Refrigerated Trailer for Rent in Downtown Charleston, SC

The top-seeded Charleston (SC) Cougars (26-7, 15-3 CAA) are 10.5-point favorites to secure the CAA Tournament Championship and an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament bracket over the No. 7 seed Stony Brook Seawolves (20-14, 10-8 CAA) on Tuesday at St. Elizabeths East Entertainment and Sports Arena. The contest tips at 7:00 PM ET and airs on CBS Sports Network. The point total is 148.5 in the matchup.

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It’s clean sweep among the three largest carriers at Charleston International.

Delta has joined mega-rivals American and United and at least two others in raising what it charges passengers who need to check their luggage.

The Atlanta-based airline this month bumped up its fee by 17 percent, or $5, to $35 for one bag domestic flights. The charge for a second piece of checked luggage went to $45 from $40.

Delta is by far the longest-serving carrier at CHS. It last raised bag fees for domestic flights six years ago. It said the extra revenue will help it keep up with unspecified rising industry costs, according to the Associated Press.

The increases don’t affect everyone in the cabin. Frequent Delta flyers with status perks can still check their first bag at no charge, and passengers sitting in first-class get two freebies.

American and United previously announced similar fee hikes three days apart in February, following the lead of smaller competitors Alaska Airlines and JetBlue.

All five carrier serve Charleston, as does Southwest, which stands alone in resisting the urge to impose luggage charges.

Dreamliner dive

A Boeing Co. Dreamliner has joined the planemaker’s 737 program in the news cycle’s inflight incident category.

A 787-9 plunged mid-flight March 11 after experiencing an undetermined “technical problem” en route to a New Zealand, according to reports by the Associated Press and other media outlets.

Chilean airline Latam‘s flight between Sydney and Auckland went into a nose-dive for a few seconds, tossing passengers and crew into the cabin’s ceiling and injuring about 50 people, including a dozen that had to be treated at hospitals.

The South American carrier said in a statement that the twin-engine wide-body experienced a “technical problem during the flight which caused a strong movement,” but didn’t provide details. A passenger reported that one of the pilots told him, “My gauges just blanked out, I lost all of my ability to fly the plane,” according to a report by liveandletsfly.com.

The crew landed the aircraft safely in Auckland.

An online production database showed the plane was built in Everett, Wash., more than five years long before Boeing consolidated the 787 program in North Charleston in early 2021. Allthings787.com shows the “Dash 9” was delivered on Dec. 16, 2015, from the Seattle area.

The Latam jet, which is powered by two Rolls-Royce engines, had accumulated 23,650 flight hours and 3,562 flight cycles as of Dec. 31, according to simpleflying.com. It’s one of 35 Dreamliners the airline operates and one of 25 787-9s.

The mid-flight plunge is the latest in a series of scary incidents involving Boeing planes in recent months, most notably an Alaska Airlines flight in early January, when a fuselage panel blew out on a 737 Max. That jet also landed safely, with no injuries reported.

Holy City smitten

Not unlike their Conde Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure counterparts, readers of a regional lifestyle magazine seem to be smitten for the long haul.

In this instance, the publication is Southern Living, which announced last week Charleston has been crowned best city in the South for the eighth consecutive years.

The also-rans included Savannah, Nashville, New Orleans, Ashville, Greenville and Atlanta, among others.

In touting the No. 1 spot, the magazine’s editors wrote: “What is there to say about Charleston that hasn’t been said before? The Holy City‘s gorgeous architecture, picturesque streets, and welcoming Lowcountry spirit continue to impress year after year.”

Dan Blumenstock, board chair of the tourist marketing organization Explore Charleston, said such rankings strengthen the region’s reputation as a “iconic destination” and is “evidence of our ability to remain relevant in a highly competitive industry.”

Spartanburg and Columbia were listed among the cities that are on the rise. Beaufort was voted as South Carolina’s best small town.

The monthly magazine’s South’s Best Awards lists the top 25 cities, with special recognition to the economic growth and new dining establishments and attractions in each state.

Vern’s on Bogard Street on the peninsula scored a spot in the best new restaurant category, and readers chose Henry’s Smokehouse in Greenville as the best barbecue in South Carolina.

The International African American Museum also earned a shoutout.

Southern Living said the rankings were compiled based on results of more than 20,000 online surveys. They’ll be featured in the April edition.

IAG=AI

A Charleston-based investment firm with AI in its name, sort of, has jumped on the AI train.

IAG Capital Partners is among the backers providing a $13 million round of financing for Silicon Valley automation technology company RIOS Intelligent Machines, which specializes in artificial intelligence-powered robotics for manufacturers.

Two prior investors also ponied up, Yamaha Motor Corp. and Main Sequence.

The fresh funding will target three segments: wood products, beverage distribution and packaged food products.

“The company will continue to roll out highly differentiated AI and vision-driven robotics solutions, starting with a groundbreaking product in the lumber and plywood handling sector,” Menlo Park, Calif.-based RIOS said March 5.

