This is your Afternoon Report!
At Valencia Whole Foods at 21st Street, the owner for the last 25-years Yousef Nazzal, was up on a ladder doing some restocking and stopped for a minute to talk about the state’s drought and its impact on local businesses.
You may have noticed the price of butter and other dairy products going up. He said his cost for conventional milk have risen 40 cents a half gallon – in increments – over the last couple of months and conventional butter has jumped a full $1.
They have yet to pass on the increase to the consumers of milk, but Valencia Grocers and others have had to raise their prices on butter. “It’s just too much,” Nazzal said referring to the increase from suppliers.
Oddly, he said, the price of organic butter and milk have not jumped as much. Maybe, he said, the suppliers aren’t yet passing on the costs to retail stores because organic is already more expensive.
Bakeries, retail grocers and restaurants have all been impacted, he said and then went back to stocking his shelves.
Flowers and Art
Further up the block on Valencia, three friends – a Chilean and two Mexicans – have opened a flower and art shop, UL. The word is from Patagonia and means poem, said one of the owners who asked that we not use his name.
He’s a graphic artist and the other two owners include someone in real estate and someone in the restaurant business. Why a flower shop? It’s fun, he said.
Hearing Coming up
For those living near 3245 21st Street, Craig O’Connell has posted an oversized advisory on a permit meeting for November 5th at 12:30 p.m. to get a “certificate of appropriateness” for the construction of a one-story horizontal addition in the backyard.
This has been your Afternoon Report—a new series we’re trying out in which we offer a quickie post-meridian rundown of some minor developments in the always-happening streets of the Mission District. Got ideas or suggestions? Let us know what you think by sending an email to info@missionlocal.com.