PORTLAND, Maine — For almost two decades Dean's Sweets has been serving the locals and visitors of Portland, Maine, alongside the dozens of people who order online.

"My husband Dean and I started this business just about 18 years ago and we started it in our home kitchen," said Kristin Thalheimer Bingham, the co-owner of Dean's Sweets.

All these years later, they are facing the reality of inflation and many businesses like them are heading into a crucial season for business.

Bingham said about 50% of their revenue is made during the holiday season.

"The supply chain has gotten to be more of an issue recently," said Dean Bingham, the co-owner of Dean's Sweets.

"Especially in this last eight months, nine months, 2022 everything has just kind of shot up and skyrocketed," Thalheimer said. "We were taken a little bit unaware by even just a few months ago. To see that sugar has increased 10% to 15% last spring and then it increased again over the summer, same with chocolate."

That's along with other items like cocoa, butter, cardboard, packaging and shipping materials. It's all making them question if it's time to raise their prices.

"I think we're going to take another good look at it as we head into the holiday season," Thalheimer said.

They say it's not something they want to do.

Thalheimer worries a rise in prices could change that and cause people to skip purchasing that chocolate gift.

"I'm as aware as anybody else about inflation and I hate to be one of the contributors but on the other hand if all of my costs are going up I cannot afford to stay in business if I'm not recouping my costs and making a little money for myself," Dean said.

They've tried to ease the pain in other ways.

"For a long time I thought my mantra was, make more sell more and you sort of make up for the increase in price by volume but we're starting to realize that you can't do that," Dean said. "Volume has costs associated with it too because the more that you sell, the more you need to buy and the more help you need."

Buying that treat is attached to a sense of happiness they don't want to see disappear and a moment of magic they hope a rise in cost won't ruin.

"I've always felt that chocolate was one of those things that you may not buy a pound but you can buy one or two pieces and that's going to help you get through some of the stresses of the other difficult times," Dean said.

"We are always conscious of the fact that we want to be a place where people can come and get a little gift for somebody and find something nice for themselves so we want to keep it that way," said Thalheimer.

When everything came to a screeching halt at the beginning of the pandemic, parents had no choice but to start in-home care. Ever since, childcare facilities have been facing many changes and trials trying to get back to pre-pandemic levels of children and staff.

Sunset Academy is one of the hundreds of thousands of childcare facilities across the nation that hit a major roadblock at the start of the pandemic. Director Samantha Emmer says Sunset Academy reopened after two months, but with very few kids and teachers.

"We went from actually being at an enrollment of 120 students, which is full capacity, to 27 when we reopened," Emmer said.

Emily Bustos leads Denver's Early Childhood Council, a nonprofit that is part of a national network called Child Care Aware of America.

"We all work to do systemic change in early childhood, as well as provide governmental grants, funding, coaching and training to early-learning providers," Bustos said. "[The pandemic] has been really rough on childcare providers. We did see some sites closing permanently after the pandemic. And right now, what we're experiencing is more of a workforce shortage crisis, if you will, around having enough qualified teachers to actually open, reopen classrooms or keep them open."

She says the best way to attract teachers is to offer a living wage and career pathways to grow. That's exactly what Emmer says they had to do at Sunset Academy.

"We would provide things like sign-on bonuses," Emmer said. "We provided opportunity for staff to be able to reach their credential of becoming a lead teacher if they reached that credential during a certain time period. We would give them another extra bonus, and so that would help us to retain them and it would give them a solid job as well."

However, paying teachers more means parents must pay more.

"The cost of child care was already unaffordable for many families, especially if they have more than one child," Bustos said. "The pandemic has sort of increased that challenge in that there again are fewer teachers, but really there is a movement to pay them more of a living wage."

According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, childcare providers made an average of $12.40 an hour in the year 2021. Bustos says the industry needs more public investment.

"I think, in general, there's a broad need for recognition of early learning services as essential for working parents, and I think we need to engage with the business community," Bustos said.

Bustos says incentive for well-trained educators is especially important due to kids returning with greater social-emotional needs.

"There's a lot more challenging behaviors that we're finding amongst the little ones," Emmer said. "So just being able to teach them and to show them positive ways of interacting with one another now, because they didn't have that, you know, some families had one child, no siblings. That child was at home alone. They didn't learn those social-emotional ways."

Emmer says there were a few benefits to the pandemic. It gave Sunset Academy an opportunity to restructure and now they're working toward becoming an English-Spanish bilingual school. She says it also helped parents to feel more sympathetic toward providers after child care was temporarily taken away.

"It can be emotionally draining sometimes," Emmer said. "Of course, it's very rewarding, but it is a lot. I think that they have a little bit of more appreciation, gratitude and understanding at what early childcare teachers really do."
 

