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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
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Small businesses are hurting at the worst possible time
By Bryan Mena, CNN
Updated:
6:00 AM EST, Sun November 17, 2024
Source: CNN
Enjou Chocolat, a small business in Morristown, New Jersey, is still
feeling the pain of inflation these days — from soaring cocoa prices
to increased labor expenses.
As a result, the chocolate shop, which employs just under two dozen
employees, recently raised the prices of many treats for the third time
over the past year. The move was met with customer fury, Mark Chinsky,
a partner at the business, told CNN. He said one customer, who had been
buying half-pound bags of foil chocolate for years at $10.99, reacted
badly to being charged $4 more this time.
“They said ‘that’s just a rip-off, and you’ve lost me as a
customer,’ which really hurt to hear,” Chinsky said.
Inflation is from the 40-year highs seen in 2022, but Americans still
have a bitter aftertaste that in handing President-elect Donald
Trump a decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in this
year’s US presidential election.
Like everyday consumers, over the years — and they remain angry about
it, according to monthly surveys from the National Federation of
Independent Business. That’s because small businesses typically
having tighter profit margins compared to behemoths like Walmart and
Amazon, so they feel the sting of rising costs more acutely. It also
means they’re often forced to pass on those costs to the customer.
Having to raise prices couldn’t come at a worse time: The holiday
season is a critical period for many of America’s small businesses,
but it’s approaching at a time when consumers are feeling more
emboldened than ever to push back on higher prices.
The shows that 8 in 10 small retail businesses rely on holiday sales to
meet their annual profit goals. According to the NFIB’s latest survey
of roughly 1,200 small businesses, a seasonally adjusted 26% of them
said in October they plan to hike prices.
“Customers think we’re trying to price gouge them when we’re not,
and the question is, will there be enough people continuing to buy at
the higher prices to offset the few that now refuse to?” Chinsky
said.
America has had it with inflation
It didn’t take long after inflation reached a four-decade high in
June 2022 for Americans to begin pushing back on rising prices.
The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book report, a periodic collection of
survey responses from businesses across the country, routinely detailed
customers questioning price hikes as early as that year. The latest
Beige Book continued to tell tales of consumer revolt.
“Frustrated by high prices, they are trading down from beef to
chicken, from sit-down restaurants to fast casual, from brand names to
private label,” Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said in a speech
Tuesday. “Price-setters are learning their ability to raise prices is
now limited by consumer responses.”
Big box stores like Walmart and Target have announced broad price cuts
this year to lure back inflation-weary consumers, with Target saying
last month that it is for the holiday season.
If only it were that simple for small businesses.
John Waldmann, chief executive of Homebase, a payroll software provider
for more than 100,000 small businesses, said Enjou Chocolat’s dilemma
is something he hears all the time.
“Small businesses are really reticent to increase prices, so when
they do, it’s because they have to,” Waldmann said. “They’re
still getting inflation on all sides.”
Ever since inflation took off in 2021, it has consistently been named
the top concern among small businesses in the NFIB’s monthly
sentiment survey.
“(23%) of owners reported that inflation was their single-most
important problem in operating their business (higher input and labor
costs), unchanged from September and remaining the top issue,” the
NFIB said in its latest release.
Signs of hope for Main Street
Even though customers have grown more intolerant of higher prices,
there is optimism that they could still open their wallets this holiday
season.
The Conference Board said in a yearly report on holiday spending
released Tuesday that the average US consumer plans to spend a nominal
$1,063 on holiday-related purchases this year, up 7.9% from 2023
(though after adjusting for inflation, that latest figure was below
pre-pandemic levels.) Older and low-income consumers indicated that
they’d be cutting back on holiday spending this year, according to
the survey.
But will American shoppers flock to mom-and-pop shops that usually
can’t afford broad price cuts, unlike big-box retailers?
“While consumers are concerned about some of the inflationary
pressures and their holiday budgets, there’s still a real commitment
to support local businesses,” said Sarah Jordan, chief marketing
officer at Constant Contact, which released a recent survey showing
that 78% of more than 3,000 consumers surveyed said they “plan to
holiday shop at a small business they have never purchased from
before.”
There’s also no sign that the American shopper is cutting back just
yet: Fresh government figures released Friday showed that retail
spending advanced 0.4% in October, slightly higher than expected,
while the September figure was revised up sharply to a robust 0.8%
increase from the 0.4% initially reported.
“Ongoing inflationary pressures continue to challenge our Main
Streets, but owners remain hopeful as they head toward the holiday
season,” Bill Dunkelberg, the NFIB’s chief economist, said in a
release.
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