“RIOS’s full production vision, from automation to quality assurance to process improvement … and deep understanding of production needs, positions them well in the world of manufacturing,” added IAG partner Dennis Sacha.

IAG Capital is based at 200 Meeting St. Its portfolio lineup shows it’s made investments in several dozen business, including locally based management software company Moovila. The firm also was a lender to a Mount Pleasant water-heater manufacturer that ended up in receivership in 2022.

Corrie and Shuai Wang operate two North Charleston restaurants that most diners would consider successful.

Reservations at Jackrabbit Filly can book up fast, while their new Chinese-inspired barbecue restaurant, King BBQ, was the talk of Charleston and beyond when it opened in October, earning a glowing review from Post and Courier contributing restaurant critic Robert F. Moss.

Behind the scenes, there are days of intense struggle as the couple tries to balance rising food costs with a desire to pay employees enough to afford the heightened cost of living in Charleston. Some nights, a full dining room doesn’t translate to the balance sheet.

From 2022 to 2023, Jackrabbit Filly’s net income was down 135 percent, according to a financial report shared with The Post and Courier.

“It will feel like you’re the busiest restaurant in the world, and then you look at sales at the end of the night,” Shuai Wang said.

Jackrabbit Filly expenses were up 12 percent during that time frame, an increase driven in part by labor costs. Payroll and other employee-related costs were up 22.75 percent year-over-year, according to the report.

Nationally, restaurant workers’ wages have risen about 66 percent in the last decade, with 59 percent of small-business owners reporting that heightened labor costs are their biggest source of inflation, according to a January survey.

Paying restaurant employees more sustainable wages is an industry correction most independent owners, including the Wangs, fully support. But with the price of food products, rent, taxes, takeout packaging and liquor liability insurance also skyrocketing, operating a restaurant is more difficult and expensive than ever before.

Thirty chefs, including Mashama Bailey of The Grey in Savannah, aired their grievances with the status of the industry in a recent report by The New York Times. Some expressed their confusion with diners’ reluctance to recognize that. Like flights, clothes and groceries, restaurant dining is more expensive now than it was before the pandemic.

As the situation intensifies across the industry, Charleston restaurateurs are trying to balance accessibility with a need to cover costs and turn a profit.

“No doubt that it gets more difficult to operate with each passing year,” said John Schumacher of Harold’s Cabin, which shuttered on Feb. 24. “I’m pretty sure everyone in the industry would echo that.”

The beloved West Side restaurant’s closure was not a financial decision, Schumacher said. But Harold’s Cabin’s last day of service was the latest in a string of unexpected restaurant closures that in the last year included Three Sirens, Little Miss Ha, Baker & Brewer, Gale and Goulette, among others.

Arguably the most notable was Butcher & Bee, the Morrison Drive restaurant that shuttered less than two years after being named a James Beard Award finalist.

When it was still open, owner Michael Shemtov’s goal was to serve 100 diners per evening Monday through Thursday, he said; enough business when coupled with the busier weekend nights. Even after receiving national recognition from the James Beard Foundation in 2022, Butcher & Bee was stuck in the 40- to 60-diner-per-night range in 2023, he said.

Unpredictable turnout complicated restaurant staffing — many nights would have four cooks starting their shifts at 5 p.m., close to two hours before Butcher & Bee had a full dining room.

Most restaurants, including Butcher & Bee, track profitability by targeting specific expense ratios as a percentage of sales. Operators strive to keep the combined cost of goods sold and direct labor below 60 percent. Other expenses normally reach 30 percent, leaving owners with the remaining 10 percent profit. Many independent operators settle for about half of that.

From January to August 2022, Butcher & Bee’s cost of goods sold — food, beverages and merchandise — amounted to 30.52 percent of the restaurant’s sales, according to a financial report shared with The Post and Courier. Meanwhile, Butcher & Bee was dedicating 47.46 percent to labor costs. That’s a combined 77.98 percent.

The combined cost of goods sold and direct labor metric increased to 84.52 percent by August 2023, weeks before Butcher & Bee served its last customers. At the time, the restaurant was losing money, with costs exceeding revenue by more than 27 percent.

Shemtov said he was constantly balancing the price of doing business with the amount he was charging customers. At a certain point, the numbers didn’t add up.

“Most people want to cook food and make it very accessible,” Shemtov said. “I think there’s a real push-pull in terms of needing to raise your prices but wanting to make the food accessible.”

Daps Breakfast & Imbibe owner Jeremiah Schenzel said his West Side breakfast restaurant brought in similar revenue numbers in 2022 and in 2023. The price of doing business, however, increased dramatically.

Schenzel, who recently opened Cleats, watched his annual liquor liability insurance rate rise by thousands of dollars, while the cost of goods like bread, bacon and chicken wings continued to fluctuate.

Schenzel broke down what it costs to make a batch of chicken wings at Cleats:

To make a pound of wings, Schenzel spends $2.23 on chicken, 6 cents on potato starch and 1 cent on meat spice. Making the wing sauce costs 16 cents per 2 ounces, bringing the total to $3.32 for each pound of wings — about a half-dozen pieces.

