Small businesses in WNC not immune to effects of high national inflation
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — Numbers released Friday showed that national inflation has hit a nearly 40-year high.
Mountain small businesses have felt the impacts. It’s been one thing after another: the COVID-19 pandemic, workforce shortage, supply chain issues and now this.
“It’s tough, it’s very tough,” said Eric Scheffer, owner of Jettie Rae’s Oyster House and Vinnie’s Neighborhood Italian.
Inflation has led to more expensive goods.
“All of our produce and our proteins and our fish and seafood and such are going up in price, and we’re feeling it pretty hard,” Scheffer said.
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According to an article from ABC, the Consumer Price Index went up by 6.8% in the last year. The number measures the prices consumers pay for a market basket of everyday goods and services. It hasn’t increased like this since 1982.
“We’ve tried to keep it down as much as possible,” said Dean Peterson, general manager at Tops For Shoes.
Peterson said they’ve had to raise some prices. However, he said they haven’t felt inflation as much because of the good business they’ve gotten.
“I think part of the reason is that we are in downtown Asheville. We are kind of a location the hotels around the area, the concierge, we’re one of the sites to see in downtown,” he said.
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Scheffer said he doesn’t want to raise his prices, but he said there comes a point when he has to.
“It’s really starting to affect us. And guys like me also want to provide things like health care for their employees, which we’ll be starting next year. There’s a lot of balancing we have to do,” he said.
Business owners said they continue to struggle with getting their goods because of supply chain issues, which further complicates things.
ABC reported this week that President Joe Biden said his administration is working on those issues and he expects more progress in the coming weeks.