Virginia small business sounds off on inflation, anticipates ‘a lot of trouble’ this holiday season

FIRST ON FOX: The owners of a small business in central Virginia sounded off on the rising inflation in America and the state of the economy, warning they anticipate "a lot of trouble" this holiday season with supply chain issues and the price of goods continuing to skyrocket.

Robin Litz and her husband, Shawn, along with their daughter, Tara Birely, are the owners of a small business called Kissed Cupcakes in Forest, Virginia. The trio sat down for a recent interview with FOX Business where they expressed their concerns about the U.S. economy and how inflation, which is at a 40-year high, and high gas prices have negatively impacted their small business of 11 years.

Shawn told FOX Business the overall cost of goods for their family business, which was started in 2011, has "gone up anywhere between 30 and 35 percent" and said that they would have priced themselves "right out of business" if they weren’t forced to raise their prices "probably 10 to 15 percent." 

"For example, a year and a half ago, I was paying $2 a pound for butter," Shawn said. "... $3.75 a pound now. Eggs, [we were] buying 60-count eggs for $3.50, now it’s $10."

"So butter, sugar, flour, they all have gone up," he continued. "I would say it’s even gone up higher than that 30 to 35 percent."

SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS SAY INFLATION IS CRUSHING THEIR BUSINESS: ‘OUT OF CONTROL’

Robin said she believes the "increase in gas prices has caused the increase in the inflation" on their goods, with Tara remarking that even everyday use items like containers have gone up in price, "not even just raw materials."

"And everything has shot up more sharply probably within the last nine months than it has the 10 years we’ve been in business," Shawn added, noting he has been "going to four or five grocery stores" when he used to go to a single one.

"And at one point we couldn’t find powdered sugar anywhere," Robin said. "We finally found it through Sam’s Club, and it had to be shipped from Houston, Texas, to Lynchburg, Virginia. It was nowhere to be found."

Shawn remarked until they found powdered sugar at Sam’s Club, their business relied on Walmart’s small two-pound bags of the confectionary staple.

Robin said one of her "main worries" was the usual holiday shortage, which she predicts will be exacerbated this year.

When asked what advice they would give as small business owners to the Biden administration and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, Shawn said, "That's just a bit of a joke. I don't think they have the listening ear of the middle class. I don't think they have the listening ear of the common folk."

"There is such division in this country right now too," he added. "It's creating a lot of this."

"I don't want to travel to D.C. I want them to come here. I want you to come to our shop. I want you to see what's going on here," Robin said. "I want you to see how we are suffering, how we can't meet payroll, how we've lost customers, how employee morale has tanked over the last couple years."

SOUTH CAROLINA SMALL BUSINESS CLOSES AMID INFLATION, LABOR ISSUES: MOM-AND-POP SHOPS 'DON'T WORK ANYMORE'

When asked what they think of politicians like President Biden who have jumped the gun to declare an economic recovery, Robin and Shawn said, "The economy is not back."

"Totally disagree. I don’t care whether he gets on there and says the inflation has gone down 0% or up 0% or what have you. It’s still there. Nothing’s changed. I’m still paying the same prices that I’ve been paying for everything," Shawn said. "So what if gas went down a dollar when it went up three bucks, but the prices of my goods haven’t gone down to reflect that dollar. It’s gone down in gas, so I say bologna."

Later in the interview, Tara expressed concerns about small businesses being taken for granted and contrasted them with corporate America, saying the small businesses are the "backbone" of America and that they truly care about their customers.

"When you work in a small business setting, we care about people," Tara said. "We don't just care about what goes out the door, how much money we make. We care about the people that work for us and when you lose that, when you lose that connection, which I think is what we are missing right now and if you have all these small businesses that shut down and you lose that family, what is the world going to look like?"

While inflation, supply chain issues, and high gas prices have affected their small business over the last year and a half, they were facing many hurdles before that with the pandemic. Less than two weeks after they moved to a bigger retail space in March 2020, many of the weddings and birthday celebrations that they were planning for were canceled due to the shutdowns across the state and country.

"We had to morph into something new, something different," Robin said. "People couldn't find bread on the bakery shelves, so we started baking breads because that's what the customers needed. That's what they wanted. We were able to stay open because we were a food industry, so we did a lot of curbside pickups. We did deliveries. We took the food trailer out."

Despite having deliveries and curbside pickups, Robin said Kissed Cupcakes' sales "slouched for awhile," forcing them to have to layoff some of their employees. She then said they applied for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan, but was unsuccessful during the first round and when they finally received the check after the second round they discovered it wouldn't cover a single salary. It was around $8,800.

Robin said Kissed Cupcakes wasn't the only small business in the area struggling, adding that they know several small business owners and that "most of them had to shut down" because they couldn't even get the PPP money. 

"The problem was once all the restrictions lifted and you could hire people back. You could open up. You could be active again. No one wanted to work," Robin said. She also mentioned the minimum wage in Virginia "has jumped so high" that they "can't maintain the 160 hours a week."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP

Local media reports for the surrounding areas near Kissed Cupcakes show that several small business owners are facing the same obstacles as the Litz family. Burt Taylor, the owner of the Badger On Main, a Lynchburg bar and restaurant, told a local media outlet over the summer that he saw a 20% to 23% increase in prices for products. 

"You just have to find more ways to cut back. I mean, you can change your prices on the menu to a certain point, like you just can't charge, you know, I can't charge you 80 dollars for 20 chicken wings, I can't do that I've got to still be reasonable," Taylor said.