I'm working on my next-year's-pricing (goes into effect 9-1-07) and as I update my costs database, I'm noticing a 15-20% price increase on most items. I spoke with a restaurant-owner-friend today and she has some things that have gone up 25% or more. Her dairy products are out the roof.
In talking with my major food distributor rep, I offered my thought that the cost of gas was catching up with everything ..... affecting the cost of supplies because of the cost of transportation, harvesting, running the processing plants, etc.... all affected by oil prices.
My rep said that it's plain 'ole inflation and the cost of grains since grains are being diverted to make biodiesel fuels. I had mentioned that I was looking at a 15-20% price increase and felt horrible about having to raise prices that much, since it goes against the grain of our company philosophy. She told me, "Don't be hesitant in raising prices. Everyone else is."
Just thought I'd share some of this "industry insight" from my rep with you and see what observations and effects you are seeing in your area(s).
Thanks for the update Debi! Great info! I was at the grocery store today and noticed a sign hanging on the dairy case stating that organic milks are hard to come by due to rising prices and such other reasons... didn't read it all because I don't use organics currently and was searching for a 1/2 gallon of heavy whipping cream and could only find a quart so I wasn't happy so I wasn't reading lol... but I've noticed alot of stuff isn't being stocked in the store that is normally there this time of year and if it is my god the prices are out rageous! Cherries for example were $4.49 a lb.... that's just wrong lmao I'm sorry lol
It would be interesting for this thread to run and members share what the've seen change due to the gas increase. It affects us all even with our baking purchases.
If what my rep said was true about grains being diverted to fuel processing instead of food processing, a lot of baking item (flour) will be greatly affected.
In the long haul, this will make farmland more valuable as more grains are needed and more farmers find it financially worth their while to turn land into productivity again (basic supply and demand). But as you know, the supply and demand effect usually takes awhile to kick in until we see the results of the increased supply.
Where I live there are tons of empty fields that could use some good crops in them. I think it's a waste to see so many empty and neglected... but on the other hand certain places I go around here the fields are full of corn that you have to practically pull out into possible traffic just to check for traffic at the stop signs lol.... I just wish the ones that are "over grown" would be better managed around here and cut back just a little maybe even drop two rows off the outter edge lol.
But there are so many empty fields being neglected that could be put to good use... And the town I live in...we have RT 50 run straight thru out little town cutting it in half. We have to battle vacationers and beach goers every single weekend starting on friday mornings and not ending until monday mornings. At times we can't even get onto 50 or near 50 to cross... we have to take back roads which burns more gas and wastes more time but in the end is worth it because we aren't sitting in a back up on 50 because everyone speeds thru and then hits all the lights lol... It got so bad last weekend that friday night they turned the stop light right at my parents home to blinking so 50 had the right of way the entire night and you couldn't cross 50 you had to go out and merge in and make a U-turn 1/2 a mile or so down the road.... If people would think twice before traveling every single weekend it would probably lower the gas prices if there wasn't such a demand for it ya know... I see some of the same (stand out) vehicles pass thru here every weekend and they all have out of state tags.... why are they traveling so far just for a beach, an ocean, and a crappy amusement park? lmfao Ocean City is so "jumpin" that the locals can't even visit there anymore... I just hate it.... I hate summer time because it's so busy thru here that we can't even get around and do our normal grocery shopping, and visiting of family without sitting and waiting 20 minutes at a stop light that normally only makes you wait 5... and our gas prices hit the roof on friday mornings and don't come back down until monday evening...
Thursday night at 10 pm our cheapest place in town happens to be the new Wa-Wa and the new Royal Farm's... they were both at $2.71 cents a gallon for their cheapest. Friday at 10 am when I went to get gas - 12 hours later they are up to $2.79 a gallon. It's just stupid! lol IMO. My dad is constantly complaining about the gas prices being so high and how it's wrong that they raise them on the weekends and lower back down after the beacher's are gone.... but evidently they have to make up that money somewhere.... I used to work at Exxon right on RT 50 and he would raise the prices every weekend to max allowed and it just didn't make sense to me... and I had to deal with the customers coming in complaining lmao.... Ok this is turned into a ramblingbitchmode post so I'll close now lol.
I couple of suppliers that I order from even started adding on a fuel surcharge a couple of years ago when gas really starting jumping up. No business can continue to absorb the rising price of everything. Never feel bad about raising your price, it's part of being in business. McDonald's doesn't sell a Big Mac for the same price it did when they opened!
-Lori
I don't know if some of you remember what we went through in the early 80's when there was a fuel shortage, paper shortage, chocolate shortage you name it there was a shortage and every thing sky rocketed.
But, then people did things to be heard and it came to an end. This time it seems everyone just sits back and accept it.
