All of our costs, small and large—employee health and dental care, inbound air and sea shipping from Japan, steel cable to make C-Flex beading wire, property insurance, packing & shipping supplies—have gone up during the past couple of years, in some cases by as much as 20-30%.
Until now we have absorbed almost all the increases in our costs and haven't raised prices to compensate. However we've reached the point where we need to recover at least part of our higher expenses. Today, for example, we received notification from the factory which produces our C-Lon threads and cords that they will be raising their prices by 5% in August. This is in addition to a similar price increase earlier this year. So effective September 1, we will be raising all our C-Lon prices by approximately 5%. This summer I will review the rest of our products to see which other prices need adjusting, and I'll let you know in August.
Or as Sam Ewing said, "Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair.”