With Thanksgiving now behind us, the holiday shopping season is officially in full swing.

Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday deals are helping families cash in on discounted gifts.

While the rush of business is greatly needed by smaller businesses that were impacted by last year's COVID-19 shutdowns, many say supply may not be able to keep up.

Greenhaven Ace Hardware in California has been locally owned since 1976.

Nicholas Dellos, the store's manager, said business so far this holiday shopping weekend has doubled its usual amount.

The shop ordered its holiday items back in January 2020. Almost a year later, they're still waiting for some product to arrive.

"Normally we have a lot more variety here," Dellos said while walking past the holiday lights section. "Lots of different types of lights that we just weren't able to get this year."

Supply chain issues and back-ups at California ports are raising prices, too.

"Everything's gone up 30 percent or more," Dellos explained. "It's unreal."

Whether you need lights, tree stands, Santa hats or extension cords, you can find them at most hardware stores.

Dellos' advice to those hoping to deck the halls of their home? Don't wait. Demand is high and there's "not enough supply to keep up."

Gregg Jones agrees.

He owns "Chad's Christmas Trees" at the Greenhaven Plaza Shopping Center in California and has been in business for eight years.

"This year has been a challenge for sure," he said.

With demand up, supply down and shipping prices on the rise due to supply chain delays, Christmas trees have a higher price tag this year.

He said silvertip trees, which many refer to as "Charlie Brown trees," are up about 15%.

"We try to do what we can to make it fair for everybody, but the costs go up," he said. "There's not much we can do."

He said customers should consider buying their tree earlier this season due to low inventory. Larger trees are more in demand, as well.

Watch the full story in the video above.

With inflation taking a big bite out of budgets and holiday shopping bills coming soon, what can consumers do if they need an appliance?

The easy solution may be renting. But one woman found out it can be a very expensive proposition.

After her old washer and dryer broke, Nicole Broomfield decided to go the rent-to-own route. She brought home a new Kenmore set.

"It should have been $1,792 and some change," she said the salesman told her.

That's what she thought she would be paying for her one-year rental — until the company sent her a letter at the end of the year.

Broomfield quickly learned she had been charged "a little over $6,000, close to $7,000," she said.

It turned out she had paid almost $7,000 for a basic, white, top-loading washer that retailed for $800 online, and a plain white dryer that should have cost $700.

Broomfield insists she was only told about the reasonable weekly payments and never read the fine print, because there was no paperwork.

The store only showed her a digital contract to sign on her phone.

Renters stunned by high bills

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) receives hundreds of complaints a year from consumers stunned by high rent-to-own bills. The organization warns that once a customer signs, there's often no way out.

"Legally, not much can be done when you sign the contract," said Sara Kemerer of the BBB.

Kemerer says to beware of low introductory rates and to find out what the total payment over the course of that rental period will be.

"A lot of people take their finances week by week, so they are enticed by that great starting low interest rate, and then it only skyrockets and increases," Kemerer said.

NerdWallet.com put it into perspective. They report that a $450 HD TV paid with a credit card carries $90 interest over 22 months, which is reasonable. However, they said, the same TV at a rent-to-own store with a one-year, $20-a-week rental puts the price tag at more than $1,000 — nearly $600 over the cash price.

Rent-to-own contracts are not the only thing that consumers need to look out for. The Federal Trade Commission says zero-interest buys are also a big deal around the holidays.

Those can work out fine as long as a customer pays off the entire bill before the end of the term. But if they go just one day past due, they could be on the hook for all the interest that was supposed to have been saved.

Depending on what the person bought, it could be hundreds of dollars.

So, read the contract before you buy, so you don't waste your money.

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WASHINGTON — Whether it was flooding in Texas earlier this week because of Tropical Storm Nicolas or Hurricane Ida's destruction which stretched from neighborhoods in Louisiana to interstates in the Northeast, the last few weeks have shown why flooding is such a risk to Americans.

In fact, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), flooding is the most common and most expensive natural disaster in our country.

And you don't have to live on the coasts to be at risk.

CONGRESS AND FEMA

While all this flooding may have you thinking about flood insurance, Congress is thinking about it for other reasons.

The National Flood Insurance Program is set to expire on Oct. 1.

While Congress is expected to extend the program, the bigger impact on your life may be the changes FEMA wants to make to flood insurance policies, changes that will likely impact rates.

Currently, policies are based on a home's elevation and whether it has a 1% annual chance of flooding.

Starting Oct. 1, factors such as the history of flooding, frequency of heavy rainfall, as well proximity to a water source will be factored in.

The numbers mean what you pay will be changing.

