MILWAUKEE —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
Operators in the region have been especially hard-hit by worsening economic declines in the manufacturing industries that previously were the area’s bread-and-butter underpinnings. Many restaurateurs in Great Lakes locales juggle the need to raise menu prices to meet escalating costs, though doing so puts their businesses at risk of defections by financially strapped customers. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
“High commodity prices are the biggest issue,” Ed Lump, chief executive of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, told attendees of the Wisconsin Restaurant Expo here this month, as the WRA marked its 75th anniversary. Several of the show’s attendees complained that the costs of flour and cheese have tripled recently while other cost spikes have threatened their financial survival. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
Jeff Arenas, operator with his wife, Marie, of Palmer’s Steakhouse in Hartland, Wis., said he is now paying $25 for a 50-pound bag of flour, compared with $8 last year. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
Mark Dougherty, owner of Mark’s East Side, a supper club in Appleton, Wis., said his flour cost has doubled and costs of anything related to corn, now being diverted from market to make ethanol, also have shot up dramatically. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
“The challenge for operators is to be on our game on the cost side,” Dougherty said. “You have to raise prices. You can’t absorb all these costs.” —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
“We are all struggling with raising prices,” said Linda Wendt, owner of Linda’s on the Lake, a Van Dyne, Wis., eatery known for its fried, wild-caught Great Lakes perch. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
However, Wendt’s increased prices have not deterred her customers so far, and good sturgeon spear fishing on Lake Winnebago this winter has combined with ice fishing and snowmobiling to make for a profitable season, she said. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
One of the snowiest winters on record has boosted restaurant business in central and southern Wisconsin because fewer second-home owners needed to go “up north” to find snow and instead dined out locally, restaurateurs said. Meanwhile, some resort owners in the northern part of the state said they had experienced their best winter in years. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
Wauwatosa, Wis.-based Bartolotta Restaurants has reported that sales have been running slightly ahead of last year’s, aided in part by redemptions of gift certificates given at Christmas that must be used by the end of March. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
“We sold over $1 million in gift certificates last December,” said Bartolotta’s John Wyse. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
Other strategies are being deployed to counter economic slumps. Trey Hester, chief financial officer of 40-unit Rocky Ro-coco, based in Oconomowoc, Wis., said the pizza chain is doing more limited-time offers, expanding its pasta program and increasing local-store marketing. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
Pizza restaurants have been particularly punished by the escalating flour and cheese costs. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
In Ohio, last year’s minimum-wage hike from $5.15 to $6.85 an hour, plus January’s annual living-wage increase of 15 cents an hour and a state-mandated mileage increase to 49 cents a mile for delivery drivers have compounded problems for operators like two-unit Angelina’s Pizza of Olmsted. Owner Ann Reichle is considering raising prices for the fourth time in a year. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
“We’re off 18 percent year-to-date,” Reichle said, noting that customers are choosing medium instead of large pizzas or ordering less often. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
Ohio’s unemployment rate of 6.3 percent in January was up a percentage point from a year earlier. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
Though Reichle has considered trying to sell her business, she is “staying the course and will find a way to manage with fewer staff and shorter hours,” she said. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
Mark Glasper of the Ohio Restaurant Association said: “We feel the state is in crisis right now, with food and fuel costs going up and government mandates. Everything coming together is really affecting our members.” —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
The restaurant industry in neighboring Michigan—which for January had the nation’s highest unemployment rate, 7.8 percent, and 8.2 percent in the Detroit-Warren-Livonia area—“is still struggling,” said Andy Deloney of the Michigan Restaurant Association. He blamed auto industry layoffs, rising home mortgage foreclosures and a new state business tax. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
Michigan’s bright spot was a strong winter season in northern resort areas, Deloney said. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
“Business in Detroit is pretty bad,” said Matt Prentice, chief executive of Matt Prentice Restaurant Group of suburban Bingham Farms. “Some of our restaurants are meeting their numbers, and some aren’t. The trickle-down effect is affecting our catering more than our restaurants.” —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
Prentice added that he had to close two restaurants two years ago. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
Michigan ranked sixth-highest in the nation for home foreclosures in February, and Ohio ranked seventh, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac Inc., which placed the five highest as Nevada, California, Florida, Arizona and Colorado. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
Nationwide, foreclosures were up 60 percent last month, compared with a year ago. —Restaurateurs in Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states are lamenting new financial challenges they say are forcing businesses into crisis mode as they try to cut costs and raise prices simultaneously.
