Food prices- going up?
Every day walking home from school, I pass a place that roasts sweet potatoes in massive clay ovens (I think heated by charcoal), very reminiscent of tandoori. The smell as you walk by is terrific and since I don't have an oven (just a bionic toaster on steroids), this is an efficient and convenient way to get some healthy carbs. It's cheap too, only $10 NT per sweet potato. They are piping hot, smoky without being burnt and sort of caramelized from the long baking. The lao3ban3 is super friendly and goes out of her way to make conversation with me. I think she's been very supportive of my awkward Chinese and appreciates the minor improvements in tones and vocabulary over the weeks.
You can imagine my surprise last weekend when they dismantled the entire operation from the largish shop space to camp out on the corner selling from a cart (top picture). When I asked her what was going on, she said that they couldn't afford the shop anymore. I guess the margin on sweet potatoes is just not that large. But she seems in good spirits, and I haven't noticed a drop in the number of customers, so hopefully with lower overhead, and maintaining their customer base by staying in the vicinity of their original space they're able to make a profit. The second picture is the space they vacated.
Across the street is a small baking operation, I hesitate to call it a bakery. The guy sells shao bing- 3 different kinds. Big pillowy flat ones stuffed with green onion, small crispy salted green onion dusted with sesame seeds, and little sweet ones. He's open early until he sells out, lasting maybe 3 hours tops. There's always a small cluster of people waiting for the fragrant and steaming buns, he sells them faster than he can pull them out of the ovens every day. But rather than making more and having leftovers, he just grins and says "Wo3 mei2you3. Ming2tian3 ni3 hui2lai2." And then you know you missed your chance and have to come back tomorrow- earlier, much earlier.
When I asked him why he does it this way, he explained that wheat flour prices doubled over the last year, and that he can't afford to have any leftovers and still keep his prices where they are right now. But soon, even these kind of cost cutting measures that are protecting his customers won't be enough, and then the shao bing will get smaller or the prices will go up. I'm betting they get smaller...
On the corner by my house, there was a small restaurant with a couple of street stalls out on the sidewalk. They mostly supported the local business lunch crowd, but were never very busy. Yesterday, they packed up into 3 large trucks and moved out. I didn't get to talk to anyone about the reasons behind their closing down, but I'd guess they'd cite rising costs in food and fuel, killing their margin. I think it looks like it's going to be harder to find fabulous cheap food shortly, just because everything is costing an arm and a leg wholesale.
This morning on my walk with the dogs I passed a betel nut shop also closing. I don't frequent this store (not into carcinogenic radioactive luminescent red spit), but all of the construction workers drop by on their way home from the job sites (of which there are many in my neighborhood). So you'd think there was enough business to stay open? It's starting to get a little depressing.