(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2023)
The Triangle Diner on Maple Avenue in Saratoga Springs was full at about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday Jan. 3, 2023. Despite rising prices, people are still going out to eat, diner owners told FoothillsBusinessDaily.com
If you’ve been to the supermarket recently, you may have noticed the skyrocketing cost of eggs, which now hover around six dollars per dozen. Now imagine the impact of that price hike on a diner that buys 240 dozen eggs per week.
Laura Diggins, owner of the Triangle Diner on Maple Avenue in Saratoga Springs, knows that feeling all too well.
“Eggs have been going up for a little while, but they haven’t been as high as they were last week,” she said Friday Dec. 30. “We are spending close to $1,100 a week on eggs now, when we used to pay less than $500.”
The United States Department of Agriculture agrees with her.
In their final weekly Eggs Market Overview of 2022, they report: "Wholesale prices for cartoned shell eggs have begun to recede into the new year. Supplies and offerings are light to moderate and becoming more available."
The main driver behind soaring egg prices is an avian flu outbreak that has killed millions of chickens across the country. A benchmark wholesale price for a dozen eggs in mid-December reached about $4.90. It dropped to about $4.10 by the end of the month. By comparison, the price in December 2021 was about $1.30 and in 2020, about $0.50.
Diner owners say if rising prices were only affecting eggs it would be one thing, but prices have risen on many ingredients and products essential to their operations.
Bill Maher, one of the owners of Compton’s Restaurant on Broadway in Saratoga Springs, said: “We buy three cases of butter per week. That order used to cost us $36 to $40. Last week it was $145.”
A number of other commonly-used products ranging from tomatoes to take-out containers have also experienced price hikes over the last year leaving owners with little choice but to raise prices.
Chris Smith, co-owner of Papa’s Diner on Corinth Road in Queensbury, said: “We raised our prices three months ago. That was to bring it level, and it’s gone up since then. But you don’t want to price yourself out of the market.”
It's a sentiment that Maher can understand.
“We can’t just double the price of what we were two years ago, which is what we would have to do. We’ve increased prices twice in the past year, and we are working on menus again right now. We used to do a quarter on items once every 18 months. Now it’s 50 cents, and we’re not even close to where we need to be to make the business work," Maher said.
According to a survey last summer by the New York State Restaurant Association, 88% of restaurants increased menu prices, while 73% changed the food and beverage items that they offer on the menu to adjust for higher prices.
The survey was completed by the National Restaurant Association, in partnership with the New York State Restaurant Association, in July and August. 267 New York restaurants participated.
Diggins, who raised prices at the Triangle Diner a couple of months ago, has experienced many of the same challenges but tries to keep things in perspective.
“It’s business. Everything is always up and down. You have to have it, so you pay for it. That’s just how it is,” Diggins said.
Despite the increased prices, each of the owners who spoke with the FoothillsBusinessDaily.com indicated that business has not slowed down.
“People are still coming in,” Diggins said. “If they want to go out to eat, it seems they are going out to eat.”
As for the future, no one knows when price pressures may begin to subside, but diner owners are hoping some relief is not far away.
"After the first quarter, things will hopefully settle down a little bit and maybe we can get back to normal pricing. Whatever normal is now,” Smith said.
Again, that is a sentiment seen in last year’s survey: 39% of New York restaurant operators feel that business conditions will never return to normal, while 42% of operators think it will be more than a year before business conditions return to normal for their restaurant.