Grief by the Gallon: Gas Prices Forcing Tough Choices for Many
Derek Redd Trending
WHEELING -- With gas prices breaching $5 a gallon, both small businesses and residents in the area are reporting some growing pains. The gas hike has caused ripples up the supply chain, from supplies to delivery drivers spending more to fill up. It also has left people seriously analyzing their driving habits and even reconsidering when and how they work.
Roseann Teremana lives in Wheeling but, as a flight attendant, drives into Pittsburgh about four times each week for work. Those trips have exploded in cost in just the last month. According to AAA, the cost for regular unleaded gas in Wheeling on Friday was $4.953 per gallon. Last week it was $4.657. Last month it was $4.16.
So a 15-gallon fill-up costs nearly $12 more than it did a month ago. Now Teremana is starting to think more about the jobs she wants to take, and whether they'd be worth the drive.
"If I have a trip that's only worth three hours, and I have to drive two hours to only get paid for three, it's really not worth it," she said. "So now I'm contemplating giving some of those trips up."
Otherwise, she is using some of the tips AAA has offered to conserve gas, such as consolidating errands into one trip instead of several.
Alyssa Gullo, who lives outside of St. Clairsville with her family, sees the increase in gas prices hit her pocketbook with both big and small trips. Her family lives on the Jersey shore and she visits them each weekend. Gullo estimates she'll spend $1,000 a month just in gas for those visits.
She has not yet considered cutting those trips back.
"Maybe, but right now that's just what we do," she said. "That's our family and it's easier to just go visit them because we don't get to see them every day."
Sticker shock comes even on smaller trips, Gullo said. That's a byproduct of where they live in Ohio.
"We kind of live out in the middle of nowhere," she said. "It takes me 15 or 20 minutes to get anywhere. No matter where I go, I'm driving."
Denny Lee, who owns DeFelice Bros. Pizza franchises in Wheeling and Bethlehem, said Thursday that the cost of raw ingredients for pizza have skyrocketed in recent months, and that the delivery drivers in his employ are spending nearly double to fill their tanks at the end of their shift.
"It's crazy," Lee said. "Pepperoni was around $52 a case for years; now it's up to $111. I only buy about three cases a week; where it hits us is pizza cheese. I buy around 500 lbs a week, and it used to hover around $40 a case, now it's near $58. My drivers are paying, instead of $30 a day, it's up to $50."
Lee said the customers have been understanding about the increase in prices to compensate for the rising costs of doing business. He adds that since most customers pay with a credit card, many may not immediately notice the increase in prices as readily.
"The customers have been fantastic about not complaining; they all know what's going on. They're not stupid... They have to eat," he said. "But it has made it difficult. ... It's like that for everything."
Lee said he's read about companies, particularly trucking companies, going out of business under the weight of gas prices and other supply chain issues, adding that he was gravely concerned as to the unforeseen impacts high gas prices could have.
Additionally, Lee said that low public interest in jobs is causing further issues, such as needing to hold onto employees who may otherwise be on the chopping block, but could not be replaced.
"That is going to affect every aspect of our society, not just me, directly," he said. "There's the issue of not being able to get employees. The days of people coming in looking for jobs is over. I can't eliminate someone if I feel they're detrimental to the operation of my business - I can't terminate someone because there's just no one to replace them. It's a mess. You just have to plod along and deal with it."
Brian Gessler, owner of Laupp Florist in Wheeling, said he hopes small businesses would be able to adjust their model and absorb rising costs by increasing prices, but that we haven't yet seen the last of high gas prices.
Gessler, who's been in business for decades, drew parallels to the last time gas prices had been similarly high, and under similar international conditions.
"My wife and I have been doing this for 40-some years," Gessler said. "… We've faced this before several times, the last time around 2008. If I remember correctly, it was a very similar situation. ... There were war tensions then in the Middle East, economic (stagnation) going on."
Everyone hopes that gas prices can at least level off before they can start falling back to something closer to manageable. Teremana hopes it happens soon, as driving past gas stations and seeing nothing but higher prices is getting old.
"It's very frustrating and very disappointing and upsetting," she said. "Because I don't know if it's all necessary."