Inflation Causes Venn Pizza On Britton To Close Doors Permanently

A recent report is showing that inflation is dropping down to about seven percent from a nine percent peak over the summer, but prices are still making it difficult for local restaurants to keep their doors open.

Venn Pizza on Britton announced they are closing permanently due to inflation costs and staffing shortages. 

The restaurant opened their doors just 18 months ago, in June 2021. 

“It's been a dream of ours to open a restaurant," Chris Gomez, owner of Venn Pizza on Britton, said. “We love it and we wanted to keep it going, this decision did not come lightly. There were a lot of sleepless nights, we love the community that we tried to build and foster.”

He said ultimately, he knows this was the best decision for his business and family, but that it doesn't make the decision to close their doors for good any easier.

“When we're paying $40-50 more for cheese, obviously we're a pizza place, it's our largest expense. That's 60-70 percent more than what we were paying when we first opened," Gomez said.

A recent report showed that while inflation overall is on the decline, grocery store prices remain high, up nearly 12 percent in the last year. 

On an annual basis, inflation rose 6.5 percent in December, which is an improvement from this summer when inflation hit 9 percent.

Gomez said he has a great staff, but they were also short-staffed, which was putting pressure on the people that were working there. 

“Our people were really wonderful, but to be honest, we were just really short staffed, and we were always scrambling, and it put extreme pressure on the staff," Gomez said.

“We would have loved to keep it going, we just wanted to exit with dignity and with grace. It's extremely painful. This is a dream that we had, and it's putting that chapter of our life to rest- it's been hard.”

Venn Pizza will have their last day of full service on Jan. 21. They are still serving customers and working full time until next Saturday.