Minnesota State Fair vendors are prepping for what they expect to be a mostly normal year of attendance after Covid-19 brought smaller than normal crowd sizes in 2021 and completely canceled the Great Minnesota Get-Together in 2020.
Fresh French Fries, a state fair mainstay, didn't sit on the sidelines during the height of the pandemic. In fact, Dan Wozniak who owns Fresh French Fries says they were open for as many events as possible.
"We did every little event we could last year to try and support the fair and do as well we could for the year," Wozniak said. "We were kind of rolling throughout the summer so we had the booth ready and our main employees teed up and working ahead of the 2021 Minnesota State Fair."
This year, Wozniak says, is a little different because they opened Fresh French Fries over Memorial Day weekend and then shut the building down.
"It's more of a traditional year where we are just starting to reopen the booth, we have to deep clean everything, and it's out traditional ordering schedule. We aren't ordering a bunch of times during the summer. It's just the big order for the fair."
Like most businesses and consumers, Minnesota State Fair vendors are also facing inflation.
Dan Theisen and his family own the Ball Park Cafe. Theisen says that they aren't running into any shortages, but they are seeing higher price tags for a number of different items.
"We've had to change product a few times, but the shortages haven't impacted us much because we have such a limited menu," Theisen said. "Inflation is really noticeable when it comes to food. Some stuff is up anywhere between 10 and 35 percent on some items."
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According to Theisen, they're faced with making a decision about whether or not they should pass those business costs down to state fair attendees.
"It's almost impossible to pass these price increases along to the customer because someone isn't going to pay $14 for a burger at the state fair. It's just not how it goes."
Still, Theisen expects a 5 to 10 percent increase in prices on most of their products when gates open on Thursday, August 25.
"It's a balancing act," he said. "You don't want to price people out of coming out there either. You still want it to be an affordable gathering."
Another challenge when it comes to the 2022 edition of the Minnesota State Fair is making sure there are enough workers to cover each shift.
So far, Theisen and Wozniak have not experienced hiring challenges for their respective businesses.
"We've always treated if that our employees are there for 12 days, you make it fun for them, and they will come back," Theisen said. "We hire 55 to 70 people each year and I think this year we're looking at 8 to 10 new people."
Wozniak says there are a few worker challenges, even if they aren't hurting for numbers.
"School is starting earlier, usually the week before Labor Day," he said. "We don't have a ton of high school employees, but not having the high school kids during the week has made it a little more difficult."
Companies offering higher summer wages are also making it a little more difficult to retain employees each years. In some cases, Wozniak says workers are taking summer jobs paying $20 an hour or more.
"Paying people $18, $20, or $22 an hour...we can't do it and have any kind of profit margin," added Wozniak.
Along with setting an overall attendance record, the Minnesota State Fair also broke six different single-day attendance records in 2019.
Just over 1.3 million people attended the state fair in 2021.
"We're just really excited. Last year attendance was down slightly, but I think the fair has done an amazing job investing in the property and the musical acts this year are just fabulous," Wozniak said. "We're excited to see everyone back out and hopefully have a great year."