HAMPTON, Va. – Before the champagne’s popped, some people are changing course to count down to 2023.
“I think we’re going to keep it simple,” said Chesapeake native Eric Jones.
Many people, including Jones, told News 3 they’re keeping their New Year’s Eve celebrations low key this year as the cost of food, rent and just about everything goes up.
“We’re more conscientious of what prices are, so maybe we would’ve planned something a little bit more grand,” Jones said. “We’ve gone to New York a lot of times for New Year’s, but I think with the combination of health concerns and prices, it just made more sense to keep it kind of at home.”
But rising costs aren’t stopping some like Margarita Ayala, 24, – like the drink – from splurging. She’ll be doing a bar crawl in Charlotte.
“It’s pretty pricey but we don’t do it often, so we figured for New Year’s we can have a little bit of fun,” Ayala said.
The Vanguard Brewpub & Distillery in Hampton is also feeling the impact. Owner Randy Thomas said they’re still struggling with finding and keeping employees, but they’re making things work to keep the alcohol flowing for New Year’s Eve.
“We’re operating with about half the staff that we had pre-pandemic,” said Thomas. “The saving grace is that’s less overhead – labor wise – but if we have large parties, we struggle to meet the demand.”
And he’s not the only one.
A report just published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce shows every state in the nation is facing a worker shortage crisis. Data shows the problem is ‘most severe’ in Virginia with only 47 available workers for every 100 open jobs.
For Thomas, the New Year’s Eve party at the brewpub and distillery will go on, but on a much smaller scale to save on costs and to keep staff from being overworked.
He's hoping 2023 is better.
“This past year has been very challenging,” said Thomas. “Restrictions were lifted and everyone’s supposed to go back to normal, but you can’t do that when you don’t have the people to man the business.
Adding to the pain of sticker shock, Thomas and several other local business owners tell News 3 they’ll be ringing in the new year with higher menu prices.
