Supply chain problems reach a far corner of the business universe: ketchup packages.
After a year of closures, employee safety concerns and start-stop openings, American restaurants are now facing a nationwide shortage of ketchup. Restaurants try to secure the table top after Covid-19 turned the world order of condiments upside down. Managers use generic versions, pour bulk ketchup into individual cups, and go down Costco’s aisles for substitutes.
“We hunt high and low,” said Chris Fuselier, owner of Denver-based Blake Street Tavern, who has struggled to stock up on ketchup for most of this year.
The pandemic turned many sit-down restaurants into takeaways, making individual ketchup packs the primary condiment currency for national chains as well as mom-and-pop restaurants. Package prices are up 13% since January 2020, and their market share has exploded at the expense of tabletop bottles, according to Plate IQ, a platform for restaurant businesses.
Even fast food giants are begging for parcels. Long John Silver’s LLC, a chain of nearly 700 units, had to source ketchup from secondary suppliers due to high demand. The industry’s pandemic shift to parcels has pushed prices up, making it in Louisville, Ky. established company has cost an additional half a million dollars, executives said, as single operation is more expensive than bulk.