Bloomington businesses are raising their prices as food inflation reaches its highest in 17 years, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. To deal with the rising costs of wheat, milk and fruits, delis and bakeries are being forced to raise prices to maintain profits.\nBaked! of Bloomington, a cookie bakery, has raised prices twice in the last year to cover the costs of business. \nA “hot box,,” made up of 13 cookies and two pints of milk, went from $12.67 to $13.50 in the fall and jumped again to $13.75 in January. \nA sign hung in the store after the first in price increase in an attempt to explain the increase to the customer: “Cows and chickens went on strike and stopped producing eggs and milk.” \n“It was like, look, we’ve got to cover our costs,” said Rob Shipley, general manager of Baked!. “And both times we raised prices, others were raising their prices.”\nBaked! isn’t the only restaurant in town that has been forced to raise its prices. The Bloomington Sandwich Company is planning to raise prices during the summer. Until now, the Bloomington Sandwich Company has absorbed the loss, which is causing the restaurant to have low profits, said Mike Moy, manager of the Bloomington Sandwich Company.\n“I’m going to definitely have to raise prices,” Moy said. “I haven’t done it yet.”\nMoy attributes his reluctance to charge more to the continuing rise in costs. In January, he received the costs of various supplies and was frustrated by the food price increase.\n“Here it’s April and they’ve jumped up again,” Moy said.\nThough prices are fluctuating, most are remaining steadily high. Milk prices in March declined 2.2 percent and dairy in general fell 0.8 percent, according to the March Consumer Price Index Report. However, milk prices were still 13.3 percent higher than in 2007.\nWhile some restaurants are raising all of their prices, Moy is reluctant to simply raise everything by 20 percent. When the Bloomington Sandwich Company was first opened, he calculated the food cost per sandwich and believes only those products affected by the inflation should be raised. \nIf the hot dog prices haven’t increased, he doesn’t believe the quarter-pounder all-beef hot dog sold at the Sandwich Company should change from its current $2.29, Moy said.\nMoy attributes the rising bread prices he’s paying to the increase in corn being planted for ethanol. \nLess wheat causes wheat prices to increase, which causes bread to cost more, he said. Already, a loaf of Seven Grain Bread costs $6, he said, shaking his head.\nBusinesses might have to worry about the amount of clientele entering their stores for more reasons than consumers not liking having to pay more at restaurants. \nPeople are going to have to choose between paying their bills and paying for food, said Tim Clougher, assistant director of the Community Kitchen. They’re going to have less money for food, he added.\nClougher expects more people to be visiting the Community Kitchen, where food is given out for free to those in need, if the inflation continues.\n“As food prices go up, they’re more likely to need more food and are more likely to utilize our services,” Clougher said.\nFor businesses, this causes worry because their services aren’t essential to the customers’ survival.\n“It does cause (businesses) to suffer because (people) don’t need what we have,” Shipley said. “As people spend more on groceries and gas, they have less money for cookies.”
Inflation forces area delis, bakeries to raise prices
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