During the 2021 spike in organic cotton prices, the family that runs White Lotus Home, a New Jersey-based sustainable bedding company, hoped the jumps would be only temporary and absorbed most of the costs.

Earlier this month, White Lotus Home’s chief executive Marlon Pando emailed customers to explain that the 42-year-old company could no longer afford to do so, and that prices would increase.

Restaurant owner Tony Hessel spends his weekends poring over spreadsheets he’s built to tame erratic ingredient costs. While he has been able to lower prices on some dishes, he has had to raise others.

The rate of inflation in the United States has unquestionably cooled after reaching 40-year highs last year. However, recent inflation gauges, the actions of reticent small businesses such as these, and the broad-based announced price hikes by large entities like Chipotle and Disney reinforce what Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and others have repeatedly said: Disinflation will be bumpy.

Consumers’ patience and their pocketbooks, in some cases, are wearing thin as the process drags on.

In the coming years, we’re likely to see slower demand in the economy, according to Lydia Boussour, EY-Parthenon’s senior economist. Businesses will have a hard time passing on higher prices and higher costs to consumers as a result.”

There is no doubt that selling organic and sustainable bedding, particularly those that are handmade in the United States, is outside the mainstream.