SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 Rising prices and continued economic uncertainty are creating challenges for consumers and local businesses in Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n
The Consumer Price Index increased 0.6% in September and rose 3.7% over the year. While consumers may notice higher costs in everyday purchases, businesses are also feeling the impact as the cost of products, transportation, and labor rises.<\/p>\n
In Salt Lake City’s 9th and 9th neighborhood, Mochi Kids founder and creative director Amanda Stewart has experienced that uncertainty firsthand.<\/p>\n
US inflation climbs as gas, clothing, and airfares get more expensive:<\/p>\n
US inflation climbs as gas, clothing, and airfares get more expensive<\/p>\n
Stewart started Mochi Kids with her creativity and just $300. The business has since developed a regular customer base and carries hundreds of products. Stewart said the decision to open a brick-and-mortar location was rooted in providing a sense of community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could\u2019ve been in a warehouse or fulfillment center, but because people were really craving community at that point, we decided to open a brick-and-mortar store,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n
Running the store, however, has meant continuously adapting to changing costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have, I guess, gotten used to the uncertainty,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had so many price increases over the last two years that now our employees are used to checking the prices of things every time we get a restock shipment in.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Stewart said tariffs remain one factor in determining what customers ultimately pay.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we get a tariff bill, we kind of decide, are we going to add this to the price now or wait a little bit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
According to Stewart, some brands have increased their prices every few months, forcing the store to consider increases on its own shelves. She estimates most of the international products she purchases have increased in price by about 15% over the past two years.<\/p>\n
She said domestic products have also become more expensive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rising prices of everything, transportation, labor, that has also caused our domestically manufactured goods to increase in price,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n
Despite those pressures, Maddy Oritt, director of public finance research at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, said Utah’s economy continues to perform well, even as some parts of the economy slow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tend to outperform the national economy, so even though things are slowing down a little bit, seeing some slowing in the labor market, other areas, we are still hanging tough,\u201d Oritt said. \u201cBut things like inflation is going to affect people, consumers, households, across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oritt said consumer spending remains strong, but economic uncertainty is making it difficult for families and businesses to plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard when you don\u2019t know what you can predict, whether that\u2019s for your household balance sheet, your budget at home or if you\u2019re owning a business and you don\u2019t know what prices are going to do,\u201d Oritt said.<\/p>\n
At Mochi Kids, Stewart said loyal customers continue to support the business and shop locally.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m here not just for myself but for the community and for my employees, so we hopefully will be around for a while,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n
Even with uncertainty surrounding prices and the broader economy, Stewart said maintaining that connection with customers and the community remains a priority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 Rising prices and continued economic uncertainty are creating challenges for consumers and local businesses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-882868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}