Problems with the supply chain reach a corner of the business community: Ketchup packages.
After enduring a year of closures, fears of employee safety and openings for the start-up business, American restaurants are now facing a nationwide shortage of tomato sauce. Restaurants are trying to tie the table after Covid-19 increased the grocery world order. Managers use generic versions, pour bulk ketchup into individual cups and skip the corridors of Costco for substitutes.
“We hunted high and low,” said Chris Fuselier, owner of Blake Street Tavern in Denver, who has struggled to keep ketchup in stock for much of this year.
The pandemic has turned many sit-down restaurants into takeaway specialists, making individual tomato sauce packets the primary spice currency for both national chains and mom-and-pop restaurants. Package prices have been rising by 13% since January 2020, and their market share has exploded at the expense of table bottles, according to the restaurant business platform Plate IQ.
Even fast food giants advocate for parcels. Long John Silver’s LLC, a chain of nearly 700 units, had to seek ketchup from secondary suppliers due to high demand. The pandemic shift in the industry to parcels has pushed prices up and cost the U.S. company in Louisville an extra half a million dollars, executives said, because single service is more expensive than bulk.