While restaurants and small businesses have struggled with the weight of inflation, one barbecue and burger joint owner voiced his concerns over the shift from in-person to takeout dining.
Johnny Roger’s owner, Barrett Dabbs, revealed the increase in take-out meals is causing his business and others like his to lose money.
"It's the price of everything that goes into that takeout meal," Dabbs explained on "Varney & Co" Tuesday. "Everything is up 30 to 40% to where it was. [It] used to be $0.20, $0.25 were the cost to prepare it to go. But now, you just look at what it costs to get that item out the door. The food dining trends have changed. There's not as many butts in seats. People do a lot more takeout. And so, it's just one more area that us as businesses are trying to overcome."
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"It's the infrastructure with the ordering online. It is having somebody to take the order over the phone. It is the increased cost of all the to-go packaging. You have the to-go box, you have the gloves that it takes to prepare the food, the ramekins, the cups, the straws…"
The financial strain associated with take-out orders is just one more piece in a complicated puzzle presented to business owners living under post-pandemic inflation.
Menu price increases are the most widely felt as customers are faced with paying more for the same amount of food.
Dabbs said his Concord, North Carolina restaurant has had to raise the price of a cheeseburger from $8 to $12 due to inflation.
"Right now we're up around $12 for just a cheeseburger. A couple years ago, we were looking to charge right around $8 for that same price," he said.
"Our menu costs have gone up just exponentially to try and stay alive."
Food has been one of the most visceral reminders of red-hot inflation for Americans. In January, the cost of groceries increased for the 10th straight month.
Grocery prices climbed 0.4% over the course of the month, according to the data. On an annual basis, prices remain up 1.2% compared with the same time last year.
However, the costs for restaurants extend beyond the food and beverage product.
"Everything's gone up," Dabbs said. "You have insurance, you have utilities. You have the cost of labor, everything that you can think of in our industry that is routinely a low-margin, tight industry to make profit. It really has just shrunk everything that we're trying to do in order to turn a profit in a business."
While finding ways to "overcome" economic challenges, Dabbs also revealed the restaurant has had to increase wages for employees.
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"We used to pay our guys $9, $9.25 an hour, just short-order cooks, burger flippers. We really raised our quality since then, and now we're paying $13, $14, $15 an hour on average," he said.
"Thank goodness we don't have a super high minimum wage that just drives up the cost of everything else. But, as business owners, that's tough."
FOX Business' Megan Henney contributed to this report.
