Jun 27, 2008 6:07 pm US/Central
Prices Up, Portions Down At Taste Of Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Expect to pay more to eat at the Taste of Chicago this year. As CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker reports, due to higher food prices, it's a situation nobody likes.
At the city's biggest food fest the increase in food prices has been reflected in ticket sales. It takes more tickets to get a taste at some booths, while at others, portions are smaller.
Cornell Robinson, owner of Robinson's #1 Ribs said, "I actually had to hire to a couple of extra managers this year to strictly monitor portion sizes because you're only getting five dollars for ribs and tips."
At Soul Vegetarian, the portions' size stayed the same, but to cut costs, the menu changed. "At one point we did have asparagus and we changed it so we don't have asparagus, we have broccoli instead," said Carolyn Harris.
It's been a challenging year for everyone in the food business, even Eli's Cheescake.
Eli's President Marc Schulman said, "When you're making cheesecake it's a lot of milk and butter and those are two commodities that have gone up dramatically."
Schulman said visitors to the Taste won't see an increase in price for cheesecake, but he was forced to raise restaurant prices by six percent.
Restaurant owners who buy in bulk weren't the only ones suffering. The high price of food is equally painful to consumers.
"Try to cut back on everything...even trips to the grocery store because of the gas prices,"
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said, "We're predicting these high prices are going to stay.
Schafer blamed our bleak future on high fuel prices, the increase demand for food and recent floods.
"We've got 4 million acres of land flooded out. What that total affect is going to be we don't know," Schafer said.
A government report on the flood is due out on Monday. That will give the country its first glimpse of the damage to the corn and soybean crops. That report will also give us an idea of the flood's impact on the cost of food.
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