{"id":434323,"date":"2026-09-13T00:26:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T00:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/434323\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T00:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T00:26:17","slug":"houston-area-restaurant-forced-to-add-fees-as-inflation-strains-business-owner-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/434323\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston-area restaurant forced to add fees as inflation strains business, owner says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) &#8212; The rising cost of goods and services is not only impacting households but businesses as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Lankford&#8217;s has been a staple restaurant in the Houston area for decades. The establishment, which started as one location, has expanded to three.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">That expansion has come at a time when businesses are finding ways to make ends meet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;That&#8217;s been the biggest change for us trying to manage the rising cost of hamburger meat for us, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, everything that goes within a restaurant has continually grown 20 or 30%,&#8221; Lankford&#8217;s owner, Paul Prior said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">On Friday, we learned that the overall price of goods and services has risen 3.4% in August from this time last year, according to the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/news.release\/pdf\/cpi.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">PREVIOUS INFLATION REPORT FROM ABC13: <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc13.com\/post\/inflation-remains-elevated-august-us-bureau-labor-statistics-reports\/19821319\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Inflation remains elevated in August, US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The challenge for many business owners is to not burden customers with higher prices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;Our mindset is that we are never going to impact the customers, so we have not changed our menu prices. They have been the same since we opened this location here three years ago,&#8221; Prior said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Prior said he has implemented a 3.5% surcharge on credit card purchases, much like other businesses have rolled out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;It has helped greatly because that has allowed us to continue&#8230; you know, it has really allowed us to double down on, you know, we are farm-to-table meat,&#8221; Prior said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Prior said he has also brought in fewer employees for some shifts and trimmed waste at his locations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">While he is navigating the current economic climate, he remains positive about what lies ahead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">&#8220;I believe God is good, so I believe things are going to work out for us,&#8221; Prior said.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) &#8212; The rising cost of goods and services is not only impacting households but businesses&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[150783,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-434323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-150783","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}