Highlands Today
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Food Bills Are Becoming Hard To Swallow
High Food Prices Take A Bite From Restaurants, Residents
Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today
From left: Graciela Borges is served cafe con leche by Iliana Alvarez at Havana Days Bakery Inc as her sister, Ingrid Perez, holds a pastel carne, a meat filled pastry, on Thursday in Sebring.
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Published: June 8, 2008
SEBRING — Blame it on gasoline or ethanol, but shopping for food these days is just as unpleasant as gassing up your car.
Fruit prices have gone bananas, and poultry isn't quite the paltry budget choice it once was for the thrifty shopper.
With the sharpest increase in food prices since 1990 and a troubled economy, Highlands County businesses and residents are doing what they can.
But whether you run a restaurant or shop for a household — you gotta eat, so you gotta buy food.
At the Golden Corral in Lake Placid, higher food prices are costing the eatery 50 cents more for every diner compared to last year, but customers are paying only about 18 cents more on average for their meals, said the restaurant's owner Mark Tharp.
"We're, basically, just sort of eating it, just making a little bit less," he said. "We can't raise prices enough to compensate for it because of the local economy."
Fewer Sebring customers are making the drive to dine in Lake Placid, and the flagging resort and lake business in Lake Placid is not helping, either.
Due to the high employee turnover in the restaurant business, Tharp usually hires a few people at this time of the year, but he hasn't hired any new workers recently.
"We are still doing well, but it's a little tougher," he added.
Alex Thach, owner of Oishii Express in the Lakeshore Mall, cooks with fresh vegetables every day.
"Red peppers — I used to pay $18 a box; right now it's $42 a box," he said. Rice has gone up from $15 to $45 for a 50-pound bag.
In the six months he has been open, chicken has increased from $27 to $39 a box.
"We haven't raised the prices yet," and the quality of the food remains the same, Thach said.
Instead, Oishii is using a cheaper type of take-out container to offset the higher food costs.
"I love to cook; I love Japanese food, but right now, I'm really in trouble because of the cost of the food," he said.
Higher food prices along with trying to lose a few pounds have Mayra Talley of Sebring buying fewer sweets and items high in carbohydrates.
Fruits are a "must have" on her shopping list, though.
"Even if they are high, I have to buy them," Tally said.
She shops for groceries for herself and her 25-year-old daughter.
"You go to the store and you just buy three bags, and sometimes it's $100," Talley said.
Baker Emilio Vega makes Cuban bread, pastries and cookies every day so the higher cost of flour and eggs means a smaller profit for the Havana Days Bakery in the Sebring Plaza.
"We can increase it [price] a little bit, but you can't increase it too much because people don't have a job. They are counting pennies," Vega said. "If you raise the price, people stay home."
The bakery will be losing one of its customers who stopped in Wednesday for a coffee and a sweet. The man worked recently for a business that closed in Sebring. He couldn't find another job here so he's moving to Miami where he found employment.
Vega said people are doing what they can to save money.
A couple came in recently and bought one sandwich and cut in half to share, he said. "They used to eat the whole thing; it's crazy."
High gas prices have Iris Malin of Lake Placid eating out less often.
Malin and her husband and three children used to eat out four times a week, but now they only go out once a week.
"At the grocery store, we pay a little more attention to what we do," Malin said. She keeps a close eye on meat and chicken prices.
Shirley Little of Sebring shops for the "buy one, get one free" sale items and uses coupons for additional savings.
"If you have a buy one, get one free on the Lender's Bagels and then you have a coupon for a dollar off of that, that means you spent 99 cents for two packages of bagels.
"No generics; I get the best," she added.
With nearly 40 years of grocery shopping experience, Little recommends stocking up on the sale items that you will use.
"What women used to do before Wal-Mart — you bought things that were on sale that week," Little said. "You used the coupons that you have and that's how you managed."
Unless you really need them, you don't buy items that are not on sale, she added.
To save time and money, Little suggests checking the Web site — thegrocerygame.com — which offers subscribers a weekly list of the lowest-priced products at your supermarket matched with manufacturers' coupons and weekly specials.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all food is forecast to increase 4.5 to 5.5 percent in 2008, as retailers continue to raise prices to pass on higher commodity and energy costs.
The CPI for food increased 4.0 percent in 2007, the highest annual increase since 1990.
Food-at-home prices, led by eggs, dairy and poultry prices, increased 4.2 percent, while food-away-from-home prices were up 3.6 percent in 2007.
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