Even though the term affordability has become a political buzzword this year, a lot of businesses are having to make very real decisions in order to keep things affordable for their customers — even if doing so comes at a cost.

And throughout the past year, many businesses have been trying to find a balance between keeping things affordable and keeping the lights on.

Affordability has been coming up a lot this year at Bright Start Early Care and Preschool in Washington, D.C.

“One family said ‘this is the highest bill on our budget — it’s higher than our mortgage’,” said Marcia St. Hilaire-Finn, the owner.

St. Hilaire-Finn said many families have been hesitant to sign up for childcare, which averages around $2,800 per month. Some of her current families are considering taking care of their kids at home. So instead of raising tuition this fall, like she usually does, she decided to hold prices steady.

“We were like, ‘oh, we’re just going to have to keep it where it’s at. We can’t raise it until it stabilizes, and people have better paying jobs, or the economy is more stable’,” St. Hilaire-Finn said.

St. Hilaire-Finn said she’s also trying to figure out ways to lower her prices. For instance, she’s thinking about dropping some programs at the daycare that currently come standard, including soccer, yoga, and dance classes. That way, she can offer those classes à-la-carte and knock a couple hundred bucks off of her base price.

“So for us, it would be a loss, yes,” St. Hilaire-Finn said. “But if cost is becoming a hindrance, then you have to get creative and make it optional.”

The goal, she said, is to ensure that enrollment stays high.

“Because whether you have enrollment high or low, you still need the teachers, your rent is fixed, your lights, you still have to pay this,” St. Hilaire-Finn said. “So, the goal is to have high enrollment, so you can cover those, and still have a margin.”

That said, keeping prices affordable can put a lot of pressure on a business’s profit margins.

“We work off very low margins to begin with,” said Chris Duong, manager of Hawaii Supermarket, an Asian grocery store near Los Angeles.

Duong said the grocery business is extremely competitive, especially in his area. That limits what he can charge, even though rising wages and tariffs have pushed up his costs.

Duong said his strategy has been to lean on his suppliers.

“We’ll try to put more pressure on the distributors and the wholesalers to get us better deals, and squeeze their margins on that end,” Duong said.

Duong said he’s also been offering a smaller variety of products at the store. That way, he can buy more of the products he does sell.

“The more you are able to purchase of an individual item, or a certain brand, that gives us more leverage when we’re negotiating with the wholesaler,” Duong said.

Duong said that’s allowed him to keep his prices steady. With certain items, he’s lowered prices, including on cleaning products and other household supplies. He said that’s helping him stay competitive at a time when his customers have been pulling back.

“If we can bring deals to the table, then we’re confident that the customer will realize that and hopefully give us more business,” Duong said.

Not every business is facing resistance from customers. Randy George is co-owner of Red Hen Baking Company in Middlesex, Vermont. He said the baked goods and sandwiches he sells range from $4 to $15 per item. And while he has raised prices recently, he said his customers have been OK with it.

“When we raise the price of something by 25 or 50 cents, that makes a huge difference to our bottom line,” George said. “But if you’re a customer in the store buying a loaf of bread, or coming into the cafe and buying a sandwich, it’s usually not that big of an impact.”

Still, George said he’s taking steps to bring his costs down. He’s in the process of moving the business into a new location with cheaper rent and more square footage. He said the bigger space will let him store more flour on site, instead of having to pay to store it somewhere else and truck it in.

“That type of thing will also save us money, because we won’t be doing as much trucking and warehousing,” George said.

George said he’s doing this because he wants to ensure that his customers don’t think twice when they’re paying.

“Really, one of the reasons I’ve always been attracted to baking, and the business of baking, is that you can have that kind of place in the community where you’re a regular stop for people,” George said.

But if his prices get too high, his fear is that regular stop would become an occasional splurge.