Inflation causing grocery store costs to rise faster than restaurant prices

BETHESDA, Md. - It’s no secret, that prices are going up at the pump, at the grocery store, and if they haven’t already, experts say there’s a good chance you’ll start to see prices rise at many restaurants too.

"They’re looking at a higher cost of doing business," said Dan Varroney, the president and CEO of Potomac Core Consulting.

Varroney pointed to new numbers released this week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showing that grocery store prices are going up at a faster rate than restaurant prices. He said that leaves your favorite neighborhood spot in a bit of a bind.

"They’re clearly going to have choices and options," Varroney explained. "They can try and pass some of the costs through higher prices onto their customers, but they have other options. They can change up their menu options as well."

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FOX 5 went to Bethesda to see how one popular local restaurant is handling inflation amongst other big issues.

Mon Ami Gabi General Manager Adam Murphy said COVID-19, labor shortages, and inflation are all impacting business.

"What we’ve done is we’ve made the menu a little bit smaller," he said. "Because we have fewer people working in the kitchen, we have fewer people able to serve all of the people that want to come into the restaurant. We found that it’s been easier for us to be able to operate at the level we want to operate having fewer items that we have to focus on."

That doesn’t, however, mean Murphy is overly concerned.

"Here at Mon Ami we’ve been part of this community for 20 years," he said, "and with that, we have the support of so many people here that I think we’re gonna weather this just fine."