Local businesses face skyrocketing costs

Keith Dambrose says running a business is tough these days.

"Most people go grocery shopping, and they don’t really look at the bottom line when they’re shopping – how much this was compared to what it was," he said. "It’s a big difference."

Dambrose is the owner of Sliders Pizza in Rensselaer. It’s a longtime family business.

The price of wings, which had skyrocketed, has leveled off, but now it’s the containers.

"The boxes for the wings are out of hand right now," said Dambrose. "It’s tripled. We were around $39, $40 for about 250 boxes, and now you’re up over $100 for the same box, same product."

Many restaurants are informing customers about why they’ve had to raise some prices here and there.

Owners like Dambrose are spending a lot more on everything from containers to ingredients to cooking oil.

At LePage’s Market on North Mohawk Street in Cohoes, the grocery shelves are stocked and the deli is busy.

"Roast beef and bacon are out of control," said owner Tony LePage. "They’re actually probably almost twice the price for roast beef and bacon now as we were last year at this time."

LePage says they got to the point where they had to shop around a little bit harder to get quality at the best price.

He says the only thing that really stayed normal price-wise is beer.

It’s their 10th anniversary and LePage would like to be here for another 10 years.