LOCAL IMPACT OF ECONOMIC DOWNTURN

Food and fuel: how much we pay

In the land of plenty, the average family pays plenty; food costs go up, while gas prices skyrocket

Paige Green Scott Williams has worked part-time as a driver for Romeo's Pizza for about three years. The drivers are dependent on tips to make their money for the night. The restaurant may raise its $2 delivery charge to cover its costs. Zoom Photo

(Editor’s note: This is the first in an occasional series of stories looking at how the economic downturn is affecting Petaluma residents.)

Given the price of food and fuel these days, we’re likely to use the phrase “high button shoes” sooner than “nickel candy bar” or “fill ’er up!”

Lisa Consani recently was laid off from the mortgage industry. She currently holds a temp job downtown, and with two boys under the age of 5, some changes had to be made to the family’s food and fuel-buying habits.

“We’re eating in a lot more,” Consani said, and shopping less at a local market where they used to buy sushi and meals to go.

However, Consani insisted that she will not be dissuaded from purchasing organic fruits and milk, even though the milk for which she once paid $5.99 per gallon is now up to $6.29.

“I consider the higher price for organic (foods) to be the sacrifice and contribution we make for the organic movement,” Consani said.

Regarding the cost of gas, her husband Anthony, a network programmer, said, “It’s an ongoing topic of discussion around our house.”

“Now we’re not going down to Marin to visit family as often,” said his wife, “and we’re more carefully planning and organizing outings so that we’re making fewer trips around town.”

Mr. & Mrs. B., who did not wish to be identified by name, also have two young children, and they too have changed their grocery shopping habits. “I’ve been shopping more at Lucky these days because they’re cheaper,” said Mrs. B.

She drives to her part-time job at a downtown retail store in the family SUV and he commutes to work in San Rafael in a pick-up truck. “It’s embarrassing to say,” she admitted, “but I can’t remember the last time either one of us filled the tank. We just can’t afford to lately.”

“I just paid $3.95 for regular,” homemaker Lisa Restrepo said. “I shut off the pump at $50 and the tank was only about half full.”

Restrepo said neither she nor her husband have completely gassed up the family’s 2000 Dodge Durango in at least six months.

“We tried to sell it a couple of times, but nobody wants a gas guzzler, especially a used one that takes $90 to fill,” she said.

Mrs. S., an otherwise active widow of 91, who also didn’t want her name used, said she no longer drives and depends on Safeway to deliver her groceries, but hasn’t noticed much increase in the cost.

“I tell my daughter what I need,” she explained, “and she goes on the Internet and orders it for me.” Mrs. S. lives in west Petaluma, her daughter lives in Sacramento, and Safeway delivers from the Rohnert Park store.

“They charge me $9.95 to deliver every three weeks,” she continued. “I wonder when they’ll raise that.” She said she spent $192.70 on her last delivery. Subtracting the service charge, that works out to about $61 per week.

According to a report issued by the USDA on Jan. 30, food prices in 2007 rose 4.7 percent, the largest increase in 17 years. Using USDA estimates in which the cost to feed the average four-person household last year was $189 per week, or $47.25 per person, Mrs. S. is paying roughly $2.22 more for the same weekly groceries she purchased just six months ago.

It will surely get worse before it gets better, as the Consumer Price Index indicates there might be an additional 4 percent to 5 percent food price inflation this year.

Grocery Outlet, the discount market on East Washington Street, generally sees a slowdown in sales from January to April, according to manager Julie Castillo-Martinez. Not this year, as the store enjoyed a small bump in business, due in part to bargain shoppers and the demand for rice, Castillo-Martinez theorized.

“The demand quadrupled during the time there was that run on rice at other places,” she said. “Most of our new customers are from the west side. I don’t think people on the east side are aware of us and how much less expensive we are than other stores in Petaluma. If they do, maybe they don’t want to pay for the gas to drive over here.”

With gas prices up 22 percent over last year, profit margins for restaurants continue to be at their lowest ever, according to Nader Mahdavi, who has owned Romeo’s Pizza & Pasta for 23 years.

“In the past year, flour has gone up five times,” Mahdavi said. “We used to pay about $10 per bag. Now we’re paying $45, and our supplier tells me to expect it to go to $50 in summer, just when pizza orders traditionally decrease as people go on vacation. Cheese and other dairy costs have gone up 25 percent. We’re going to have to charge 50 to 70 cents more for each pizza.”

Exactly one year ago, Mahdavi was forced to close his Sonoma Mountain Park-way location and concentrate on his downtown store. His pizzas may now have a longer route from oven to door in some cases.

“We have to compensate our drivers and try to make them happy,” Mahdavi said. “They average about 20 deliveries per day right now, so we may be forced to raise our $2 delivery charge to cover their costs.”

Cab drivers have it even worse, according John Deluc-chi, owner of Petaluma Taxi Co.

“This gas situation is really cutting into business,” he said. “I raised fares two years ago and I can’t bear to raise them again. It used to be on a good day a driver could get away with putting just 25 percent to one-third of what he made into the care and maintenance of a cab. Now it takes as much as half and sometimes more.”

Delucchi has a fleet of five cabs, all Ford V-8’s. “They’re the workhorse of the taxi industry,” he said. “I see a day when we will be forced to reduce our carbon footprint and downsize our vehicles by going green. But right now I can’t afford to even think about it.”

(Contact Bob Canning at argus@arguscourier.com)