HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Between the rise in inflation and the high gas prices, small local businesses are really feeling the pinch. Some business owners are making some necessary changes to boost the bottom line.
"My company is called Davenport's Daily Delights and we make homemade weeknight meals for families and then we do catering on the weekends and on the side." For 10 years Peggy Davenport has been making dinner decisions a lot easier for busy families. And her business has grown steadily. "During the pandemic, we blew up."
Until now. "Since the inflation started and things are starting to get a little tighter. It's still good, our business is still good, I'm not going to ever complain, I'm grateful but, it's a little slower."
Between the gas, it takes to get to and from her commercial kitchen and buying the food, the bottom line is not as big as it used to be. "In 20 minutes, [it's] $757 just like that. It's gone up so much. I just looked at the chicken. Every day it's going up a little bit more."
While Davenport has raised her prices a little, she realized she needed to do more. So instead of passing it on to the customer, she's changing the way she works.
Going from providing meals 4 days a week to only 2. "Save our customers, who are our number 1 priority always, save them money on delivery fees, save our drivers money on their gas, save me money from coming down every single day and then work 12 hour days to get the food done."
Davenport says she's still going to offer the same amount of food, so her customers can order more meals on those two days, ready to use right away or freeze for another day. "You never want to change something that's been working, but sometimes I think that in order to move forward you have to think outside the box."