Central Illinois businesses taking customer first approach during price inflation of goods
Central Illinois residents have noticed that when they check the price of their groceries recently, the number by the dollar sign has gone up.
Sous Chef in Peoria is a small business that sells locally sourced products and ready to eat food. The manager and operator, Patrick Couri, said the price hikes at places like Walmart or Costco hasn't quite reached them yet.
'I think it's hit larger places more because they get sort of a bigger network that has already been hit, and my network is smaller and thus more insulated, but it all trickles down,' Couri said.
The cost of coffee has risen as well, and CxT Roasting Company in Peoria has stayed firm on not raising prices for years.
'We have had to raise some prices very recently,' said CEO Mitchell Popadziuk. 'We haven't raised prices since basically 2019. We've tried to eliminate some of the supply chain burden from going on to the customer, but unfortunately, at this point, it's getting to the point where we can't quite shoulder all of that and the coffee just needs to be purchased at the price that it is.'
Popadziuk said customers get the cafe experience when they walk into the store, and so the rise in some of their prices was met with understanding from a loyal customer base.
'We've actually had customers tell us that our prices are seeming too cheap,' he said. 'So, you know, we're trying to like take all those factors into account when we're making our adjustments and we try not to do it too lightly. We take it very seriously because we know that this coffee is such an important part of many people's day.'
Greg Johnston, president and chief investment officer for Johnston Investment Counsel, said inflation is better now than it was a couple of years ago, but is still not easy for people to afford. However, he doesn't advise you to look at your savings when heading to the grocery store.
'Should you be tapping your emergency fund because groceries are higher? I probably don't think so,' Johnston said. 'An emergency fund is, exactly, for an emergency.'
According to an article posted on the Economic Security Project, in 2023 alone, Illinois residents needed nearly $12,000 more to cover the same expenses as in 2021. This includes expenses like groceries.
Inflation is a fluctuating process, and it will go down and back up again. Johnston said right now, we are sitting around a 3% inflation rate.
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