Sarah Piepenburg, the owner of Vinaigrette, a specialty olive oil and vinegar retailer in Minneapolis, expressed relief that her sales dropped by only 15 percent during the months of pandemic lockdowns, but she added that her expenses skyrocketed, shooting up by nearly 50 percent.
“They have to deal with increased input costs as far as inventory and supplies, and they’re also struggling with balancing increased compensation,” said Holly Wade, the research center’s executive director. A key metric of inflation at the wholesale level released Tuesday, the Labor Department’s October producer price index, rose by 8.6 percent from a year ago — a blistering rate of increase that matches September’s record year-over-year high. On a monthly basis, producer prices rose by 0.6 percent, a jump partly attributable to climbing gasoline prices. Still, even after volatile food and energy prices are removed, so-called core inflation jumped by 0.5 percent for the month.
Lately, Slowinski said, he has been struggling to obtain goods like diamonds in his company’s signature style to manufacturing equipment. Wade, of the National Federation of Independent Business, said an inability to get equipment, supplies or labor is one factor causing small businesses to lose sales. “All of these issues are limiting their capacity to meet those sales opportunities,” she said.