SAN ANGELO, Texas — Many restaurants are being forced to increase their prices off their menu because of the rising costs of meat and supplies. Produce has been the only supply that has not increased in price and has remained the same for years.
Beef, pork and chicken prices have drastically increased, causing restaurants to increase menu prices. According to data from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, beef prices alone have increased 12.2 percent over the past year.
Señor Changs owner, Adrian Soto, posted on the restaurant's Facebook page announcing an increase in menu prices, effective Monday, Sept. 20.
In the post, Soto provided a graph with a breakdown of restaurant expenses from last year versus current cost of chicken breast with a result of an increase of $3,500 more in expenses.
“So right now, chicken is up 100% of where we were in January. Beef is near it. A lot of paper goods. They're kind of just taking what you can get like if you go to a lot of even corporate places, you'll see like non-logo cups,” Soto said.
Soto said the restaurant is not going out of business and expects to increase pay for its employees even if that means cutting his margin as a business owner.
"We want to increase our pay for our employees and continue to offer them chances to improve and we're willing to take less like as a business owner," he said.
The Facebook post has received positive feedback, customers were very quick to support the restaurant's transparency.
Soto is also owner of Mamma Changs and said they will not increase prices since it was only opened a couple of months ago.
