Butter Up: Prices Rise for Holidays; Seasonal Increase Hits Bakeries Hard
It's not just the festive decorations or frantic shoppers that signal the start of the holiday season. There's also the rising price of butter.</br></br>"It just seems to happen almost every year at this time," said Marc Randolph, owner of the Arlington bakery Pastries by Randolph. In the past three weeks, Randolph has watched the price of butter climb on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange--where wholesale prices are set-- from about $1.20 a pound to $1.80, a 50 percent increase.</br></br>Randolph now expects the price he's been paying his supplier to rise accordingly before the year is over: "We use a ton of butter a week, so this will put a little cramp in the business."</br></br>Randolph said he doesn't plan to charge more for his products to recoup the cost "because many customers won't be able to pay the price."</br></br>But he said if prices "get real bad," he may have to cut back production of some of the butter-laden holiday goods to keep his costs in line.