For Vivian Bowers, the owner of a dry cleaner in southern Los Angeles, inflation hit her home when the wholesale cost of her hangers soared 48% in six months.

In addition to increasing commissions, Tom Bock, who runs an electric bicycle dealership in Huntington Beach, California, had to pay employees 25% of their wages.

Hagop Berberian, the owner of an auto repair shop in Inglewood, California, dare not completely pass on the rising cost of tires, oil and Freon. "Either make customers happy or lose customers," he said.

In October, US consumer prices rose 6.2%, the largest year-on-year increase in 31 years. The soaring cost of housing, gasoline, cars, and food continues to make headlines. This is a nerve-wracking time for many small shops selling items from furniture to footwear and service providers from haircuts to home care: Do they charge higher fees and risk losing customers?

"Larger companies can afford higher supply costs," said Holly Wade, the research director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, an advocacy organization with more than 300,000 members. "For a small company, this is a different game." Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times Hagop Berberian is the owner of Inglewood's Allright Automotive. When business is good for a month, he will give his mechanic bonus to help They cope with the rising cost of living. Above, he took a photo with his private Mustang.

Throughout the economy, consumers who stopped traveling, dine out, had haircuts, and watched movies during the COVID-19 pandemic have accumulated trillions of dollars in savings. The ever-increasing vaccination rate makes shoppers feel safer. Despite rising inflation, retail sales rose by 1.7% in October, more than twice the growth rate in September and the fastest growth rate since March.

But many small businesses have not felt this love.

Robert Fairley, an economist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said their profits are at risk. "When the cost of making Asada meat rolls rises, some of them will be passed on to customers. Some of them are simply eaten by business owners."

In October, 69% of small business owners surveyed by the Confederation of Independent Businesses stated that they increased their prices due to supply chain disruptions and labor shortages leading to higher wages for their employees.

Wade said that the number of owners expecting a deterioration in the business environment in the next six months rose to 52%, which is the highest level in 42 years of the organization's investigation-this is when a new global coronavirus variant omicron threatens to contain the pandemic. Before the progress.

Vivian Bowers recalled that after the 1992 riots, she took over her parents’ dry cleaners on S. Central Street. She recalled that the neighborhood was “dilapidated-gangs, drugs, prostitution ".

But the energetic entrepreneur took a business planning course at the University of Southern California, hunted down drug dealers in her neighbourhood, launched a pickup and delivery service, and turned the situation around Bowers & Sons.

This community agency has four employees who are responsible for cleaning uniforms for police officers, bus drivers, LA Live waiters and Ritz-Carlton butlers.

It has expanded its scope, picking up clothes from expensive downtown lofts and sheets stained with blood from the fake blood in "Grey Intern".

After barely weathering the Great Depression and its long-term consequences, and shortening working hours during the pandemic, Bowers now faces a new threat: inflation.

Los Angeles raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour in July, thereby increasing her wages. The cost of clothes racks, clothing bags and solvents, and the cost of gasoline for delivery vehicles, are all spiraling upwards.

In June, Bowers increased her price by 5%. Now she is worried that they must be increased by another 10%.

"I don't want to drive away customers," she said. "If they had to choose between washing a suit jacket or refueling a car, which one would they choose?"

Why is inflation so high?

"Coronavirus--and greed," suggested Berberian, an auto repair shop owner.

"Millions of dollars of cargo are being put on the ship. People are selling their supplies to the maximum. They are asking us to take back what they have lost in the past year and a half."

Berberian believes that prices will stabilize in the next few months. At the same time, he reduced the weekly working hours from six to five days without cutting the wages of mechanics.

"If business is good at the end of the month, I will give them a bonus," he said. "Look at the cost of milk--and eggs, groceries. I went to the supermarket, and what I used to buy for $100 is now nearly $200."

Margot Roosevelt, Samantha Massunaga, Los Angeles Times

© 2021 Interstellar Forum. all rights reserved.