With food costs rising faster than he's ever seen, Brett Almich, a third-generation grocery store owner in southwestern Minnesota, spends more time running numbers and deciding how much to raise prices.
"I used to worry about being competitive and not overpriced," he said last week. "Now I need to make sure my prices are where I need to make the margin to pay the bills."
The changes are happening fastest on meat and soda, said Almich, whose stores are in Clara City, Slayton and Granite Falls. Suppliers used to give him a few months' notice on a price change, but these days the warnings come with just a week for him to adjust.
