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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Restaurants that survived the pandemic are now threatened by inflation
It was a lot of hard work, and a little bit of luck, that helped 34-year-old Joseph Charles steer2 his Boston pizza place through the worst of the pandemic.
Rock City Pizza had the advantage of being on the outskirts3 of the city, instead of in the mostly deserted4 downtown, and it had the benefit of having a takeout window already built in. When indoor dining was banned in March 2020, Charles worked seven days a week adapting his business model and hustling5 pizzas and subs out the window to masked customers on the sidewalk or into delivery cars.
"It was real tough," Charles recalls. "Real trying times. But we did what we had to. And fortunately we're here now."
Unfortunately, however, doing business now is no less trying.
"Inflation is just ridiculous now," says Charles. "It's harder to do business than it was in the pandemic. It is."
While his sales over the last two years rebounded6 to about 75% of what they were pre-pandemic, Charles says they've now slumped7 back down to about half, as his customers — who are also feeling the pinch — are cutting spending.
Food prices aren't the only higher cost
Rock City Pizza is one of the countless8 restaurants around the nation that are struggling with sky-high food prices — as well as higher costs for rent, labor9, gasoline and cooking gas — but are limited in how much of those increases they can pass on to their customers. It's especially challenging for lower-priced places, as their profit margins10 are typically tighter and their clientele tends to be more price-sensitive.
"These establishments cannot deal with these rapid escalating11 costs," says Hudson Riehle, senior vice12 president of research and knowledge at the National Restaurant Association. It's a kind of "double whammy" the industry hasn't seen in generations.
Wholesale13 food costs were 17% higher in March than the same time last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And, as of December, average hourly earnings14 for restaurant and bar employees had risen 15% in the prior year, more than any other year on record.
Charles says his payroll15 has ballooned even more; he's paying staff 1 1/2 times what he paid them two years ago, and even more to his delivery guys, as gas prices have spiked16. On the weekends, he says, the $400 he used to pay for deliveries has swelled17 to about $1,000, as he is now paying drivers more and also reimbursing18 them for gas.
"You've got to be creative to keep them," he says. "You really do."
At the same time, Charles' rent has jumped about 15%, and some basic paper goods that are his staples19, such as bags, plates and containers, have quadrupled in price.
"It's just nuts," he says, sighing.
To compensate20, Charles has been raising menu prices — so often that he stopped printing paper menus and switched to a digital menu only. But he's all too aware that there's a limit to how much inflation his customers will tolerate.
A large plain pizza is already 19 bucks21; add mushroom and onion, delivery and tax, and it's $31 and change. And that's before any tip for the delivery person.
"At the end of the day, we still sell a pizza. We're not selling diamonds," he says. "And you have a ceiling to what you can charge the customer."
Owner Joseph Charles and an employee prepare pizzas for delivery to a nearby business. but orders are way down he says, since inflation has driven prices up.
Tovia Smith/NPR
Indeed, his customers are paying attention.
The lunch special of two slices and a drink "used to be $5," muses22 Alexis Lee, who has come to pick up an order. "Now it's like $7. It's up $2 more."
When she's working across the street, Lee says, she's still willing to shell out the extra cash. But other things she used to buy have already become too much.
"I just say forget about it."
Even popular items are disappearing off the menu
It's a lesson Charles learned the hard way. When the cost of steak shot up, and he raised the menu prices of his steak dishes accordingly, his customers abruptly23 stopped buying them.
"Sometimes I would go three or four days without selling a steak sub, [or] steak rice bowls, which are a huge, huge seller," he says. "It was a clear message. The consumer has spoken."
Charles ended up pulling steak off the menu for a while. He did the same thing with chicken, eighty-sixing even his bestselling Buffalo24 chicken pizza.
It all left him thinking about the unthinkable.
"It's scary times," he says. "It makes you think, should you be doing something else with your time and energy. It's just real tough to sustain this long term."
Some 90,000 restaurants in the U.S. have closed down temporarily or permanently25 since the pandemic, according to the National Restaurant Association. Those that survived, Riehle says, are running on razor thin margins, often as little as 1% of sales.
At the same time, independent, affordable26 places are also under more competitive pressure from casual dining big chains like Chipotle or Panera, says Steven Carvell, professor of finance and strategy at the Nolan School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University's SC Johnson College of Business.
"Because they're larger, they have better supply chains [and] more consistent costs on their inputs27, so it gives them more leeway to maintain a profit margin," says Carvell. "That's another threat to these restaurateurs."
Some people are eating out less and cooking at home
Recent surveys suggest restaurant spending is one of the first things people would cut because of rising prices.
Indeed, at a supermarket around the corner from Rock City Pizza, many shoppers say they've already traded eating out for more cooking at home.
"Yeah, for me it's seltzer water and ground turkey for the time being," says Chris Puzacke, leaving the store with his groceries. He says he's already gone from his usual three to four dinners out a week to less than once a week.
