JANESVILLE — East Milwaukee Street eatery GR’s Sandwich Shoppe posted a message on its Facebook page this week that it was in “unfamiliar territory” — the cost of tomatoes has now surpassed the cost of chicken.
On Tuesday, it cost GR’s $3 a pound to buy tomatoes. Compare that to $2.80 for a pound for chicken.
Sarah Hanna owns the shop with her husband, Georges Hanna, who has owned various restaurants in Janesville for nearly 30 years. They have had the sandwich shop for almost 15 years and have pulled through some tough times before.
“We’re used to the ups and downs of things and trying to scramble, trying to figure things out. Somebody asked me, ‘Oh just don’t close your doors’?” Sarah said.
She said this latest challenge, an attack of the killer tomato prices, won’t do GR’s in, either.
‘We’ve been through a recession and we went through a recession of 2008 and 2009 when GM closed, we survived that with the restaurant. We survived COVID when nobody else did. I’ll be damned if a tomato takes me down,” she said.
The Facebook post said that that to help control what the shop charges customers for its sandwiches, GR’s is giving people the option to ditch the tomatoes on their food.
“It’s usually the smallest of us that feels the squeeze the worst. In an effort not to pass significant price increases on to the lovely folks of this community, please let us know if you’re ok with skipping that tomato on your sandwich. We hope to keep our process right where they’re at and continue to crank out tasty sandwiches at an affordable price!” The post reads.
Immediately after the Facebook post, Hanna said, the shop received support with good-luck wishes. People are offering to bring in freshly-grown tomatoes.
“One good thing about our community here is that people are super-duper supportive of small businesses. I think when you know places struggle or go through ups and downs, I feel like the community is very understanding of things,” Sarah Hanna said.
The prices the owners saw on Tuesday vary day-to-day. Buying in bulk helps, but the shop still feels the pinch. Prices are rising for all their items, she said. For instance, a bucket of bacon can run $12-13.
The Hannas know that donated backyard tomatoes will help, but they won’t completely fill the need. The shop is looking to local farms, too, that might help provide tomatoes in larger quantities at a lower cost.
The problem: GR’s menu is tomato heavy. With the exceptions of the Italian beef and Reuben, all sandwiches, wraps, paninis, burgers, salads and items on the shop’s Mediterranean-inspired menu have tomatoes on them by default.
Sarah Hanna said tomato price have jumped for a combination of reasons. For one, the tomatoes she gets from local vendors are shipped from Mexico and Florida. A 17% tariff was imposed on tomatoes imported from Mexico in April.
A deep freeze in Florida in January and February hurt the U.S.-grown tomato crop. Then there’s a jump in diesel costs which puts a spike in delivery fees.
Sarah Hanna said she’s not telling customers not to go without tomatoes on their food, but the shop is making a point to ask diners if they’d be OK if the shop left the tomato off their sandwiches.
When will the shop’s tomato conundrum end?
“If we can keep them below $1.50 per pound,” she said. “They can always be sliced thinner. A BLT without a tomato just doesn’t make a BLT.”
There are alternative measures such as raising prices for sandwiches, or adding surcharges for tomatoes. However, Sarah Hannah will avoid that as much as possible. In the past, the shop changed its products when needed to adjust for inflation.
“My husband and I have fairly low overhead here for the fact that him and I do pretty much everything. We’re not here to become millionaires. We’re here just running a business. We’re a mom-and-pop shop.”
