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