Even when he found himself walking by his favorite chicken wing place last week, Puzacke says he kept walking.
"The first thing that came to mind was 'I can only imagine how expensive a plate of chicken wings is right now,' " he says. "So I skipped it. I'm definitely holding back."
Retirees Tom and Debbie McGovern have also cut back on their dinners out, indulging on special occasions only.
"We used to go out every day pretty much," says Tom McGovern. And definitely for "every Red Sox game and every Bruins game."
"I like to be with people and get that energy," adds Debbie McGovern. "But now it's just once in a while. It's just too expensive."
Restaurants, meanwhile, continue trying new ways to draw more customers back in, from "Frequent French Fry" reward programs to offering buy-one-get-one deals or discount coupons29. Restaurants lose revenue on those deals in the short run, but Sean Jung, assistant professor at Boston University's School of Hospitality Administration, says they can pay off in the long run.
"You have to build that loyalty30 with that customer in order to actually rake in that profit of that coupon28 you provided," Jung says.
Charles has been feeling it at Rock City Pizza, where he continues to offer promotions31 to his price-sensitive customers.
"It's tough right now to give out coupons," he says. "But you've got to do whatever it takes."
He has also come up with other ways to try to boost revenues. Instead of raising prices per pie, for example, "you've got to be creative," he says. "Maybe you go up on the toppings, 10 cents on the pepperoni, and 10 cents on the sausage. And you ask customers, 'Hey, would you like a pepperoni pizza instead of just a cheese pizza?' "
Still, as hard as he tries, he is all too aware it might not be enough. Opening Rock City Pizza in 2003 was his dream come true. He had worked seven days a week as an employee of another pizza place, saving every penny he could to open one of his own. Now, after all his hard work building a successful business and surviving even the pandemic, it's hard to fathom32, he says, but it's possible that he could end up having to surrender to inflation.
"It's like you thought you won, but we're not done yet," he says. "It's really tough to stay afloat right now, [and] it's drastic enough to reevaluate the situation."
Everything, he sighs, "is on the table."
1 transcript | |
n.抄本,誊本,副本,肄业证书 | |
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2 steer | |
vt.驾驶,为…操舵;引导;vi.驾驶 | |
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3 outskirts | |
n.郊外,郊区 | |
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4 deserted | |
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
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5 hustling | |
催促(hustle的现在分词形式) | |
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6 rebounded | |
弹回( rebound的过去式和过去分词 ); 反弹; 产生反作用; 未能奏效 | |
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7 slumped | |
大幅度下降,暴跌( slump的过去式和过去分词 ); 沉重或突然地落下[倒下] | |
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8 countless | |
adj.无数的,多得不计其数的 | |
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9 labor | |
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦 | |
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10 margins | |
边( margin的名词复数 ); 利润; 页边空白; 差数 | |
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11 escalating | |
v.(使)逐步升级( escalate的现在分词 );(使)逐步扩大;(使)更高;(使)更大 | |
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12 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
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13 wholesale | |
n.批发;adv.以批发方式;vt.批发,成批出售 | |
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14 earnings | |
n.工资收人;利润,利益,所得 | |
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15 payroll | |
n.工资表,在职人员名单,工薪总额 | |
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16 spiked | |
adj.有穗的;成锥形的;有尖顶的 | |
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17 swelled | |
增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 ); 肿胀; (使)凸出; 充满(激情) | |
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18 reimbursing | |
v.偿还,付还( reimburse的现在分词 ) | |
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19 staples | |
n.(某国的)主要产品( staple的名词复数 );钉书钉;U 形钉;主要部份v.用钉书钉钉住( staple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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20 compensate | |
vt.补偿,赔偿;酬报 vi.弥补;补偿;抵消 | |
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21 bucks | |
n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 );钱;(英国十九世纪初的)花花公子;(用于某些表达方式)责任v.(马等)猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 );抵制;猛然震荡;马等尥起后蹄跳跃 | |
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22 muses | |
v.沉思,冥想( muse的第三人称单数 );沉思自语说(某事) | |
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23 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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24 buffalo | |
n.(北美)野牛;(亚洲)水牛 | |
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25 permanently | |
adv.永恒地,永久地,固定不变地 | |
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26 affordable | |
adj.支付得起的,不太昂贵的 | |
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27 inputs | |
n.输入( input的名词复数 );投入;输入端;输入的数据v.把…输入电脑( input的第三人称单数 ) | |
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28 coupon | |
n.息票,配给票,附单 | |
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29 coupons | |
n.礼券( coupon的名词复数 );优惠券;订货单;参赛表 | |
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30 loyalty | |
n.忠诚,忠心 | |
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31 promotions | |
促进( promotion的名词复数 ); 提升; 推广; 宣传 | |
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32 fathom | |
v.领悟,彻底了解 | |
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