Inflation reached a record level in Canada, at 6.8% in April. Behind the figures, there are humans who suffer the consequences. But not everyone is equal in the face of the rising cost of living. Third in a series of portraits of the faces of inflation.
April 2021: the pandemic is raging, tourism is flat, restaurants are dancing somehow to the strange tempo of health measures. One step forward and you open, two steps back and you close. Say hello to the company, and start again…
It was precisely in the middle of this storm that Aurore Perrinel and Florent Garcia decided to drop their anchor. On April 15 of that year, they became owners of Café Bohème, a storefront establishment in Tadoussac. The COVID then granted no respite and the banks, almost no loan to acquire a restaurant, at a time when the industry was going through its crisis of the century.
“It was a healthy, solid and profitable business. We arrived with an excellent file, and that’s why the banks told us: ‘OK, we’re on board with you’”, says Aurore. Money allowed them to navigate, but they still had to learn to circumvent the pitfalls. First, labor shortages, second, broken supply chains. Now, inflation, forcing restaurateurs to find inventive treasures to stay afloat.
“Florent has worked a lot on the menus to avoid price increases as much as possible – even if there are increases on everything”, explains Aurore. Lobster, for example, is no longer on the menu, neither is crab.
Our other texts in the series “Inflation and you”
“A family of four, I don’t feel like leaving here with a bill of $300 or $400. It wouldn’t make sense,” says Florent, the kitchen master. The products, this summer, will be less noble, but just as worked, assures the couple.
“In the evening, we have guinea fowl that comes from Baie-Saint-Paul. I got a good price on halibut, a fish from the North Shore. Yes, I lost the lobster from the Gaspé, but I gained the halibut from the North Shore. Am I really losing? asks Florent.
Behind this choice is also a form of resistance, adds Aurore.
“It’s a vicious circle, believes the businesswoman. The crab went crazy, it wasn’t edible for a while, and now nobody buys it and they have to sell it off. If you give up buying certain products, you can have an influence on the price. »
The Café Bohème has the soul of the cicada, but it must show more and more the rigor of the ant to continue to sing. The new owners are slowly becoming accountants and surely acrobats in trying to juggle inflation.
“In fact, it’s quite a balancing act,” adds Florent. You have to take everything into account: the gas you are going to use and the energy your oven is going to take to cook a product. Your potatoes, are you going to have them peeled by a cook paid $30 an hour or by a small hand paid $17? You are able to analyze all of this and find ways to get there at the lowest cost. »
Short circuits and system D
In Tadoussac, like everywhere else, the price of gasoline is skyrocketing. To relieve the wallet as much as possible, the couple of restaurateurs bet on buying local, which reduces distances as much as bills.
“I don’t pay for petrol when I buy my oyster mushrooms and my sea buckthorn: they come to bring them to me at the small market, underlines Florent. I cross the road, I arrive with my crate, I choose my vegetables. That’s a way we’ve found to, first of all, promote the products of our producers, but also a way to [réduire notre] cost of gasoline by making short circuits. »
Another source of savings for the couple is resourcefulness and mutual aid. With a helping hand from the community, he learns to sort out the little glitches himself that end up creating a gaping hole in the budget when they add up.
“We redid our bathroom last year with François, a builder from the area, says Florent. We managed to save on the bill by working with him. That must have saved us, what? $2000? $3000? »
Ditto for the windows to change around the house. Each one cost $100 to make, and $100 to install. Aurore, with the advice of a neighbor, fixed them herself, saving $600 in labor in the process.
These two native Bretons even studied a Nordic art that has become a ritual in Quebec: changing tires. “You know, for French people, changing winter tires and summer tyres, we don’t really know how to do it. Well, we learned! It’s also less to spend,” explains Aurore proudly.
Save everywhere, on everything
These savings left and right have notably enabled them to increase the salaries of their kitchen staff, which range from $18 to $25 an hour. “They have to put gas in their car, do their groceries and be able to offset inflation,” says Florent. The two lovers will also have a rarity this summer: a complete team, with 25 well-counted employees. An essential condition for their success, since the café, during the summer season, welcomes up to 600 guests a day. “It’s huge,” says Florent.
When the restaurant is running at full capacity, the cost of electricity hovers around $2,000 a month. Here again, the owners do not tolerate laissez-faire: nonchalance, like time, is also money.
“A light that stays on every night for no reason, multiplied by the number of hours, multiplied by the number of months… It’s as if you threw a ticket in the air, calculates Florent. Our team is very, very, very aware of waste. »
The rise in the cost of electricity imposes a reduction in consumption. “This summer, the diving machine, rather than rolling 100 times in an hour, it will perhaps roll 150 times, underline the two co-owners. You have to compensate elsewhere: let’s say that before, I could have a piece of meat that took five hours to cook, whereas now, I’m going to work with a piece that will require only two. »
Worried about remote areas
When they arrived in Quebec eight years ago, the couple lived in Amqui, where the coldest winter in nearly 100 years awaited them – a great test to prove that the two were not cold in the eyes. They hope, however, that the current inflationary period will be shorter than the interminable cold season of yesteryear. Regions, they say, can endure the most frigid temperatures far longer than wildly rising fuel prices.
“Tadoussac is known around the world: as long as there are whales and cruises, there will be tourists. But will people go to Baie-Comeau and Sept-Îles this summer? I doubt it, continues Florent, but I hope so. We don’t want to be the only village on the North Shore to have light and tourism. We have plenty of great producers on the North Shore. It has to work. »