I was telling DH a young family starting out and don't have much money their entertainment is going for a drive to a park, beach or just site seeing. Now, they can't even do that.
Yes, I've desided to raise my prices effective 9/1 as well.
An article in today's newspaper, Indianapolis Star (Living Section, front page):
"What's Driving Up Food Prices?"
The article cites higher transporation costs leading to greater demand for ethanol's main ingredient - corn.
"From corn syrup sweeteners to feed for the chicken who lay your eggs, corn prices affect every aisle in the grocery store...."
It also states the price of eggs is projected to increase 20%; fruits and vegetables likely to be up 6%. It is expected that farmers will plant more corn in the coming year, but ethanol production is also likely to rise (using the add'l corn for fuel instead of food).
Sharing this info so as we plot our pricing for the coming year, that 20% increase on eggs will probably be a big factor for everyone on here.
Sorry to say, yep, it's true according to the news. I watch world news every evening and that seems to be what they are saying. FDA is also cutting back and closing some labs which will also affect our food. It's amazing how 1 small area can affect a whole world. They said that honey bees were dying at an alarming rate....which is supposedly a cause for concern as well. (can't quite remember how they broke it down, but it was interesting 
..guess ya could look it up) Just watch your world news....local news is great but the world news is more informative about what is going on around us.
Hey, I know it sounds crazy, but I couldn't make this stuff up myself
I just went to Wal-mart today, hadn't been in weeks, eggs up from 1.89 for 18 count to 2.25, milk 2.78 for 1/2 gal, thats over 5.00 gallon! It seems like there has been an increase in alot of things.The only thing we can do is increase our prices. All of my suppliers have gone up, so that forces us to pass it on to the consumer.
I want to bring it to yalls attention, MY local walmart ups it's prices on certain stuff that's high sellers even when other stores in the area don't do so... I don't know the exact prices on things but will check it out today when I go shopping.
Debi hun I think it's bout damn site time we got those cows and chickens and started making our own milk and eggs 
Thanks Debi, for starting this thread. I don't have a business, but noticed that milk at my Wal-Mart (where I grocery shop) is up to $4/gallon. And that's for the store brand! We have lots of corn & soybean crops around here, and I know the bee thing is an issue because they are what pollinates the crops. Farmers will have large "wagons" full of bee crates parked next to their fields for much of the growing season.
I just bought 18 eggs yesterday but didn't note the cost. I still have the receipt somewhere...
-Lisa
I noticed a few of our fields have bee crates sitting in them too... never thought about it until now lmao... couldn't quite figure it out because I honestly had a major blonde moment and didn't know bee's polinated anything but flowers lmfao
Folks,
The bee die off is a major problem, but probably not for the cake industry. Things like nuts, berries, etc. are the real problem. If hive count continues to decline while pollination demand increases, we will probably be looking at price increases in the produce section. Corn and most grains are self pollinating and not really affected.
CORN, on the other hand, is being used more and more to produce ethanol, which drives the cattle feed cost up. Milk has, for instance, sky-rocketed for that reason. So has corn syrup and such, which DOES affect us.
And then, gas/transpotation costs are way up as well...all contributing to a higher consumer price index.
Hope that was not too geeky for you!
O.K I need to open a dairy farm, corn farm and farm me some bees!!!!
Then I am gonna sell to my fellow cc'ers!!!!
NOW TO GET THE LAND..............
HHHHHHMMMMMM, I could call it decorators paradise ranch!!!!! 
HHHMMMM, maybe make some home made butter, get me some chickens and gather me some eggs too!
The bee issue is central to us all for a lot of reasons... How many of us use Strawberries, Raspberries, Almonds, Cranberries, apples, etc. as fillings in our baked goods?? Also, who likes pickles??? Without the honey bee, production drops for some of these crops (especially cranberries) as much or more as 80%... Yep, EIGHTY PERCENT! That's how much of a difference an annoying little honey bee buzzing around our picnic or watering hole makes.
But the primary thing that it has brought to people's attention is the fact that we were literally down to TWO apiculture research programs in the United States. One was here in Minnesota at the UofM, the other was at the Bee Lab in Texas. And both of those programs were on the verge of being cut because "bee's don't make a difference" (aka publish or parish it's not exactly a money making research field or one that a lot of young students want to persue) until it started to be noticed that state apiculturalists were seeing bees die'n without the presense of mites or hive beetles (which was the start of the "hey wait a minute" second looks) and people suddenly woke up. Also, it's the fact that hobby beekeepers were seeing more issues than commercial beekeepers are across populations.
