With spiraling prices weighing on Main Street, more mom-and-pop businesses are making the difficult decision to pass their cost increases along to customers, even as they fret that customers will defect to big retail chains where they can find lower prices. As the owner of Vinaigrette, a specialty olive oil and vinegar retailer in Minneapolis, Sarah Piepenburg expressed relief that her sales only dropped by 15 percent during the months of pandemic lockdowns, but added that her expenses skyrocketed, shooting up by nearly 50 percent in that time.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/producer-prices-climb-small-business-optimism-sinks-rcna5035

#nbcnews