Wisemiller’s Grocery and Deli, a neighborhood sandwich shop on 36th Street which many Georgetown University students frequent, raised its prices in August following a rise in inflation and the cost of the business’s overhead.
Wisey’s, as students fondly call the deli, did a cost analysis of ingredients to determine how much the price of each sandwich would increase, according to Gina Vogel, owner of Wisey’s. The cost of most sandwiches increased from $9.95 to $11.95, the first price increase in two years.
Vogel said she decided to raise prices due to an increase in the price of ingredients, rent and utilities.
“It’s our prime directive to maintain the quality and quantity of our product and to continue to serve our students and our Georgetown community as Wisemiller’s has done for the last 70 years,” Vogel told The Hoya.
Vogel said that Wisey’s does not determine the prices of groceries, such as beverages, which the store buys directly from a supplier.
“When, for example, Coca-Cola, whom Georgetown deals with exclusively in certain areas, does mass raising of their prices, we have no choice but to go along with it,” Vogel said. “It’s not really up to us.”
Many Georgetown students, including Lainey Lyle (SFS ’27), said they were disappointed but understood Wisey’s price increase.
“Wisey’s is such a staple of the neighborhood, and I feel the Georgetown student culture, that then I had to go like, ‘Well I guess I shouldn’t be upset about this,’” Lyle told The Hoya. “‘They’re trying to stay in business, and they’re trying to succeed and pay their workers fairly and well.’”
Brooke Cleveland (SFS ’25) said she sympathizes with Wisey’s amid ongoing inflation.
“I’m sure that small businesses like Wisey’s are feeling this change really significantly,” Cleveland told The Hoya. “I understand that the price of supplies has also gone up by quite a large margin and so they do not have any other choice.”
Christine Vogel, who runs Wisey’s catering and cookie business and is Gina Vogel’s sister, said that when doing price analyses of Wisey’s products, she and her sister were conscious that most of their customers are students.
“We always try to think from the student’s perspective and keep the prices as reasonable as we possibly can, even if we have to take increases just to make the business viable,” Christine Vogel told The Hoya.
Gina Vogel said she believed most students would understand the deli’s decision to raise prices.
“They’re part of the real world, that everything is just going up and up and up, and that things can’t stay the same and have a business survive,” Gina Vogel said.
Both Lyle and Cleveland said the price increase would not affect how often they go to Wisey’s, especially given the cost of other restaurants in Georgetown.
“It’s still, I would say, either the same price, or cheaper honestly, than most other places to get a full meal,” Lyle said. “So I have to keep that in mind.”
“It’s still a lot cheaper than a lot of other places you can get around here,” Cleveland said.
Wisey’s offers one of the cheapest deli sandwiches in the Georgetown neighborhood and all of D.C., averaging around $12 a sandwich. Stachowski’s, a butcher shop, deli, and grocery store in Georgetown, averages $14.22 a sandwich. Call Your Mother Deli, which serves lunch sandwiches in addition to its signature bagels, averages $13.75 a sandwich.
“We’re well below the market, especially for our area,” Christine Vogel said.
The minimum wage in Washington, D.C., increased from $17 to $17.50 on July 1, but Christine Vogel said the rise did not affect Wisey’s.
“We were already paying people well, and we still pay above the minimum wage because we have really great employees who’ve been with us a long time who get to know the students and the students know them,” Christine Vogel said. “And that’s what makes Wisemiller’s Wisemiller’s.”
Christine Vogel said she and her sister see the store as a Georgetown institution.
“It’s a mission to run it and to keep it going for the students in Georgetown, and for the community as well,” Christine said.
