The Demand for Supplies

As I write this, I’m impatiently watching for our delivery truck. I just ran down the street to pick up milk for the second time today. We are out and our truck is eight hours late.

Pre-Covid, we could expect our truck between 8 and 9am every Thursday. It was chaotic to get our supplies put away during our morning rush, but it was part of our routine. We counted on it. While we didn’t get all our supplies from our delivery, we knew what we could expect and when to expect it.  The rest of our supplies were gathered on a separate supply run earlier in the week.  It’s never been easy to keep on top of supplies. Restaurants can be tricky to stock.  Some weeks you fly through the sweet potato nuggets, and the next week you many only get a few orders.  You would just do your best to predict and hope you don’t have too much waste or too little product. It’s always been a gamble; very stressful, but doable.

And then Covid hit.

At first it was just a few supplies that were hard to get – for instance, the toilet paper and paper towel debacle.  I’ll never understand exactly what happened there.  I’m assuming there are still people out there that have gotten so used to their toilet paper coffee tables and towers obstructing their path to the bathroom.

Then we saw prices start increasing.  Some increases were as much as 30% or 40%.  But the product kept coming.  It hurt, but we were still functioning.

But recently, you may have noticed a little different scenario.  Restaurants have started offering limited menus.  There are a few extra charges for things you didn’t have to pay for before. To some, It doesn’t make sense.  Or the common view is that we are taking advantage of the situation.  Simpler menu, higher prices – why wouldn’t a business jump at that chance? But trust me – dealing with frustrated customers is not why I went into business.  We have heard your frustrations loud and clear.

I’m not going to go into the specifics as to why this is all happening… the ports being backed up, no workers to load trucks, no drivers, and no factory workers making the products to begin with.  We have prided ourselves in finding the items that suit us the best in our shop, but since those items aren’t sold by the masses, they’ve now cut production.  So now we can’t get them…  And sometimes we don’t know we can’t get them until they just don’t show up on the truck.  No warning.  No problem solving. We just don’t have what we need.  So we scramble to find substitutions.  We try and get creative in our recipes.  We do our best to keep to our high standards while we are scrounging for supplies.  It isn’t easy.

And it’s not just food.  Plastics have become a huge issue for The Atom as well as every other non-franchised coffee shop.  I am part of a Coffee Shop Owner Facebook group, and every few days there is a post asking where to find plastic cups and lids.  This is a major problem for companies like mine that rely on plastics to get their product out the door. To sell coffee, we need cups. 

And then we should mention take-out containers.  State mandates have made to-go containers necessary to stay in business through all this craziness.  First, the prices of containers went up, and now they are getting harder and harder to get.  I’m paying almost double for my take-out containers now than I was in the beginning of this pandemic. I have no idea if they will continue to skyrocket.

What else has increased in price?  Milk, Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Roast Beef, Pork, Tortillas, Frappe Powders, Carmel Sauce, Mayonnaise, Butter, Cream Cheese, Potatoes, Produce, Paper Cups and Products, Merchandise, Shipping Charges, and Minimum Wage.  But the stress of the increased prices pales to the stress of whether you can even get those supplies you need to sell stuff and bring in revenue.

This is a tough time to be in business.  Running a restaurant is complicated under the best circumstances.  But right now, it almost feels impossible. Experts have hinted that these issues could last more than a year.  I think you are going to see plenty of businesses that just can’t make it work or just decide to stop fighting.  We are all tired.  The challenge isn’t as fun anymore.  Imagine a puzzle you work tirelessly to put together just to have someone sit across from you and take it apart.  The effort you put in starts to feel pointless.  You start to wonder why you got into this business to begin with.

For me?  I love providing a product and service that makes people happy.  My husband wishes I would have gotten into it for the money (joke’s on him!).  But a smile from a customer, a kind word, that new 5-star review… they all bring it home for me and keep me going back to work day after day.  Unfortunately, the anger, frustration, and bitterness over the issues we have had for the last year and half have trickled into the daily interactions we have with each other.  Masks prevent us from seeing smiles and facial expressions.  We aren’t connected.  I’ve felt a heaviness in the air for over a year. People are frustrated with the world, and sometimes a business is an easy target.  It’s easy to forget we are all human beings working our way through this.

Somehow, I know that this is just part of a bigger story – a challenge that we will overcome.  The puzzle will eventually be finished, even though the end image may look a lot different than I thought it would when I started.  We will shake our heads at the things we had to do to stay functioning, the many pivots and changes we had to make, and the lessons we are learning will be lifelong.  I think we will all be stronger for it.  

In the meantime, I offer a sincere thank you to all our kind supporters.  We love the energy you bring to our shop, and the way you lift our spirits.  Thank you to those that order from us regularly and your patience with us when we are running a little behind.  Thank you to those that leave us a kind word on Google or Facebook and especially in person.  Thanks for smiling and saying, “no rush!” when we are scurrying to make drinks and get to the next customer.  Thank you to our wholesaler, McDonald Wholesale, (shout out to Junior!!) for working so tirelessly to try and get us the supplies we need.  We know they are doing the best they can. Thank you to our vendors that are doing their best to get us merchandise to sell in a crazy market. We love you guys.  Each of these connections is why we are in business to begin with, and that is why we will continue to be in business.

Truck’s here!  Wish me luck!