Wednesday night at E.B.'s Restaurant in Agawam was no easy walk-in as the chicken joint saw its tables full and lines close to the door. In business for some 40 years, proprietor Ed Borgatti said business isn’t bad — and with The Big E fair in town, it’s about to get better.
But it hasn’t been a banner year, either.
"So this year, we're down a little bit from previous years. Usually we're spoiled by being bigger and better every year," Borgatti said. "The Big E was down last year from the year before. Of course, the year before was such a phenomenon; it was so busy. So I think it just kind of leveled off."
Amid constant headlines covering inflation, energy costs and the cost of living these days, parts of the Northeast are often in the spotlight, with parts of New York and most of Massachusetts front-and-center.
The Commonwealth is considered one of the most expensive states for a family of four. Of course, that accounts for the more expensive Boston area. But locals in Hampden County said there’s plenty of financial pain in western Mass., too.
Speaking with WAMC Thursday — the “Eve of the Big E,” Borgatti calls it — the owner and Agawam city councilor said it’s hard not to notice costs rising. Compared to beef or foods lopsidedly hit by tariffs, poultry has been relatively stable this year, though are still up from last year, trade publications report.
But Borgatti added, the lingering effects of bird flu and droughts are still being felt.
"You know, it goes from $1.50 a pound to $2 to $3 a pound. We were well into the threes one time, and you know, when you're doing thousands of pounds of chicken like we are, when that goes up, you know, $1 a pound, and you're doing, you know, 3,000 pounds. Do the math...," Borgatti said, "that's $3,000 a week I had to come up with this week that I didn't have to come up with six months ago."
The restaurant isn’t in trouble, Borgatti said. He hasn’t had to cut staff and, post-pandemic, foot traffic isn’t bad, either. But probably one of the most frustrating holdovers from the pandemic hasn’t gone away.
"There is some gouging. I think some people take advantage," Borgatti said. "They're like, well, it's these distributors that send the food in my back door. Sometimes I think they'll jump stuff $10 to $15 a case, thinking they can get away with it because somebody's putting it in their pocket. Because, oh, well, inflation, inflation, inflation. You need to go up. You need to go up. Do you really need to go up?
"A lot of these people are gouging. I think some of the restaurants might be doing it a little bit. They're like, well, you know, if you can get $10 for a beer, let's do it, like, do they really need to? Probably not."
Leaving after grabbing lunch, local accountant Zach Rivers admitted he’s been feeling the pinch as well.
"I mean, honestly, I get takeout quite often, which honestly isn't the best. I know people say the cost of groceries should be cheaper than that, but I mean, everything is expensive; you can't really do anything," Rivers said. "You can't go out and spend less than $100 any day of the week. Interest rates are probably going up soon. Price of housing is going up soon. I'm selling my house and buying another house, and that's no easy task, just because everything is way overpriced."
High grocery costs have also been an unwelcome holdover from the pandemic. As the Associated Press has reported, the price of food intended for households “rose 33% from 2019 through June 2026.”
The same report also emphasized that, technically, wages still outpace grocery bills in many cases. But, coupled with rising energy costs and the cost of housing, it doesn’t feel that way for many. Not to mention, in Massachusetts, utility and housing costs are some of the highest in the country.
Those costs came up during a dual protest against and rally for data centers in Westfield earlier in the week. That's where David Provost, a general laborer for the International Association of Mechanics and Machinists, said affordability remains a hot-button issue, even in an area that's historically cheaper than the much more expensive eastern side of the state.
"Affordability for me, especially as a person who's living in Western Mass., is a very, very significant margin that I do base a lot of decisions off of. Cost of living is not just a thing that happens to me immediately," Provost said. "It is a thing that is going to be happening to people that I care about. It's going to be happening to people that I choose to bring into this world. If I choose to, you know, adopt or have a child, and they end up living here in Massachusetts with me, or in Westfield, and the cost of living here is still very high."
