After two years of navigating the pandemic and loss of business, coping with inflation has been yet another challenge for Dana Buchanan, co-owner of local catering business Primal Alchemy.
For the past 20 years, Primal Alchemy grew steadily in Long Beach, with its roots in sustainable and seasonal menus, until March 2020, when essentially all business was gone in one day, Buchanan said.
“We lost everything,” Buchanan said.
Although Primal Alchemy was able to creatively pivot and shift its business model amid pandemic restrictions, “Every day was stressful,” she said. “It wasn’t paying the bills.”
While the city and other organizations initially stepped up to provide grants, eventually, funds began to dry up, and the business was left in “no man’s land,” Buchanan said.
“It really got scary for quite a while there,” Buchanan said.
Now, Primal Alchemy is “in recovery mode,” with the goal of reducing…
