Are You Paying More When You Go out to Eat?
Are you paying more for your fajitas at your favorite Tex-Mex restaurant here in San Angelo?
Restaurants are facing supply chain issues and a shortage of workers as people go out to eat following the COVID pandemic leading to the highest menu price increases around the country and here in Texas in the last 13 years.
“Much of that is because, with the thin margins of a restaurant, they can’t absorb the 20, 30, 40, even 50% price increases on products and not have some of that pass to the consumer,” says Emily Williams Knight, president and CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association.
According to Knight, staffing issues have affected manufacturing and the production of certain food products. One example she cites is meat used for fajitas.
Knight says she’s spoken with owners of Tex-Mex restaurants who are floored over the price increase for the meat they use for fajitas. Skirt steak that used to cost $4.50 a pound is now $12 a pound, they told her.
“Demand far exceeded what we would have expected coming out of the pandemic, and you have less product, which is driving the prices up,” she adds. “We think it’s going to be six months until these supply chain issues are sorted out. It just feels like death by a thousand cuts for restaurants right now.”
I haven't really paid attention to menu prices when I go out, but I have talked to some friends who have told me they've noticed some places that have new prices on their menus.
So have you experienced higher prices when you eat out here in San Angelo? Does your favorite fajita cost more now? Are you a restaurant owner? Are you having to raise the prices on your menu? Let us know on Facebook or chat with us on our station app.