FEMA estimates around 73% of current policyholders will pay between $1-$20 more per month

It's expected 4% of existing policyholders will see price hikes of more than $20 a month.

But FEMA also says around 23% of flood insurance plans will be cheaper, an acknowledgment that some Americans have been paying too much for years.

"It all depends on where you happen to be," Dr. Ed Kearns says.

Kearns runs floodfactor.com which allows anyone to type in their address and see their own flood risk.

He says while FEMA's willingness to change is important, more climate change risks should be factored in.

“I'd really like to see how climate change is impacting those heavy rainfall events," Kearns said.

The reality, he says, is that some areas will be hit harder than others with floods in the coming years and Americans need to be insured and prepared to pay more.

"If you are living in a home that is on a grade slab and next to the ocean, or a low-lying area you should expect to pay your fair share.”

New policies will see rates change next month, current policyholders will see those changes next April.

If you're someone who wants flood insurance but can't afford it, keep an eye on Congress. A proposal to create new subsidies is currently included in the proposed multi-trillion-dollar spending bill.

Related video above: Pennsylvania lawmakers OK letting students repeat school year because of COVID-19The back-to-school shopping season may be weeks away, but parents may want to get ready to pay higher prices on everything from clothing to notebooks.The average spending per student is expected to be as much as $270, according to a survey by accounting firm KPMG. That's $20 more than last year.Spending on preschool and college-bound students will go up the most, partially because more people are starting school in preschool and college after delaying plans last year.

CINCINNATI —

The financial impact of the pandemic cannot be understated for businesses, families and city governments.

The city of Cincinnati has lost revenue in a list of areas due to the pandemic. Some revenue streams will continue to be impacted for years.

The city lost millions of dollars in parking meter and parking enforcement revenue.

In a memo earlier this month, City Manager Paula Boggs Muething estimated revenue from off-street parking will come in almost $2,083,489 below budget and that parking meter and enforcement revenue will come in $2,050,124 under.

According to data WLWT obtained from the city, the city gave out 110,732 parking citations in 2018, 100,056 parking citations in 2019 and just 57,387 parking citations in 2020.

"It's not unexpected that you would see a big drop in parking meters. It will rebound when people feel safe to go out again," said Mayor John Cranley in an interview with WLWT. "Parking revenues are down because people are working remotely. They're not going out to shop as much in order to be safe under the pandemic. I'm more worried about the small businesses and retail establishments who are suffering because of that."

This is the last year of Cranley's mayoral term.

The city is anticipating an $18.7 million deficit for this fiscal year, according to a memo by the city manager. That includes parking-related revenue, $4.7 million due to canceled events at the Duke Energy Center, $5.3 million from the transient occupancy tax due to decline in lodging, $1.9 million from canceled events at city parks and $2 million from city recreation centers, to name a few of the biggest losses.

Next year's budget has to be balanced by June 30.

"It's a juggling act that we face each year, " said Councilman David Mann. "It's particularly challenging when there's so many uncertainties and we have a pandemic."

Mann also chairs the budget and finance committee. He told WLWT the biggest priorities in the budget are covering the deficit and funding the rainy day fund.

Help is coming from the federal government via the American Rescue Plan. Cincinnati is slated to receive $290 million.

Chris Seelbach, vice chair of the budget and finance committee said council still has a lot of questions surrounding how the federal government will allow cities to spend the money.

"The answer is we don't know. The treasury department has not given any guidelines on where the money can be used," he said.

"We do have a budget deficit this year that I believe we're going to use some of the money to close. We won't have to cut services and jobs this year, so that's good news," Seelbach said. "Our budget deficit is a direct response of COVID. This money is to help the results of COVID, and so it's expected that it will be able to be used."

Mayor Cranley has held a series of announcements about how he believes some of the $290 million should be used, including investments in the arts, parks, neighborhoods and minority-owned businesses.

The leaders of the budget and finance committee do not plan to vote on any of the mayor's ordinances for a few weeks, as they await guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department, which is expected in May.

"The mayor has been announcing these press conferences as if the money has already been allocated," Seelbach said. "Only council can do that, and we have not allocated a single dollar."

City council will hold several additional public hearings for community members to weigh in on how they want the money allocated. Public comment will continue to be available via Zoom, and as of this week, people are now allowed to testify in-person in council chambers.

Once life returns to "normal," it will still take time for behaviors to return to pre-pandemic levels. There is also a big concern surrounding remote work and how many people will not return to the office.

"It's unclear if their home is not in the city of Cincinnati whether they still have to pay city of Cincinnati income taxes," Seelbach said. "If they don't, we could lose 25% of our entire budget, which would affect everything from police to fire to sanitation. Everything would be affected."