As 18th Annual Downtown Farmers Market begins vendors feel sting of inflation

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) -Theresa Greider first started selling her baked goods as a way to help fund her sons trip to Germany over a decade ago.

She and her husband have sold some of those baked goods such as kolaches with at her stand Home Made By Theresa, since 2016 at the Downtown Farmers Market.

They, along with other vendors are having to adjust to rising prices.

Grieder said “Every year there’s something that’s gone up on price. I can remember being able to buy eggs for a dollar a dozen. They went up as high as 4 or $5 a dozen for store bought eggs. For farm fresh eggs they were 6 or more a dozen.”

Some vendors such as the co-owner of Prairie on the Pasta Tyler Steinkamp said that the cost of vital ingredients is impacting their business.

He said “Inflations been a major challenge over the past couple of years actually like a pallet of of flour has gone from about $750 to about $1400. So it has definitely impacted our business.”

Grieder says she’s gotten creative to keep costs down without sacrificing the quality her customers expect.

She said “So my sister has a few chickens I get eggs from her and wherever else I can get farm fresh eggs reasonably priced.”

While Grieder says she’s tried to limit how much rising costs impact her prices, she says changes are inevitable.

She said “Some of it does have to passed on I mean things have just gone up you know the cost of paying employees to work at these places costs more so then its passed on to us and I have to pass it back on to my customers a little bit.”

For more information on this years Downtown Farmers Market click here.

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