Last Saturday, Blong Yang did something at his eggroll shop in Appleton that he hadn’t done in a while. He closed early. Mind you, it wasn’t because he wanted to. He had to. He ran out of food.
Thanks to a two-hour lunch period where he served up an average of four eggrolls per minute, Yang and his team at Eggrolls Inc., home of the ‘H’mongous’ eggrolls, were serving up smiles while Americans for Prosperity was putting the proverbial cherry on top by picking up the tab.
While cherries on top might not be the right topping for an eggroll, they are the right metaphor to cap what was a tremendous day, providing a little inflation relief for regular visitors to Eggrolls Inc., and for those who heard about the promotion and came in for the chance to try something new.
“It’s about helping people and today we helped a lot of people,” Yang said in a video he posted to his businesses’ Facebook page announcing the early closure.
Yang and his staff dished up 457 eggrolls alone during the two-hour lunch event, only to see hungry customers who came to the register with money in hand, ‘be blessed’ as Yang told many of them, by staff from Americans for Prosperity who paid for lunch as part of a statewide ‘Prosperity is Possible’ tour, talking to folks about how hard inflation is hitting us all, including Yang and his business.
“Bean thread noodles used to cost us $60 a case, but right now I am paying $115 to $120 a case,” said Yang.
And that’s just one ingredient among the many Yang and his staff use. He says the fluctuations are so frequent that he can’t keep up with changing his own prices to reflect his costs.
“I can’t be raising prices every week to compensate for what I’m being charged. Small businesses like mine just eat it.”
He says especially in the restaurant industry where profit margins are small, big government makes it harder to do business. He says he’s seen plenty of colleagues in the industry close their doors.
“I’m not surprised a lot of small businesses like me went out of business and to make it worse government regulations and everything else is absolutely horrid, government hates us, to be frank with you, and that’s how they’re doing it.”
Yang says despite the challenges he faces, he’ll keep the eggrolls H’mongous to keep his customers happy, while he keeps hoping for better days ahead.
To find out more about Americans for Prosperity and the ‘Prosperity is Possible’ tour of events around Wisconsin, check the events page on our website.
Americans for Prosperity believes freedom and opportunity are the keys to unleashing prosperity for all. We are a community of millions of concerned citizens advocating for solutions based on proven principles to tackle the country's most critical challenges. We have open positions for volunteer, part-time and full-time work to help us help fight for prosperity for all Americans.
Last Update: Feb 15, 2024 12:59 pm CST