Using the restaurant industry’s 30 percent cost-to-menu price standard as a guide, Schenzel should charge $11.08 for an order of wings. Cleats’ wings are currently priced at $10.

When the cost of wings increases dramatically like it did during the Super Bowl, Schenzel can’t simply tack on a few dollars to an order of chicken wings. You can imagine the type of response that move could elicit from customers.

When price hikes further shrink his profit margin, Schenzel can only hope to make up that money elsewhere. The constant pricing pressure can take a toll, he said.

“There’s so much pressure to perform all the time,” Schenzel said. “You have these people who work for you … they depend on you, and you want to take care of those people. That’s a lot of pressure from a personal standpoint and a professional standpoint.”

Raising menu prices might seem like the logical solution to combating the costs associated with operating a restaurant in Charleston. It’s not that simple.

Food

Menu price increases require a thoughtful approach, according to the National Restaurant Association. Operators who do not raise their prices strategically are in danger of alienating customers, and haphazard hikes might not be high enough to meet escalating expenses.

That hasn’t stopped restaurants from trying. Bloomberg estimates that restaurant menu prices have jumped by 24 percent since January 2020. Prices for meals at limited-service restaurants like fast-food chains increased 5.8 percent between January 2023 and January 2024, while full-service menu prices were up 4.3 percent during that time frame, the National Restaurant Association reports.

Customers have taken note, whether the changes are taking place at their favorite neighborhood bar or a corporate chain.

When McDonald’s raised its U.S. prices by 10 percent in 2023, diners took their complaints about fast food’s affordability to social media. The global conglomerate is one of several fast-casual chains that have become more expensive in recent years.

And more radical changes could be coming to the industry.

On Feb. 27, the CEO of fast-food chain Wendy’s announced the company would try out a “dynamic pricing” model starting in 2025, which means changing pricing based on demand (like Uber and airlines do).

While the chain quickly backtracked after people took to social media to blast the announcement, it still leaves the question on the table: Is this the future of dining?

At Jackrabbit Filly in North Charleston, the Wangs have fought the urge to raise prices. They still want the Chinese American restaurant to be a weekly or monthly destination for those in the neighborhood.

In 2023, food sales revenue remained near-stagnant compared to the year prior as the couple saw a steep rise in expenses. Bringing in more revenue in 2024 will allow the Wangs to manage those costs while keeping menu prices in the $10 to $20 range.

The couple is hopeful they’ll find a solution.

Stony Brook at Charleston Line Movement

ONLINE ODDS

CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - A proposed funding option for the Charleston County School District would allow resources to be allocated to help schools in the district with students in poverty, special education or multilingual.

Presented at Charleston County School District’s Committee of the Whole Budget Workshop on Monday night, the Weighted Student Funding Model comes with a $30 million price tag.

Traditionally, districts are funded based on the number of students in each school. The Weighted Student Funding Model would allocate funding from the district to individual student needs at each school.

The need for a new funding model partially comes from the number of students in poverty attending non-Title 1 schools under the current funding model cannot address all students.

“We see in places where models like this are used, improve student outcomes, particularly for the groups of students that we’re focusing on here,” Superintendent Anita Huggins said.

For the number of students in a school that are in poverty, special education or multilingual, the school would receive additional resources such as a staff member or program. These students would be weighed higher than average students.

The model would operate on the following ratio:

For example, a high school with a total enrollment of 600 students with 240 students in the school are in poverty, special education or multilingual. Using the above ratio, 240 divided by 6 would be 40. Under the Weighted Student Funding Model, the school would count for 640 students and get the resources to serve that number.

“The idea would be to pour in as much support at the elementary level because that’s where we believe shoring up early learning is our smart bang for our buck,” Chief Academic Officer Michelle Simmons said. “If you eliminate, mitigate, erase all the risk factors as early learners, at four- and five-year-olds, we won’t be playing catch up and trying to intervene at the higher grades.”

Basically, the model would allow more resources to be given to schools with students in need of more assistance.

If approved, the Charleston County School District is the only known district in the state to adopt the Weighted Student Funding Model.

Simmons said this funding formula would benefit not just segments of the population, but all scholars across the system.

“We knew ESSER was going to sunset sooner or later; we do have set aside money to sustain this program, not for one year, but for the next few years. If we do it well, if we do it responsibly, and if we pay attention to those things that made sizable, significant and substantial impacts to our scholars,” Simmons said.

The model also hopes to sustain ESSER funded programs as federal pandemic money dries up with the $30 million price tag including ESSER program impact reports, totaling to over $5 million.

If the district decides to transition to a Weighted Student Funding Model, Huggins presented that the district would sustain academic gains, increase support for all students, maintain effective ESSER programs, and increase school autonomy.

“This is what we feel is the most successful option post ESSER,” Huggins said. “In the long term, we believe we have some fiscally responsible ways to do this without asking the board every year to increase millage.”

The proposed model is not officially finalized with any of its details up for discussion as the budget is not complete.

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