By Shelly Ann Thompson, Freelance Writer
Photos/Rudolph Brown – Illustration/Heather Kong
TIME WAS when $50 lunch money could buy Omar Welsh two patties, or one patty plus a box of orange juice.
Not anymore, laments the 16-year-old, who says he loves beef patties and has one for lunch almost every day. "Now two patties is for $66," says Welsh, who attends a high school in St. Thomas.
Like Welsh, Audia Trowers finds herself digging deeper into her pocket each time she makes a patty run. The 19-year-old says that for the last three to four years she has been eating patties more often and has noticed the drastic price increase over a short time span.
At least three days a week Trowers buys a patty before her classes at Northern Caribbean University in Mandeville. On those mornings she has a Juici Beef regular beef patty, and frequently in the afternoons she will have two or three of Mother's cheese patties. "I'm paying a lot more now. It's between $30 and $40 for a patty, and wanting cheese or double cheese it can be expensive," notes Trowers, who says her favourite patty is the Mother's cheese patty which goes for the princely sum of $50.
Still, despite the bite out of her budget, Trowers says she understands that patty makers have had to increase their prices to stay in business. The cost of everything has increased and she reckons that patty prices had to follow.
Welsh, too, says he understands that prices had to increase because of the escalating cost raw material. However, he reckons that prices need to be regulated in schools as too often when he goes to buy a patty from a vendor at his school he is told that it will cost more. He suggests that patty makers devise a patty meal plan for students. "Patties sold in school should not be more than $20 or $25 for one. Patties must be sent from the factory to the school and from what is sold the profit goes to them."
MAD COWS MAD PRICES
Rising costs and the ban on the importation of beef due to the Mad Cow disease means that patties cost as much as one-third more today than a year ago.
Richard Foreman, general manager of Mother's, says patty makers are finding it difficult to stay in business and please their customers. "We have to try to keep it (patty price) as low as possible for Jamaica because we know it is a staple in this country," says Foreman. He notes that "people making patty are making less money" and that "prices will continue to increase if beef increases".
Mother's famous patty meal two patties and a soda which cost $50 about two years ago, is now $99 for a regular beef meal with the chicken patty meal selling for $126. The price of the company's regular beef patty has gone from $28 to $35 in the last four months, and there have been at least four increases of beef prices in the last four months, each more than 10 per cent," Foreman points out.
Patty Plus, located at Shop 22, Sliver Slipper Plaza, 9 Old Hope Road, Kingston, increased its beef patty price by $5 in January, pushing the price of a beef patty to $30. The vegetable and callaloo patties stand at $35 each.
The increase, says Patty Plus supervisor Ruby Campbell, is due mainly to the increase of raw material. "The things that we use like flour, sweets and mince went up," she explains. Patty Plus about a year ago gained ownership of Patty King that was located at the same address.
HOLDING THE LINE ON PRICES
However, Juici Beef says it managed to keep its prices constant for about a year. A public relations representative for the company who asked for anonymity, says that despite increasing costs and the ban on beef importation, Juici Beef decided to hold the line on prices, but had to raise its prices in January for the first time in about a year.
The representative notes that the majority of its customers are students and that if Juici Beef were to increase prices each time the cost of raw material goes up, then it would lose a huge share of its market. "We try and ensure that any child can walk in (to any branch of Juici Beef) and have purchasing power." The company sells five types of patties chicken, beef, vegetable, shrimp and lobster. A beef patty is sold for $35, up from $30 in January. Chicken and vegetable patties are $40 while the shrimp and lobster go for $50.
Marcia Ramsay, a supervisor at Simply Delicious located on Altamont Crescent in Kingston, also says that the ban on beef has contributed to the escalating cost of patties at her enterprise. Mrs. Ramsay, however, commends her establishment for keeping its patty prices steady. The last increase on a beef patty was three months ago when it went up by $5. A beef patty sells for $30, the callaloo for $40, red peas $40, and lobster $120.
"When others were increasing their prices we kept ours. But soon we will have to raise our price as the local beef is more expensive," she adds.
