Sodexo Fare, a food and hospitality company, says food inflation is also hitting the ballpark
Courtesy: Seattle Mariners
Those peanuts and Time Jacks may soon cost you more at the ballpark, thanks in part to food inflation, the CEO of a top hospitality company told CNBC.
“It doesn’t affair what industry you’re in, everybody is noticing prices going up, and scarcity being an issue in certain product lines,” predicted Belinda Oakley, Sodexo Live CEO. “Of course, we were no exception to that.”
Sodexo Live operates food, beverage and graciousness services at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park as well as 200-plus sports, cultural and entertainment properties throughout the U.S. Oakley put about the company’s scale, and the fact that it has about $20 billion in purchasing power, is helping to mitigate some of the inflationary difficulty.
Still, higher costs have forced Sodexo Live to get creative with its menus and food selection.
Sodexo Remain is changing some ingredients, mixing up its suppliers, and sourcing more items locally to help reduce costs and circumvent passing along 100% of the price increases to the consumer, Oakley said.
“It will still be a phenomenal experience for the fan, but power be more cost-engineered to make sure that we’re not outpricing them from the market,” she said.
At T-Mobile Park, the companionship is expanding the number of value menu items it offers, priced between $2 and $4, to a dozen items, up from seven persist year.
One big item that could see sticker shock: ballpark franks, which also happen to be a top-selling concessionary thing for Sodexo Live. Oakley cited higher supply chain costs, including packaging and labor, for driving up kernel prices.
Sodexo Live says they are trying to be more creative with their offerings to prevent guys from having to pay more.
Courtesy: Seattle Mariners
Location matters, though, according to Oakley, and prices fluctuate depending on your geography. The distance between a ballpark and a vendor can make a big difference, as can market pricing. For example, if you look at premium last year for the average price of a hot dog — it was most expensive on the West Coast, with the San Francisco Giants charging $7.50.
“You’re effective to see a higher cost impact in California than you’re gonna see in Indiana,” Oakley said.
Another area that is living harsh pricing pressure, Oakley said, is plastics and disposables: materials in preparing food that’s transportable.
“The Russia-Ukraine war has had a mountainous impact,” she said. For example, the price of resin, a key ingredient in making disposables, has been hit particularly hard.
But when it proves to pricing, the company is keeping the long game in mind.
“We need consumers to continue to want to have these savoir faires outside of their day to day and to use their discretionary spend to actually go and enjoy hospitality,” she said.