For decades now, 11th Street Grocery, a little unassuming corner store in Newport, has been feeding surrounding neighborhoods for cheap, but as prices continue to go up, it’s been rough on the family business.
Teala Collins grew up there. Her mother, Debbie has owned 11th Street Grocery for almost 40 years. Collins now helps manage the place where she was once a baby on the counters, like her kids are now.
“I have customers that buy my kids presents, I mean, that’s how loyal they are. So we try to keep them happy, but it’s getting hard,” Collins said.
The store has become known as the place to come see Teala’s mom, everyone’s “Aunt Debbie,” and pick up some cheap groceries. But people are finding their favorite items on the shelves less often.
“If I order a $300 order from 7up, I might get $100. Or I order four cases of Yoo-hoo just to be sure I get one because there are none,” Collins said. “A lot of the favorite chips people want, they don’t have enough workers to put it in the factories to bring to us. And it’s just made everything ridiculously expensive.”
Toilet paper and cigars have also been scarce.
More expensive for the store also means more expensive for the customer, as the store has had to raise prices.
“We try really hard not to because we’re in the inner city, and we like to try to help the community by giving them affordable options, but there’s just some things we don’t make money on. Hershey’s ice cream right here. They want to come and take their cooler, because we’re not pushing enough product. We’ve been in business with them for 30-plus years,” Collins said. “It’s like, what can I do? You’re upping your prices. People don’t want to pay these prices. I can’t push something when people don’t have the money to pay for it. I’m one of those people.”
Breaks in the supply chain, and the resulting inflation, have hit everyone in the business world, and their customers, from big corporations to little corner stores. Collins said even the electricity it takes to keep her family business running has gone up 30 to 50 percent.
“Our normal customers that have been coming in here for 20 years, that are used to getting a pop at a dollar, and now I have to tell them it’s $1.25, because my cost has gone up,” Collins said. “Everything has gone up. A nickel here, quarter here. Right now, our chips are going up from $1.99 to $2.19 or $2.29, even. And people weren’t prepared for that. Like they don’t know that it’s coming, so it hurts.”
In another example, Little Debbie cakes have gone from 50 cents to 75 cents, Collins said.
For Collins and her mom, running the store is a labor of love.
“Mom will literally never let this place go. I don’t care how bad it gets. This has been her life. This is it for. She just does what she can to stay afloat,” she said.
It’s been the sense of obligation to the community that keeps them going, as they provide food that keeps the community going.
“I think that’s the only reason she stays. Cause it ain’t the money. Especially over these last few years, it’s definitely not about the money anymore,” Collin said.
