New Year's Focus - Physical, Financial & Mental Health
- Almost 60% of consumers cite heathier eating of exercising as goals for the New Year. This same percentage of shoppers also want spend less.
- Almost 40% of consumers are planning on focusing on their mental health this year
- In summer of 2021, Clean/Simple Ingredients were the most important health attribute. High protein and low sugar now are top in importance for the healthy food trends consumers are seeking.
Potato Market Update
Russet potato demand remains relatively strong in Wisconsin and Colorado. It appears that these two growing states are taking advantage of the short supply and lack of trucks in Idaho. Pricing continues to be inching upward on all sizes, but it is more evident in the smaller consumer-sized potatoes
Yellow potatoes are available from growers in Colorado, Minnesota, North Dakota, Idaho and Canada. Pricing continues to increase as the remaining supplies begin to dwindle. New crop yellow potatoes will soon be available as growers from Florida begin harvest in the next couple of weeks.
Storage crop white potatoes are in very short supply throughout the Northeast, with very steady pricing. Florida growers will also be bringing a new crop of white potatoes to market, with most of the inventory staying in the Southeast.
Like yellow and white potatoes, a new crop of red potatoes will soon be available out of Florida. Storage crop red potatoes are available in North Dakota, Wisconsin and Idaho; however, supplies may be limited.
Supplies of fingerling potatoes remain very good in Colorado, Idaho, Washington and California. As pricing continues to be steady, these potatoes are the perfect item for your promotions. Contact your RPE sales representative for more opportunities.
Onion Market Update
Tight red and yellow onion supply continues to be the trend. Red onions, especially the larger sizes, remain limited across the country. Prices are reflecting the limited supplies.
Growers in Mexico started to bring new crop onions to the market, and more supplies will come into the pipeline over the next couple of weeks.
New crop onions from growers in California are on track for early spring. The Imperial Valley is expected to have good supplies on red and yellow onions by mid to late April.
In this week’s RPE Insights, we wanted to get a restaurant owner’s perspective on the current state of the restaurant industry. Todd Shamberg is the owner of Wheatstacks. Wheatstacks is a casual family restaurant located on a golf course in suburban Chicago. The restaurant caters to families, golfers and a slightly older clientele. His menu includes steaks, fish, pasta, along with burgers and bar food. His restaurant has developed a reputation as being a value restaurant. With the type of customers he has made over the years, increasing menu prices was a challenge. Following the strain of COVID on the restaurant industry, the level of price increases across the board put additional pressure on his establishment.
Our discussion with Todd touched on various topics, many of which highlight the current struggles facing not only his restaurant but the industry as a whole.
On the subject of costs, Todd said every major category has seen a price increase throughout the last couple of years. Food, liquor, supplies and labor have all seen significant price spikes. As expected, food costs have been driven up but other areas of his business have increased even more. One example he gave was a box of gloves pre-COVID was $30. That same box of gloves is well over $100 now.
With his use of DoorDash, he has moved Styrofoam to plastic containers for take-out. Although plastic containers do a much better job of keeping the quality of food, they are a significant increase in price as opposed to Styrofoam containers. Like many other restaurants, take-out/delivery has become an essential part of their business. Meeting the needs of companies like DoorDash has been another layer in the change of procedures.
As with other businesses crossed the country, labor has become an ongoing challenge. Many servers and kitchen workers have left the industry during COVID and never returned. The individuals who stayed in the industry are in high demand and have options of where to work, along with a selection of better pay and benefits. With the onset of winter closing the course, the increase of cases due to the Omicron strain and fewer people going out to eat, many servers at Wheatstacks have seen their pay slashed by half or more.
Todd hopes that the spread of COVID slows down and once the weather turns by spring, the golf course will open and more people will be willing to come out to eat. He expects the business to pick up but is concerned about getting help to cover the increased business when the time comes. Interestingly, despite the dip in inside dining, his catering business for private parties like showers, pre-nuptial dinners, reunions have been very good. He stated his bookings for the spring and summer have been very good.
Another issue Todd and other restaurants are having is the constant shortage of supply. His menus must constantly be adjusted due to these supply chain issues. According to Todd, supply outages were averaging around 20 to 25 percent. Recently that number has improved but it is still running at about 10 to 15 percent. Even at those numbers, it continues to create the need for weekly adjustments in his food preparation.
Though the stress levels for himself and his employees continue, Todd is hopeful for better times and better business as we get deeper into 2022.
