Cameron Mitchell, Cameron Mitchell Restaurants founder and CEO, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the state of the consumer, latest restaurant and dining trends, impact of inflation and higher prices, labor costs, and more.

Cameron Mitchell, founder and CEO of Cameron Mitchell Restaurants, reports that consumers are becoming increasingly cautious with their spending, as evidenced by lower in-store traffic and selective purchasing habits. While his company has recently seen its first increase in same-store sales in two years, Mitchell expresses concern about the ability to maintain current pricing due to rising meat and labor costs.

Mitchell describes the past two years as some of the most challenging in his 45-year career, with profitability down and independent restaurants facing significant closures. He highlights that while labor turnover is at an all-time low, overall costs remain high, and consumers are beginning to cut back on extras like desserts and appetizers. Despite these challenges, Mitchell remains cautiously optimistic as recent months have shown some improvement in sales.

Consumers 'getting to the end of their rope', says Cameron Mitchell

Shares of Chipotle saw their worst day in years after the chain announced lower than expected in-store traffic for a second quarter in a row. And the Cameron Mitchell Restaurant Group, a difference between lower and higher priced restaurant sales, could also point to a more cautious consumer. And joining us right now to talk more about it is Cameron Mitchell himself of Cameron Mitchell Restaurants. He's the founder and CEO, and we check in with him frequently on this stuff. Cameron, let's talk a little bit about how the consumer looks from your perspective. Well, good morning, Becky. First of all, it's a pleasure to be with you this morning. I would say the consumer is getting to the end of their rope. I think they have almost, you know, they're still spending, we're still getting traffic. And actually, we're seeing the first increase in same store sales we've had in two years, starting last month and a month before and heading into this month. So cautiously optimistic. But as far as price goes, we know we're at the top end of our ability to take price in the market. And I'm concerned. We were not going to raise prices the second half of this year. And with meat prices jumping the way they have, it's a significant impact on our P&L. I'm not sure we're going to be able to hold our pricing here in the second half of the year. We'll see how that works out. How do things shape up from back in the pandemic days when we used to talk to you when you had to close everything down, then you saw higher wages, then you saw all of the constraints with inflation that came through because of supply chain issues? How does that timeframe manage to compare to what you're seeing right now? Well, obviously, working through COVID and the after effects of COVID was tremendously difficult. But I would tell you that, you know, in mid-23, as sales started to fall, as the COVID effects started to wear off, up until today, these past two years, in my 45 years in the restaurant business, have been very difficult to maintain profitability. We were down in profit last year. And in the second half of 23, first half of this year, we're down in profit. It has taken, you know, everything we have in the tank, basically, to combat the increased costs that we're being faced with via labor, food, anything else that we buy, construction materials, interest rates to maintain. And I'm very sensitive to the independent restaurants out there that don't have the resources that we may have as a larger company to combat some of these issues. And we're seeing a lot of closures out there today as a result in the restaurant business. You know, restaurant business is always tough. What do you think makes it tougher? Is it the inflation and then those higher prices that have been sticking around? Yeah, I think that, you know, there's been — it's almost everywhere you turn, you know, whether you're buying, you know, produce or whether you're buying your cost of goods or labor. You know, labor is up, which is great for industry. It's great for the people of our industry. But it's been — we can't combat it with price. And so — but the good thing on labor, I will tell you, is turnover is at an all-time low. People are staying. They're not moving. They're staying put and spending more time with the company. So that's good news. But it's just challenging out there right now to — you know, the consumer is starting to spend a little bit less. You know, they might be ordering less desserts or less appetizers, et cetera. But, you know, so it's not one thing, it's another. And I'm very optimistic, though, hopefully, that consumer can hold out here as we're starting to see here these past couple of months in the first glimmer of hope with same-store sales increases.

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