Onslow County small businesses struggle to stay afloat, forced to raise prices as inflation worsens
As inflation continues to wreak havoc across Onslow County, many small local business owners are being forced to adjust their prices.
Although the height of the COVID-19 pandemic is in the rearview, business owners are still trying to recover, and inflation is not making that any easier. Katie Lee, owner of Coffee Haven in both Sneads Ferry and Jacksonville, said inflation is something she is still combatting.
"I try to absorb as much as I can before having to increase prices, but that can get to a point where it isn’t in your control anymore and you have to make decisions necessary to keep your business going and thriving despite these challenges," Lee said.
Lee said some products and supplies have started to level back out, which she's grateful for. However, there are still a handful of items that are still rising. For example, she said dairy is a product she has to constantly keep her eye on.
As a coffee shop, dairy is one of their main necessities.
"I am hopeful that things will eventually get to a happy medium, but regardless, we anticipate making the best out of it and continue doing what we love and sharing that with our customers and community," Lee said.
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Salty Sistas Restaurant and Bakery Owner Jeanette Georgitis is also struggling.
She said people would rather stay at home and eat than have to add a drink or tip to their bill. Georgitis added tips are way down, because customers eat and then don't have the money to tip.
"We actually lowered our prices to try to get more people in and are making less on our bottom line to see if we can get busier," Georgitis said. "If we do not find a way through this soon, we will have no choice but to close."
The fear of closing is also very real for long-time stylist Sharon Phillips, of Cape Carteret's Vanessa's Family Hair Care Salon.
Phillips, a Swansboro native, has been a licensed cosmetologist since 1991, experiencing many changes over the years. She's worked at the salon with Vanessa Libby for almost 30 years.
Phillips said their salon supplies have increased three to four times what they used to be. She added people are spreading out their visits, kids aren't coming in as often and retail has dropped dramatically.
"I have been in the business 30 plus years," Phillips said. "All that time here in this area, I have never seen things like this. Some companies like Redken have stopped making perms completely since COVID, it is insane. We are planning to do referrals rewards with our clients this year and remind them they can come in for a bang trim-only between regular cuts."
Phillips said they have clients who have stopped coloring or perms completely, and others who used to come once a month that now wait six weeks or so. She added this is the first year between Thanksgiving and Christmas that they were not completely booked.
For this coming year, Phillips said they have an empty booth they would like to have someone rent to help offset some of their struggles.
"I have been blessed as a cosmetologist who became a single mom to a two-year-old in 1998," Phillips said. "I was terrified that I couldn't provide a stable life for us in this business, but I have been so blessed. It gave me the best of both worlds; I could make a great living and was able to work my schedule around what my son needed growing up. My clients were such a blessing, but I can honestly say, this is the first time I have been scared about making it."
Kate Lynn, owner of Jacksonville and Richlands organizational and cleaning company Just Call Kate, said costs have increased 30-50% on retail cleaning supplies.
She said she has to buy bulk or wholesale with a subscription in order to reduce costs and ward off price increases for her clients. She added the cost of taking digital payments through any sort of official invoicing system is 3% minimum, which many try to pass onto their customers, but she doesn't.
She said she is now looking at going back to check and cash-only.
Owner of Hubert's Peruvian Gold Balm Brynn Jones said she and her husband Justin have seen a huge jump in costs from ingredients to packaging, shipping, promotion and everything in between.
That's why they decided this past fall to raise prices across the board by 40%, despite having tried to hold onto their previous prices in hopes inflation would come under control.
"We didn’t take the decision to raise prices lightly," Jones said in an email. "We considered incremental price increases as costs continued to climb with the hope, we could lower them in the future. Ultimately, we decided to do one larger increase and hold those prices as long as possible to allow our regular customers to adjust quickly and settle into a new cost structure."
Jones added that as a small business, one of their largest hurdles is growing in a market where larger corporations already have so many advantages. She said the massive inflation they've seen is only widening that gap.
Inventory has been one of their largest challenges. Jones said the rise of ingredient prices has meant they have to do less with the money they have. She said they've had to wait to make purchases or order in smaller quantities, which means potentially losing sales to competitors who have product ready to go.
"What inflation means for us in the coming year is a radical shift in the way we do business," Jones said. "A shift not just in pricing, but how we reach new customers and engage our current ones. We will be doing more live events so that customers can see, smell and touch the products. We will have to communicate our value better, more quickly and more consistently."
Reporter Morgan Starling can be reached at mstarling@jdnews.com.
This article originally appeared on The Daily News: Onslow County small businesses struggle to stay afloat, forced to raise prices as inflation worsens