Having been in the bee industry all my life (and yes, suffered through two years as a honey queen and the years of therapy to follow 
), though now I've moved away you never really get away from it.. The industry saw a similar problem back in the 60's when it was attributed to a specific mold spore. They've had "American Foul Brood" (MAN that stuff REAKS!), and worse yet for all of us, urban sprawl. We used to have an operation down south in Mississippi not far from the coast where my Dad and brother would spend most of the winter months at but because of the loss of most of our beeyard space down there from people moving out to the country, we've lost the benefits to even going down there. Now most of the hives come from a limited number of package bee producers which combined with what we know about Africanized honeybee genetics, I'll hedge to bet that it will produce a problem down the road because of the lack of variety being introduced into the genetics like there once was.
It's only a little bee, but without it we're in for a world of hurt financially for everyday items at the grocery store. More importantly though hopefully it will wake some people up to the fact that their food comes from farmers and not from the grocery store. Then again, it's still cute asking kids "Does chocolate milk come from chocolate cows????"..
But that's the scoop on the honey bee situation.
My b-i-l told me potatoes are about to go thru the roof too. 
A lady at church has chickens & she offered me eggs a while back. I smiled & said "thanks, I'll let you know when I need some", but I never intended on taking her up on her offer. But NOW....I may be calling her up! Wonder if she has a cow too?
If it makes you feel any better...the regular price of eggs in Alberta Canada at a cheaper grocery store is between 2.79 & 3.29/doz; 4 L (which is a little more than a gallon) of milk regularly cost 3.79; and GAS--well it works out to about 4.03 to 4.31 per Gallon up here....
Do you realize that gas, per litre, or gallon, is cheaper than bottled water?? As much as gas prices go up, and I don't like it either, things like water, milk, juice ... are actually, per equal measure of gasoline ... more expensive.
As for farming ... I live in a farming community, and it's tough these days. My father in law has a farm that is barely worth running. Everyone needs farms and the products from them, but because they get so little for what they do ... it's killing the little farmers. I think it's getting harder and harder to convince anyone to take farming on nowadays. It's just too risky a business. We won't be taking over the family farm when the time comes.
It seems that rising prices are going to be here for a while until we smarten up and make farming a real priority in Canada, and the United States. Let's just hope it happens before none of us are able to afford the groceries we take for granted everyday.
I pay for a flat of 30 large eggs,$5.99 at Costco (cheapest), 4litres of milk(1 gallon) $5.65 again Costco cheaper. A gallon at the grocery store is almost $7.00. 20 Kilo bag flour $20.00. 20 Kilo white sugar $16.00. !!!! I am increasing my wholesale prices in September.
Roelle... you reminded me of a story about farmers having their conventions in Reno and Vegas... The first time they went there all they did was get the coupons for the buy a $4 buffet meal and get $10 in gambling money, but that's ALL they gambled with and had an action plan for the entire trip like this. The vast opinion was "We gamble each and every day of our lives with a lot more money, equipment, and lives we don't need to come here and waste money, we're here for the convention"...
The price of corn per bushel is up- mainly due to increased E85 production, which- like was mentioned above increases the price of feed. Cattle prices are up as well, good for those of us who own beef cattle- not so good for those of you who purchase beef in the grocery stores. The price of dairy has gone up quite a bit as well around here (Midwest). Gas prices are down just a little here, for the moment- not much though.
The price of electricity has gone up too!!!!!!! I just got this months electric bill and it's almost double what last months was and the a/c hasn't been running any more then before... actually has been running less because we haven't needed it as much as last month lol....
Oh, and I was going to add that milk prices generally increase when co-ops sell out. It's kind of a longer story, but that has been happening recently, around my area anyway.
If it makes you feel any better...the regular price of eggs in Alberta Canada at a cheaper grocery store is between 2.79 & 3.29/doz; 4 L (which is a little more than a gallon) of milk regularly cost 3.79; and GAS--well it works out to about 4.03 to 4.31 per Gallon up here....
Which is why I love living in the US. If prices get any higher, I'm moving to France!
(big sigh!) Another update here. I picked up my Sysco order this week and pricing is up again!
A flat of strawberries was up 20%. A 20 lb case of chicken breasts were up 22%!!! A case of meatballs was up 12%.
I may have to do a twice-a-year price increase if this keeps up!
Indydebi-I am really glad to see a thread with such a key issue at hand. This is one of the most important topics I've seen on CC. Thank you.
We all have to think about this as a whole. Yes, we all are effected because we bake. But, if you think larger than that it kind of stinks. The issue at hand here is the increase in population which increased the level of housing and building which is happening every where. When did it start that crops were not significant to our survival?? If you are in an area where you think your voice can be heard about slowing down building or convincing someone not to sell their crop or farm...try to do so! In the long run we are not going to be able to survive because of all these "shortages". Also, try to minimalize what you buy, trying not to waste. Just that little bit every day makes a big difference. There is a real crisis here and I am really glad that Indydebi brought this topic up!
Stephanie 
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