Bay Area restaurants are asking politicians to raise prices to survive amid persistent inflation.
As economic headwinds hit San Francisco's restaurateurs, it's become commonplace for businesses to post signs begging customers to forgive their price hikes, but one pizza shop is taking that appeal to another level. I pulled it up.
“Murder!” reads a sign on the soda refrigerator at Big Apple Pizza restaurant in Livermore, California. According to the SFGATE report.
“Rapid food price inflation is killing us,” the sign continued. “Unlike politicians, we can't raise the debt ceiling and are forced to raise very reasonable prices. Don't hate us.”
Big Apple Pizza owner Ray Utter said he put up the sign in the spring of 2020 as food prices skyrocketed due to supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic.
Before the pandemic, Attar could buy a gallon of crude oil for $38, but that price has more than doubled, he told the San Francisco-based news site.
Attar has been forced to raise prices to survive, he said, increasing the price of sliced cheese by 50 cents, the price of salad by $1 and the price of medium and large pizzas by $2.
“Forget about profits,” Attar told SFGATE. “Profits have gone out the window. Now it's just, how can we keep this place going, hoping things will get better?”
This New York-style pizza shop has been serving Livermore customers since 2011, and Utter maintains reasonable prices at $6 for a sliced cheese pizza and about $20 for a 14-inch pizza. I'm struggling.
But it wasn't easy. Many of the ingredients needed to keep mass producing pies are specialty ingredients, and Attar says they can only be obtained from specific suppliers, so there's nowhere else to go for a lower price.
Delivery apps like DoorDash are further squeezing restaurant profits. Third-party distribution apps account for 60% to 70% of the Big Apple's business, Attar said, but they charge 33 cents on every dollar of revenue for their services.
They are “another Uncle Sam,” he told SFGATE.
Attar said he loves serving the Livermore community, but has doubts about whether local restaurants will survive.
“Sometimes I think, 'Okay, I'm feeding everyone, but at the end of the day I sometimes struggle to feed my family,'” he told the news site.
It's been a tough year for San Francisco restaurants. Prices remain high, reducing revenue and forcing more local restaurants to close.
The San Francisco Standard reported. We look at more than 30 restaurants that will close in 2024, ranging from high-end chef projects to long-time neighborhood favorites.
Among the San Francisco restaurants to succumb to stifling financial pressure in 2024 is Blackthorn, a neighborhood sports bar that closed after 31 years in business. Little Spot Cafe has been around for 22 years, serving affordable coffee and sandwiches. Reports say it's the last Denny's in San Francisco.
