Small business owners struggle amid rising inflation
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 6:10 PM PT – Friday, December 10, 2021
Amid the country’s highest inflation since 1982, small business
owners are having no choice but to raise prices. Under the Biden
administration, inflation is at its record high of 6.8 percent, compared
to last year’s 0.8 percent.
During a press conference on Friday, Joe Biden said inflation is
expected to fall in the upcoming months. However, consumers and business
owners across the nation continue to suffer financially due to the cost
of nearly everything consistently going up with no signs of stopping.
Due to a number of obstacles, small business owners are more or less being forced to raise prices in order to survive.
“My business partner and I see that we need coffee cups, coffee,
sugar, milk, everything is a lot more expensive,” said small business
owner, Neha Chawla. “Everything is inflated, and as you know, the
workforce is…it’s hard to find people to work that’s finally turning
around. So, everything is inflated. It’s just what the new life is now.”
Meanwhile, Biden and his administration have continued to downplay
the country’s supply chain crisis and blame it on the coronavirus.
Although, certain small business owners disagree with the virus being
the sole cause of inflation, adding their business thrived when the
pandemic started.
Hobby shop owner, Marc Hobbs, said his business was doing
exceptionally well at the end of 2020, but over the past couple of
months things shifted drastically.
“If, you know, the wholesale price goes up 15 percent, then our MSRP
or you know, the suggested retail price, would also go up 15 percent,”
explained Hobbs.
In the meantime, small business owners have continued to ask for more
support from consumers and have yet to see if Biden’s promise that
inflation would level out will actually come true.
“It’s important for all of us to do our part, especially in the
holiday season and shop local as much as we can instead of supporting
the big box stores,” said Chawla. “Everyone has supply chain issues. We
have a retail store. We have a ton of inventory, our inventory’s up by a
decent percentage. So, every little bit helps by supporting local
businesses.”
