Holy Guacamole! Avocados Are Pricey And It's The Pits
"What's a Mexican restaurant without guacamole? What's a hipster cafe without
avocado toast? Some restaurateurs may be contemplating these questions this summer as the price of avocados has spiked to almost double the price a year ago."
"In Los Angeles' Boyle Heights neighborhood, El Tepeyac Cafe uses loads of avocados for its delicious homemade guacamole. In fact, it goes through about 50 boxes of the fruit every week. Operations manager Bernadette Thom says the restaurant has no choice but to pay more."
"'I mean, we're in a Mexican restaurant, and everything pretty much on our plate requires guacamole,' she says. 'So to completely be out of it would not work.'"
"El Tepeyac has been around since 1955, and Thom says the owners are resigned to price spikes. She says they try not to charge customers more, but in the past they have had to resort to charging a bit more during price spikes. The higher prices also mean they have to shop around."
"'We always find avocados somewhere,' says Thom. 'If we can get a different quality or different sizes, like a little bit cheaper and they're a little bit smaller, or a different kind of avocado, then we'll do that as well too, until we can get through it.'"