Rising prices are squeezing households and small businesses in the 1st Congressional District of Virginia, and NPR's Ayesha Rascoe spoke with people there about how they are coping.
A cafe in Tappahannock
Java Jacks, a cafe in the riverside town of Tappahannock, has been open since 2006 in what was once a small one-story home on the main road through town. Owner Jeans Owens and her husband took over about eight years ago, hoping to be their own bosses and build a little security for retirement. Their first years running it have included the pandemic and then inflation.
Owens says costs have climbed across the board. Beef and sausage are up, and takeout supplies have jumped: to-go boxes that once cost about 12 cents now run close to 30 cents, and a cup, lid and straw that used to cost around 3 cents now costs more than 20 cents. Her electric bill has gone from roughly $450 to $500 a month to more than $1,000.
How she is adapting
Owens has worked to keep some meals at $10. She buys milk and juice at a big-box store early in the morning, gets fresh fruit from a local grocery, and compares prices among three suppliers, switching to whichever is cheapest. She has also had to raise some menu prices.
Customers are adjusting too. She sees more senior citizens splitting a single order, and tips for her staff shrank when gas prices spiked, then recovered when gas came back down.
Finding and keeping workers
The biggest stress, Owens says, is staffing, which is tied to affordability as well. Rents have risen in this rural area, where median income is around $50,000 a year, and some workers lack cars or are stretched by fuel costs. She has helped employees find housing, put some up temporarily in a motel, and carpools about five workers to the job. With two locations short-staffed for months at a time, she has had to take shifts in the kitchen and push paperwork to evenings and days off.
Sources: NPR