Rising Minimum Wage, Inflation To Blame For Cafe's Closing, Owners Say

MACHESNY PARK, IL — A northern Illinois bakery and cafe will mark its last day in business Sunday, with management citing the rising minimum wage and rapid inflation as the reasons for the closure.

The Baking Grounds North opened in 2019 and is located in Machesny Park, north of Rockford. Since then, the business has suffered one economic hardship after another, its operators said in a Facebook post, until it became “a dream that is now impossible.”

“It is heartbreaking to become a statistic, but here we are,” the post said. “When we opened in 2019, minimum wage was $8.25. Today, three years later, it’s $12.”

The minimum wage in Illinois is scheduled to increase incrementally until it reaches $15 per hour in 2025. The rising cost of labor is accompanied by the highest inflation America has seen in over 40 years. The U.S. annual inflation rate for June was 9.1 percent.

“Every single ingredient and product we use has doubled, most (and the most important (eggs, ground beef, bacon, etc) have tripled,” the post said.

The cafe’s owners are not giving up on running a small business. Their new venture, Beardsley’s Barbershop, is tentatively scheduled to open Monday, the day after the bakery closes.