It will likely cost you a little bit more to enjoy a meal at your favourite restaurant in PG.
The BC Restaurant and Food Services Association stated higher commodity and fuel prices are the main culprits for this.
President, Ian Tostenson outlines what customers might encounter the next time they dine in.
“I could see menu prices probably going up eight to twelve percent. So, if you have a ten-dollar item that might cost you an extra dollar while a twenty-dollar dish may go up two (dollars).”
“When you have a commodity price increase, which is really driving this, we have to recover (those costs) otherwise we will be going backward. Had we not seen commodity prices increase across the board then we probably would have been able to hold our pricing.”
However, Tostenson doesn’t expect this to last too long.
“Probably during the back half of the year prices should start to back up a bit but right now everything is in such high demand, which is driving up the pricing.”
Downtown PG President, Eoin Foley who owns Betulla Burning, and Nancy O’s stated this will likely cause a trickle-down effect elsewhere.
“It’s not just restaurants you are going to see that at. You will also see that at grocery stores as well impacting everybody and not just your fine local establishments. You are going to see this at big chain restaurants including fast-food places.”
“It won’t really affect our business too much. It’s not like it’s one or two restaurants putting their prices up. We are going to see this across the board and when you see that behavior you don’t really see too much change in consumers.”
According to Restaurants Canada, BC’s restaurant industry is the province’s third-largest employer. Prior to the pandemic, it provided 192,700 direct jobs- representing 7.5% of the province’s workforce.
It also showed 49% of restaurant owners were operating at a loss while 24% were breaking even.
In addition, Restaurants Canada said 44,000 food service workers in BC haven’t yet returned to their jobs.
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