The True Cost of Food

Cheap prices undercut employee wellbeing & dignity

In an effort to keep up with the rising costs of doing business, we found ourselves in need to increase our price per tamal by .50 cents, from $5 each to $5.50 each (plus tax) in 2021. This price increase will be the first price increase we have done since 2016. The cost of doing business, such as property taxes, rent, business & payroll taxes, and the cost of ingredients have drastically increased in the last few years. To name a few, our premium meat has increased by almost $2 per pound, the cost of corn husks has almost tripled in the last year and in 2020, we started providing healthcare benefits to our employees, 75% of which we pay. The last time we increased our prices was before we had a brick and mortar to pay for, which is often the second or third biggest expense of doing business.

We want to continue providing healthcare benefits to our team members. We want to continue using compostables rather than plastics. We want to continue paying higher than minimum wage rates (our team members average wage is $18.50/hour before tips). We want to be ready for the future.

This increase will help us remain viable and sustainable in the future so that we can continue to provide the experience and food you've come to love while treating our team members with respect and dignity at the same time. We thank you for your understanding and continued patronage. We hope this small price jump won't scare you away but rather encourage you to support all we strive to do for our team and the community around us. Join us and make tamales part of your life in 2021 and beyond!

Why our tamales cost $5.50+:

We don’t get this question very often but we love it when we do (no sarcasm). We know that if you decided to travel 30 (Everett) to 155 (Union Gap) miles, you could get cheaper tamales from other fellow hardworking maker of tamales. It is important to understand why food costs what it costs.

There are a few reasons why our tamales are $5.50+:

We pay our team members higher than minimum wage (which is already higher than other cities). Our start rate is $17 and our average is $18.5/hour.
We have been paying a bonus Hazard Pay ($1.5 per hour on top of their base pay) since May and continue to do so today.
We provide paid sick time (city law), paid holidays (up to 11 holidays) and paid vacation (up to 7 days per year).
We provide highly subsidized health benefits including medical and dental by paying for 75% of premiums for part-time and full-time team members.
We use higher quality ingredients like our organic and natural meats. For example, a pound of regular pork meat is $1.50 but we choose Carlton Farms pork from Oregon which costs over two to three times more.
As any Seattle-based business knows, we pay higher rent, higher permit and business fees to the city and county compared to other cities and counties in the state.
Our tamales are about .5 lbs which is about double the weight than your traditional southwest/Texan/homemade tamales.
Cheaper isn’t always better 🙂
We continue to donate 10-20% of our profits to community organizations and community events including school auctions, food banks and issue-based advocacy organizations.

Our prices support our ability to treat our team members better and provide higher quality food for our amazing and loving tamaleros like you. We love doing business in Seattle and couldn’t think of another better place for our family business. We appreciate you and thank you for allowing us to have a healthy tamaleria in the heart of Seattle.