will always find time and resources to go out to eat. I think, if any restaurant’s business is going to decrease, it’s going to be the bigger restaurants, where people are going to think, ’My God, I can’t afford to go out and pay 25 dollars for an entrée.’”
However, Lockwood claims that the price increase has negatively affected every business, whether they are willing to admit it or not.
“Our business is doing well,” Lockwood said. “I think if someone says that their business is doing wonderful, then they’re lying.”
Tencher chooses to remain optimistic.
“I don’t think it’s going to affect us too much, simply because people will get a really great product here for a lot cheaper,” she said.
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