YORK, Pa. — Longtime visitors to the York State Fair have noticed a subtle difference over the past several fairs: The price of their food and accessories.
Inflation over the previous three years has caused vendors to raise prices in some cases, or to bear more of the cost burden themselves.
John Koza, a member of the Schnader family who has served funnel cakes and their famous milkshakes at the fair for 46 years, says that last year, the price of the milkshakes rose slightly for the first time in over a decade. He says that most of the cost increase, however, still falls on the owners.
"The prices have, just on your supplies gone up I'd say at least 30 to sometimes 40%," Koza said. "And a lot of times it's not even the supply product. It sometimes is the shipping cost or all the red tape to get through. But fortunately, we don't pass that too much along to our customers because if that's the case, then we might as well just not be here for the customers."
Despite this, business at the fair remains strong, with the fair seeing the most total concert tickets sold since 2021.