ARLINGTON, Texas —
At International Food Land in Arlington, owner Osama Rashid has felt inflation’s wrath over the past few decades.
It has never hurt him this badly.
“It started last year, but this year it got worse,” Rashid said. “It’s not fun. It forced us, after 30 years, to change the way we run our business,” Rashid said.
He’s having a difficult time keeping shelves stocked because everything is costing him more. Eighty percent of the product in his grocery store comes from overseas.
Rashid told WFAA that the cost of shipping his product has more than doubled. He’s paying twice as much for many of the food items in his store.
He cut down on labor and saw his profit dropped.
“We just pay our bills usually,” Rashid said.
Tuesday’s newly-released data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed inflation rose 0.1% in the month of August. During the month of August, inflation was up 8.3% over last year, slightly lower than July’s 8.5%, but still stubbornly high.
Core prices for food and energy jumped 0.6% higher from July to August.
Financial expert Derrick Kinney told WFAA that Tuesday’s inflation news had an immediate effect.
"That sent shockwaves across the entire stock market and sunk Wall Street to a recent all-time low,” Kinney said.
Record-high inflation means the federal reserve will likely raise rates once again next week, Kinney said.
“The fed wants to see a pattern. What they don’t wanna do is stop raising rates and then inflation actually comes back up again. That could really topple the entire economy into a recession,” Kinney said. “The fed is walking a very narrow tightrope. If they mess up, it could spell disaster for the economy.”
Rashid has tried to keep the prices of his goods at a fair price for his customers.
“We have to compete,” Rashid said. “I just want the business to stay open and keep my customers, so we’ll do whatever it takes to survive the time.”
He hopes pushing through this turbulent time will allow him to keep running the business his late father started.