<< Previous   of   Next >> Enterprise/CHRIS GOODENOW  (click to enlarge) Alex Peck, 18, of Lake Forest Park, holds the hose so that a friend can fill up their 2006 Jeep Wrangler with gas, in front of long lines, Friday, Aug. 1, at Shoreline Costco Wholesale. Costco typically sells gas for less than most gas stations, but a membership card is required at the pump. Enterprise/CHRIS GOODENOW  (click to enlarge) Commuters step of the Sounder commuter train, as other commuters get on for the 7:38 a.m. departure, Friday, August 1, 2008 at the Edmonds Sound Transit station. Enterprise/CHRIS GOODENOW  (click to enlarge) The nderson family -- (from left) Tiphanie, Tabitha, 10, Trey, 15, and Tim -- pose in the 1995 Toyota Corolloa they bought after trading in their station wagon. Tim uses the Corolla, which has better fuel economy than their old car, to commute to work. Posing with the family are two of their dogs, T.J. (left) a miniature pinscher/daschund mix, and Truffles, a Lab mix. Enterprise/OSCAR HALPERT  (click to enlarge) Denice Hills, a manager for Grocery Outlets in Lynnwood, checks up on the produce display in front of the store Monday, July 28, 2008. The discount grocer has seen a surge in business as prices have gone up. 8 Enterprise/CHRIS GOODENOW  (click to enlarge) Commuters, including Amy Dechene (front of line), of Everett, wait patiently for the 6:53 a.m. Community Transit 812 (South) bus to the University District in Seattle to pull to its stop, Friday, August 1, 2008 at the park and ride at McCollum County Park in Everett. Enterprise/OSCAR HALPERT  (click to enlarge) Monica Close and her son Jacob Dugan, 11, with their shopping cart in front of the Lynnwood Grocery Outlet store Monday, July 28. Close says her grocery bill for a family of seven has jumped from $450 a month to $750 in a matter of months.

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CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, Copy editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

Feeling the pinch

In the face of rising gas and food prices, local families are adjusting their lifestyles

By Oscar Halpert
Enterprise editor

For years, Tiphanie and Tim Anderson drove their children Trey, 15, and Tabitha, 10, around in a station wagon and minivan.

Earlier this year, the family made a change.

"We thought 'Well, this is silly, why do we have these two big cars?" Tiphanie Anderson said.

So they got rid of the gas-guzzling station wagon and bought a 1995 Toyota Corolla, which gets better gas mileage. Tim uses it to commute to his job as a recruiter for Microsoft.

"I drive the minivan because I don't have to go that far," said Tiphanie, who works part time at Lynnwood's recreation center and is also an officer with the PTA at her daughter's school.

Whether trading in gas guzzlers, wrestling with child care choices or using more coupons, local families are finding ways to cope with rising prices.

Business is down

"People are watching their budgets more closely these days there's no question about it," Mill Creek businessman Rick Peterson said.

He and wife, Pam Peterson, operate a Dinners Ready kitchen where customers prepare their own frozen meals to cook and serve at home.

The Petersons order their customers' groceries direct from the Dinners Ready franchise; they provide the kitchen space and the cleaning detail.

"The franchise negotiates our purchasing contracts for the whole year, so our overhead hasn't been hugely impacted," Peterson said. "Business is slowing, even though in some cases, we can provide a better deal than the grocery stores and restaurants."

Sales at the Town Center establishment are down about 20 percent from the previous quarter. But the Petersons are hopeful that things will turn around.

While some restaurants have taken high-end food items off their menus to deal with the increased costs of doing business, the Petersons are sticking with their "quality first" motto.

"We toyed with that idea -- subsituting meat in our beef stroganoff with hamburger, for example," Rick Peterson said. "We decided not to go that route. We'd rather lose a few customers over our prices than the quality of our product."

Rising prices

The Department of Labor reported a 5 percent jump in retail prices in June, the largest single month increase since 1991.

Tiffinie Tautio, of Lynnwood, said her family's been much more careful purchasing things this year.

"We're not buying anything that we don't need and really trying to be smart about how far everything's going to go," she said. "Lately, we really, truly have made it a treat to eat out. If we go to a movie, we make sure it's a matinee and we don't splurge on a bunch of popcorn and candy. But I don't think we need to cut everything out because I think that would be more detrimental to our economy."

Unemployment is up

At the same time that people are paying more for food and gas, wary employers have been reluctant to raise wages. Unemployment has risen, too, though in Washington, the unemployment rate hasn't risen as quickly as it has in most parts of the United States.

Statewide, initial unemployment claims ending the week of July 5 were up 16 percent compared to the same time last year, said Sheryl Hutchison, spokeswoman for the Washington Department of Employment Security.

The national unemployment rate rose 1 percent between July 2007 and July 2008 -- from 4.7 to 5.7 percent according to the Department of Labor. The state's seasonably adjusted unemployment rate was 5.5 percent in June, up 1 percent from the same time last year, according to Employment Security Department figures.

More striking, Hutchison said, is the fact that existing unemployment claims are up about 34 percent compared to last year. That means people are collecting unemployment longer.

More basic needs

At the Family Center in Lynnwood, director Tim Gahm has been busy working with his staff to broaden their services in the wake of rising prices. His non-profit provides support services for families in South Snohomish County.

Gahm said the Partners Forum, a group of religious, non-profit, health and education leaders he's a part of, has been more concerned lately.

"For the past six to seven meetings, what we have been discussing is the increasing needs of families surrounding basic needs," he said. "Everyone involved first-hand with children and families are talking about first instances of families being forced out of housing. The rents increase on very little notice. And the cost to leave a home and find another home is becoming more and more of a challenge. With people paying a greater proportion of their income for secure housing, that leaves much less income for housing, transportation and food."

For some people, the price jump is forcing them to make decisions they wouldn't normally consider.

Drastic moves

Take Kerry Breakfield of Lynnwood, for example.

The married mother of two drives a school bus part time. A subsidy helps cover her $4,000 a month day care bill but it's still not enough.

"I'm actually having to consider taking my kids out of day care," she said. Her mother-in-law lives with the family "to help pay the mortgage and everything else," she said.

Outside Lynnwood's Grocery Outlet store off 196th Street Southwest, Monica Close of Lynnwood pushed a cart with one of her five children.

"We spent $750 last month on food," she said, an increase from the $450 to $500 a month it used to cost for her family of seven.

"I came here when they opened because of the price," said Close, who works for the Edmonds School District's food service department.

"We eat a lot of spaghetti and stuff you can feed (to) a lot of people."

Despite gloomy forecasts from economists, local families and business owners are trying to stay positive.

"The summer is always a slower time for us, so I can't say that the economy is the culprit with any certainty," Peterson said. "Yes, there are troubles with the economy, and everyone's feeling it. But I don't feel like we're at that point where we need to start changing the way we do business."



Mill Creek Enterprise editor Alexis Bacharach contributed to this story.