Raising prices isn’t something most businesses take pride in, but lately it’s become harder to avoid. Marshall Parker, the co-owner of Whim Chocolate in Halifax, says it’s something his business has had to do amid rising food costs. “Last year, we noticed that the cost for our chocolate itself, the base ingredient that we use, had increased about 100 per cent. We held our cost that we were charging our customers to the lowest that we possibly could, for as long as we possibly could. But then we made the decision that we needed to raise it in the fall of 2025,” says Parker. He says another price bump on his chocolate and other specialty items could come soon. “We watch costs very closely, and we can foresee that happening,” he says. It’s a tough decision that Sable Shortbread in Windsor, N.S also had to make. “We’ve been in business for 12 years. This is our worst Q1 ever,” says co-owner Lorraine Pike. “We did end up having to put our prices up a little bit. We held off on that as long as we possibly could. But at the end of the day, I also have to buy a loaf of bread, in order for me to eat.” The latest Merchant Growth survey found 64 per cent of local businesses in Atlantic Canada will raise their prices over the next six months. “Businesses are very protective of their customers. They’re very reluctant to raise prices. They really hold on for as long as they can, especially when the economic environment across the country is one of lower confidence as a result of first COVID, and the real estate market, and then the tariff war and now this war in Iran,” says Hash Aboulhosn, Merchant Growth’s chief growth officer. “It’s finally getting to a point where they can no longer continue to hold off, and they’re going to be passing on those prices to their clients.” The survey also found one in five businesses will hit pause on hiring new staff, something Pike says they’d have to do, in addition to cutting back on hours. “We don’t have that, essentially, luxury anymore. We have to manage all those things. So, we are closed more hours, which impacts our customers because they feel disappointed when they discover that you can’t be open as many hours as you used to be.”
