Businesses in Little Rock impacted by the high cost of groceries

Little Rock, Arkansas – Many people, including local restaurant owners, are reevaluating their budgets as a result of the rising cost of food.

The Frontier Diner in Little Rock is owned by Taylor Fleming and her family. Taylor Fleming claims that since her family took over the restaurant roughly six months ago, the cost of meals has continued to grow.

“Hikes all across the board, I mean our biscuits went up in the last year by about 16 percent,” said Fleming.

According to Fleming, food prices have changed.

“Like our bacon for instance has gone up roughly 32 to 33 percent.” Fleming says as for eggs the price is also increasing, “not only doubling in price but tripling if not quadrupling which is hard.”

Owners of Four Square Cafe and Gifts Darshita Desai and Swati Modasiya claim that they are also feeling the effects of the rising cost of food.

“We used to get milk for like $2 to $3 and right now it is $4 and $4.50, and eggs are usually something around $7 or $8 but now it is $14 to 15 dollars,” said Desai.

By working with multiple vendors, they hope to save money.

“One item is a little cheaper over here (vendor) and one item is a little cheaper over here (another vendor),” said Desai.

But they claim that it has been challenging to keep the doors open.

“Because of high prices we get less business,” said Modasiya.

Fleming claims that how the food gets to their firm is also costing them money.

“Fuel prices were so high there for a while that it was affecting the prices of our food and the same issues with staffing like drivers with the trucks,” said Fleming.

Fleming anticipates that things will level off soon but is unsure of the exact timing. “Unfortunately that just leads to us having to increase our prices and play to the market,” said Fleming.