High Gas Prices Hurting Sector Of Local Business Community
Since Marco Castillo, the owner of Superior Pro Pools Service is currently paying more than $4 for a gallon gas, he is having a hard time surviving in the swimming pool cleaning business..
Castillo covers a lot of ground servicing his clients in Palm Desert, La Quinta and Indio.
Since gas prices spiked, he says he’s been spending about $200 a week on fuel.
At the same time, he can’t afford to pass on his increased expenses to his customers.
“In my case we’re not raising prices just because you start losing customers and people you know are in the same situation and we’re just trying to hang in there,” said Castillo.
People in the delivery business are also feeling the effects of the high gas prices.
At Blooming Events Florist in Palm Desert, they’re spending $300 a week on gas.
They currently don’t charge for local delivery, but that may change if gas prices continue to increase.
“Right now we’re eating the prices at the pump because we don’t want to pass it on to our clients, but certainly if prices go up any higher, we may have to do that,” said Arlene Mendez, owner of Blooming Events Florist.
At Rosati’s Pizza in La Quinta, 70 percent of the restaurant’s business is generated from deliveries.
Despite the high gas prices, the restaurant doesn’t plan to raise its $3 delivery charge — good news for customers, bad news for drivers who pay for their own gas.
Like all her employees, owner Lauren Kaufman uses her own vehicle to deliver pizzas.
“We go pretty far, we have an eight-mile delivery radius and our drivers depend on the delivery fee as well as gratuity and some people don’t tip, so the delivery fee is all that they’re getting back.” said Kaufman.
As for Marco Castillo, he’s finished complaining about the the price of gas and putting his energy on diversifying.
“Trying to cover more areas like landscape, like more stuff besides pools. Trying to do more stuff like solar business, whatever we can to cover the expenses. Yeah, to stay in business,” said Castillo.
