Sorry, you're too small
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The owner of Brewed Downtown, a small coffeeshop in Jacksonville, NC was interviewed on Fox & Friends this morning. As with many small businesses, she's struggling. The funny thing is that her business did pretty good at the beginning of COVID. It's only been about the last ten months that she's really having problems.
The problems are twofold:
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Inflation. A large percentage of her customers are military families. Since their salaries have not increased, they have become increasingly budget concious. As basic ingredients have risen in cost for the coffeeshop, they have tried to hold the line as much as possible on their soup, sandwich and coffee prices. But some cost pass-through is inevitable. As menu prices rise, business has gone down, especially in this holiday season, as customers have to trim their spending on extras, even a specialty coffee.
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Supplies. Supply has been a nightmare, especially for a lot of the disposable foodware and small lot food items. It started six months or so ago, when their major supplier, U S Foods, cut them off. Citing supply chain problems, U S Foods sent a letter stating that they could only fully service the top 31% of their accounts. The coffeeshop had to scramble, using Amazon and other internet companies to try to source cups, take-out bowls and many bulk food items. Small lot items, they have had to procure locally, sometimes at retail. The owner gave the example of cream cheese.
U S Foods has recently came back and offered to service the coffeeshop, but only if they buy in case lots, with a higher minimum purchase. It's simply not do-able for the business. That continues the strain, as supplies continue to be sourced from multiple vendors. If you've ever run a food business, you know you'd like to keep your suppliers to a minimum, even if some itens are just a tad more expensive. A supplier like U S Foods can usually deliver most of what a shop like this would need...One bill, payable at the end of the month, with all supplies delivered to the business.
Keep in mind, 65% of all businesses in America are small businesses. Times are tough for many.
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In fairness to US Foods, who my wife has sold to in a couple jobs over 35 years, their shipping and overhead costs require that they not sell in certain quantities. Otherwise they end up with bunches of broken cases and have to pay staff to do the counting and repackaging. She had to sell in or put together truckloads at a certain minimum and that was before there was a truck shortage.
But yeah, it's tough for small business.
