LITTLE GEMS
What’s going on with prices over in Walworth?
How did steaks get to be seventeen to twenty dollars a pound? How did 44.95 a pound for Tiger Shrimp ever get put in front of the public, plus 49.00 per pound lobster? Perch at 26.00 a pound? Aren’t those found in our very own lake? Are people being forced out of what used to be the traditional grocery stores and into Aldi’s and Wal-Mart? How is it that traditional places can even stay in business selling food at those prices? Are there that many wealthy people visiting the areas around the lake able and willing to meet those prices?
The big prawns, by the way, go for 16.00 a pound at Gooseberries, just outside of Burlington (it’s only a twenty-minute drive). Choice ribeye can be found at Aldi’s for eleven dollars a pound, with occasional sales down to eight. New York cut steak can be had at the Jewel in Spring Grove (another twenty-minute drive) for ten bucks a pound, and it’s U.S. Choice. Costco in Pleasant Prairie is worth the 33-mile drive from Lake Geneva. Prime NY steak is only 8.99 while ribeye is 7.99…and don’t forget to fuel up as regular is 2.79 a gallon instead of the 2.85 at or around the lake (gas is about 3.33 all over Illinois). Costco is worth the membership fee and the trips to and from. If you are out and about in Lake Geneva you may also wonder, when you look at any of the new menus that local restaurants are producing, that food prices in these places have risen twenty-five to thirty percent…and no, it’s not because prices for wholesale products are going up. It’s just a very uncomfortable product of capitalism without controls.
Visit Lake Geneva is back to pre-pandemic happenings.
The Visitors Center on Wrigley drive is now open seven days a week. Do not park there unless you are on Visit business or visiting the facility as a tourist. They will cite your car. The chamber members and partners are back to ‘in person’ meetings and the monthly after-hours events are back on. With all the positive and normalcy coming back that means Lake Geneva is busy, busy, busy and it’s great to see. The tourism in town is booming and all the businesses, the ones that made it through the curse of our modern plague, are excited and grateful. The hospitality businesses, restaurants, and retail stores had a rough go of it, and some still are in trouble.
One of the biggest issues the business owners are having is the lack of staff and trying to cover service for the new-found business increase. Visit Lake Geneva wanted to help its members and came up with a job board on the website. If you are a person looking for a job in the area, then go to www.visitlakegeneva.com and type ‘job board’ in the search bar and check out the fifty-two different positions available. Locals need to go into all our stores and buy their products. We take care of our own in Wisconsin, or so we hope to report.
An Oxygen Lounge coming soon.
The oxygen cocktail spot is to be located at 647 Main Street in downtown Lake Geneva. This new lounge is serving 100% oxygen in masks, with bubble tea, snow cones, and a juice bar. The lounge is planning on opening before July 4th, 2021. This new kind of bar can be found just about anywhere these days in tourist frequented places, s as more and more people are looking for purified air. Oxygen therapy is said to boost energy levels, increase endurance, relieve stress and pollution, provide quicker bounce back after exertion, improve concentration, help with relaxation, and is said to relieve headaches and hangovers.
The idea that you get a very mild high from breathing pure oxygen is not completely wrong, as pure oxygen can increase feelings of euphoria. Those who suffer from lung diseases need to be careful and think twice before entering an oxygen bar because some establishments use scents that have chemicals in them, and these scents can give mild to severe reactions. Liberal use of pure oxygen for the severely ill can also be quite dangerous. Oxygen is something no one can live without, and it is fast becoming a way to earn a buck, as well. Oxygen can also make a human being less likely to work at breathing, which many people need (the demand to breath). Be careful if you have medical issues before putting on a mask and enjoying this new form of ‘therapy’.
Comparing prices of food at locally owned, independent grocers & restaurants versus huge multi-national organizations is not an “apples to apples” comparison. As someone who owns & operates a food business, we’ve seen our wholesale prices from meat and produce suppliers go up in some cases over 100% compared to this same time last year. We have all seen the news of chicken wing shortages, lobsters shortages, and as one example, wholesale prices of brisket being literally more than twice the price now as it was at this time last year. Many farmers, fisherman, and meat processing plants simply cannot keep up with demand, and/or there are not enough livestock supplies for the food supply chain. Prawns will be cheaper than Tiger Shrimp as they are not the same product – Tiger Shrimp are a premium product versus prawns. Costco & Aldi are huge conglomerates that buy such large amounts of product, that they work out special pricing with produce and meat suppliers to be able to offer these products at much lower prices than locally owned grocers. For far too long, the public has not paid the true cost of dining out, or, groceries at grocery stores. This is not a case of rampant capitalism, it’s simply a case of demand outstripping actual food supply. In regards to restaurant menu prices going up: if the cost of labor is going up and food prices have gone up drastically as stated above, what are business owners to do? Price increases must be passed on to the customer for the viability of the business. Pre-pandemic, average restaurants profit margins were 1% to 6% on average – there are many national articles and studies readily available to reference these statistics. Many restaurants have closed as a result of the pandemic. In the long term, eating out at restaurants and bars will be more expensive since it needs to be. Again, this is not a case of rampant capitalism, rather, business owners trying to make dollar in order to save their business and offer their employees a fair wage.
TYVM for fixing the links to your latest articles.
Town of Linn must believe in their high priced exceptionalism; along with a bit of hifalutin attitudes. IMHO.👌👍