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Writer's pictureFrancisco Martinez

Businesses find ways to cope with rising costs, energy bills

Maria Perdomo, owner of Lola’s Taqueria, sits outside her Ark Row restaurant on April 26. She said she’s had to raise prices for just the second time since opening in 2018 because of rising costs for goods and a huge increase in her Pacific Gas and Electric Co. bill.

For Maria Perdomo of Lola’s Taqueria, recent Pacific Gas and Electric Co. rate hikes have hit particularly hard.

 

With the energy bill for the Ark Row eatery soaring to $950 a month, she’s now keeping some lights off during the day. And with the rising cost of goods, Perdomo said she can’t afford to buy her staple nonperishables of beans, rice and chiles in bulk, meaning smaller weekly buys are costing her more in the long run.

 


“I don’t have anything saved,” Perdomo, in an interview conducted in Spanish, said of her nonperishables. “Before, we had stuff in stock for at least a week, when we weren’t buying as much. But that can’t be done today.”

 

Perdomo said rate hikes, combined with increased operation costs altogether, mean she’s been forced to raise prices for just the second time since she opened in 2018.


 


Perdomo and other business owners in Tiburon say they’re trying to make do with ongoing inflation and energy bills that have skyrocketed. Some say theirs are up 25% over last year, others assert almost 300% in the past eight months. And while most owners say it’s just eating a bigger slice of their profits, others, like Perdomo, have had to adjust the way they do business.


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