The Cost of Doing Business
Small businesses are struggling to cope with higher gas prices.
April 1, 2008 — -- Pinched by rising gas prices, florist Diane Alonso now spends as much time planning her delivery routes as she does creating her floral designs.
"My driver has a route. We don't have him here all day long, just on call to make a delivery," said Alonso, who owns Flowers By Diane in Hoboken, N.J.
The impact of the rising cost of fuel — the national average hit a record $3.29 a gallon today — has been so great that Alonso has been forced to cut back on distant deliveries and even has had to send orders to her competitors.
"We've made choices to actually send them out to other flower shops and not go outside of our local radius and that definitely has to do with gas prices going up," she said.
Alonso's flower shop is just one example of small businesses around the nation hurt by the higher gas prices.
"We're just turning the wheels on the road. We're not making a dime," said Muscatine, Iowa trucker Mandi Newcomb.
It seems no one is immune. In Wilson County, Tenn., higher diesel prices have meant shortened school bus routes with fewer stop to conserve fuel.
Nationally, business owners that once ate rising fuel costs now say they have to pass them on to consumers by increasing their prices or tacking on surcharges.
"The last thing a small business owner wants to do is to jack up their prices," said Wendy Bounds of The Wall Street Journal. "But it's at the point now where they just can't ignore it."
"All of these things that have to now get passed on to consumers because they simply can't afford to swallow them any longer and attempt to make a profit," Bounds added.
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