GREEN BAY, Wis. — Friday was food truck day at the Brown County Library in downtown Green Bay, Wis.
Anthony Swett was busy making frybread and tending to ground hamburger that would eventually find its way to a customer.
He’s one of the owners of Taco Tones — a food truck serving a variety of menu items from tacos to chili dogs. The bread of choice: Handmade frybread.
“Post-2020, prices went up on a lot of stuff, including hamburger meat and cheese — two of the major things I use every day,” Swett said. “Lettuce went up for a while because of something going on — believe in the Arizona and New Mexico area — but right now, things are kind of getting back to normal it feels like.”
For Taco Tones, weathering those higher prices were part of keeping the business running.
“It was kind of tough. There were a lot of times where I considered, 'Should I raise my prices because I have to pay more?”' Swett said. “A lot of people don’t understand the cost of thingsl when it fluctuates like that, it takes a chunk out of my profits as well and what I’m doing normally and what I’m used to as far it comes to getting my bills paid too.”
The June Consumer Price Index released earlier this week said inflation grew 3% over the past year. That’s the the lowest growth since March 2021.
Some foods, such as eggs, have dropped dramatically in price. Others, frozen vegetables for instance, are reported up 17% over the same time last year.
Kiel Nikolakakis ordered lunch from Taco Tones after attending a library event with his children. He said he likes what food trucks offer the community.
“I like the food trucks around Green Bay. We have a lot of good options around here,” he said. “It’s always a nice way to support the local cooks, local chefs and keep the money going to our local businesses and local restaurants in the area."
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Inflation hasn’t stopped people such as Nikolakakis and his family from eating out once in a while.
“I still try to take the kids out to an option once a week for a lunch or special dinner, but that was pretty consistent with our habits ahead of time,” he said. “We do a lot of cooking at home too.”
Much like Swett is flexible with what’s served on frybread, he’s rolling with what the economy puts in front of him.
“We’ve had everything from a spaghetti sandwich on frybread to just regular chili dogs,” he said. “I try to do anything I can think of that sounds good on frybread.”
