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\n About half the clothing Paloma sells is imported, brought in from ports on the east or west coasts and then brought up the coastline or cross-country in a UPS truck. Typically, those shipping costs represent a modest expense, taken out of Roach\u2019s keystone markup \u2013 a common retail strategy in which wholesale prices are doubled at the register and a store\u2019s overhead comes out of the difference.\n <\/p>\n
\n But if this gas price shock is anything like the 2022 price spike, when diesel surged to a record $5.82 a gallon after Russia invaded Ukraine, Roach said he expects fuel surcharges to take a big bite soon.\n <\/p>\n
\n That\u2019s not a cost he\u2019s willing to add to his price tags. Much more than his profit margin, Roach fears what the gas price spike will do to his top-line sales.\n <\/p>\n
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\n \u201cCustomers have to have a certain level of confidence<\/a> about the future to walk in our door and tempt themselves and buy an item,\u201d he said. \u201cI was an economics major, but you don\u2019t need an economics degree to know you\u2019ll sell less stuff at higher prices.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Paloma has spent five decades trying to build trust with customers \u2013 including a longstanding offer of a no-questions-asked guarantee on returns. But foot traffic is down and return volume is way up.\n <\/p>\n \n That\u2019s how he knows his customers have no cushion left.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019re going to bend over backwards to not raise our prices,\u201d Roach said.\n <\/p>\n \n If stores aren\u2019t willing to raise prices, that puts wholesalers in a bind.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThere was a time when grocery stores accepted price changes, but those days are over,\u201d said Nels Leader, CEO of organic sourdough bread company Bread Alone Bakery. \u201cThere is no room left.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n That has left small businesses like Bread Alone stuck with a handful of bad choices: eat the cost, charge retailers more or make cutbacks.\n <\/p>\n \n Wholesalers and manufacturers<\/a> sit in a particularly difficult position, because they get hit on both ends: raw materials cost more on their way in, and finished items cost more on their way out.\n <\/p>\n \n If diesel prices remain high<\/a>, Leader expects he\u2019ll have to charge grocery stores a temporary delivery surcharge that Bread Alone will lift when conditions allow.\n <\/p>\n \n Strong relationships with customers and suppliers can help businesses through difficult moments like this price spike.\n <\/p>\n \n Bread Alone has developed strong relationships with local farmers and built up a regional supply chain that helped insulate it from rising transportation costs during price spikes. But that strategy comes with challenges: more expensive ingredients that limit what products can be made profitably.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIn moments like this, the work pays off,\u201d Leader says.\n <\/p>\n \n Consumers can benefit from a similar strategy, he says.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cLocal is more stable than global, and we don\u2019t need oil to grow organic food.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Shirley Modlin was in meetings all day Thursday searching for costs to cut. Her small manufacturing facility in Powhatan, Virginia, relies on carbide tools made of tungsten to make precise cuts.\n <\/p>\n \n But tungsten prices are particularly volatile during wartime \u2013 it\u2019s used in armor-piercing artillery. So carbide tool prices have more than doubled in the past two weeks, Modlin says.\n <\/p>\n \n There\u2019s nothing Modlin can do about it.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cMy customers won\u2019t tolerate me increasing my prices that would let me cover the increase of our tooling costs,\u201d said Modlin, the owner of 3D Design and Manufacturing. \u201cThe customers don\u2019t understand; they want this product. They say: \u2018If you can\u2019t give it to us, we\u2019ll find someone else.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n ![\"Nels](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774162284_128_nels-leader-bread-alone.jpeg\")
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