As inflation rises, James Therriault has noticed more and more items out of place in his store, New England Everyday Goods.
He calls this the “pick up and put down” effect, and said it indicates that customers pick up something they like, then decide they don’t need it and put it down somewhere else. This, Therriault said, shows that customers are under more financial strain.
“I’m seeing more of that than I’ve ever seen before,” he said.”
Like the rest of the country, people and businesses in the Monadnock region have experienced extreme inflation over the last few months. Therriault has noticed his business taking a hit. He recognizes that many of the products in his store are nonessentials, which customers don’t have money for once discretionary spending is gone or reduced.
“The impulse buy is gone,” he said.
In addition to losing business from consumers, he mentioned the shifting customs between manufacturer and store-owner since his business opened 12 years ago.
“Pretty much from 2010 to 2018, it was rare for a supplier to have a price increase. And if they did, they’d give you fair warning and they were highly apologetic,” he said.
Therriault said that since just before the start of the pandemic, and especially since the rise of inflation in recent months, its not uncommon for suppliers to not inform him of price increases until he gets the invoice.
“I haven’t seen anything like it in all the years we’ve been a business,” he said.
For Doreen Grimes, a cashier at the Antrim Marketplace and Antrim resident, the impact is unavoidable.
“It’s hurting everybody,” she said. “Parents come in with three kids to buy milk and bread, and its $10. We can’t keep up with raising prices. We want to serve the community, but we have to make a living too. It’s just been tough.”
David Westaway, of Hancock, has had a slightly different experience.
“Financially I’m pretty well off, so it doesn’t really affect me,” he said. “I’m 77 years old, and we don’t buy a lot anyway at this point.”
For Jeanne Sturges of Peterborough, the question was cause for some reflection and consideration of the future.
“To be honest, I’m not sure how it’s affecting me,” she said. “I think I’m privileged and fortunate enough that I can make adjustments in our daily expenses. However, I do think there are some factors that are going to come into play soon. For example, I just left one position and am looking for another, and the cost of living is something that I’m going to be considering.”
Mandy Carter is the owner of a new business in Peterborough, Dragon’s Bite Handmade Retail. She feels inflation is directly affecting how many people come in to the store, specifically gas prices.
“I have noticed that when the gas prices started going down, I started getting more people in,” she said.
Despite a slight drop, gas prices are still high, which has affected business, according to Carter.
“Without that extra $20 or $25 in their pocket every week, people aren’t going out. People don’t have any extra money to spend on small businesses,” she said. “They want to shop local, but its easier to pick up your phone and go on Amazon then it is to get in your car, drive down the road and see if there’s maybe something you want. With everybody’s pockets getting smaller, the ease of getting things online versus shopping local is definitely going to take a chunk out of any small business in the area. If people don’t have the gas to support local, they’re not going to.”
Carter noted that although she understands the burden that comes with traveling to a store, her business does have an online presence at dragonsbitehandmade.com where people can shop, as well as presence on social media.
For Heather Vaillancourt and Kyle Murphy, co-owners of Vital Provisions in Peterborough, the impact of inflation has manifested itself in ingredient sourcing and supply-chain issues. According to Vaillancourt, the restaurant opened in May, but they had to operate with a partial menu for their first month due to a delayed installation of their vent hood.
Vaillancourt and Murphy described how costs continue to snowball as they try to run their business, as well as the difficulties of having drawn up a business plan before inflation was so high.
“We have this concept of minimum waste, so if something’s about to go bad, we can freeze it and use it in smoothies,” Murphy said. “The concept was designed to save money, so we can pay people more. (That’s) another way that inflation is affecting us, because we want to pay our employees a living wage, and now the living wage is higher.”
Despite the difficulties, Vaillancourt said the patrons of Vital Provisions have had a high level of understanding.
“I think that’s the beauty of being a small local business, is that our customer base is so wonderfully supportive, and understand that this is such a hard time for restaurants, and especially starting up a restaurant, which is already a hard process,” she said. “There’s a lot of patience there. There’s a lot of understanding, there’s a lot of support. So the adaptability we’ve had to implement to make ends meet, people are understanding.”