FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) – South Floridians are reacting to higher pump prices, as the cost of gas continues to rise nationwide amid the conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
In Fort Lauderdale, one station has seen prices rise by about 70 cents a gallon in the last 15 days.<\/p>\n
Customer Ryan Pratt spoke with 7News on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s insane. I was at a light last night, and I saw $4.29 a gallon. I thought, \u2018Man, I\u2019m paying more for gas than I am milk, so it\u2019s up there, man,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
These increases are something everyone around the country has felt.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely not the best situation for gas and everything,\u201d said Payton Garofalo.<\/p>\n
Garofalo is a Las Vegas native. stopped by the gas station to fill up during his spring break trip to Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n
He expected gas prices in South Florida to be lower than what he\u2019s accustomed to back home.<\/p>\n
\u201cFour bucks, yeah, they\u2019re about pretty similar, 89 and 87 are pretty similar to Las Vegas,\u201d said Garofalo.<\/p>\n
As the day turned to night on Thursday, 7News cameras captured the price jumping 10 cents at that gas station from $3.99 around mid-afternoon to $4.09 late into the evening.<\/p>\n
Milosh Miletic, who runs a food truck business in Fort Lauderdale, said he\u2019s bracing for higher costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still waiting to see how it\u2019s gonna go \u2019cause we do probably, like, pay month-to-month \u2019cause we\u2019re still in a month before when the war didn\u2019t start. I\u2019m pretty sure it\u2019s gonna affect us a lot,\u201d said Miletic.<\/p>\n
Miletic said business wasn\u2019t always consistent, even before the war began.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, you know, it\u2019s a roller coaster,\u201d said Miletic.<\/p>\n
According to AAA, nationwide, the average price increase over the last month is around 92 cents a gallon. It\u2019s even worse for diesel, with about a $1.33 jump.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are horrendous. Even though we have a gas card for the company and everything like this, I just think that the gas prices are way too high, especially in California and other places like that,\u201d said Robert Williams. \u201cFor the average person really trying to get out here and get it, I mean, some things we\u2019ve got to cut back on, because the gas is too high.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy gas prices have doubled in the past two weeks,\u201d said Pratt.<\/p>\n
Nick Shahryari, another customer who stopped to fuel up while visiting Fort Lauderdale, said he\u2019s worried about the ripple effect that higher gas prices could have on other aspects of everyone\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the bigger issue with gas going up is that everything else becomes more expensive. Your food bill becomes more expensive, your groceries, things like that. I think it\u2019s the rising gas prices that really affect people. I think it\u2019s something that we just have to wait out and be optimistic that things will get better,\u201d said Shahryari.<\/p>\n
Experts say the problem is not a shortage, as there is plenty of gas, but much of it is stuck at the Strait of Hormuz, which separates the Persian Gulf from the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, and points beyond.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve only begun to see the effects of the war. The Strait of Hormuz is basically closed,\u201d said Dr. Craig Austin with Florida International University\u2019s Department of Marketing and Logistics.<\/p>\n
Twenty percent of the world\u2019s oil flows through the strait. Because of the war in the Middle East, it is now at a standstill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are over 600 ships in the Strait of Hormuz that are not moving, and so, it would take months to clear that,\u201d said Austin.<\/p>\n
While the United States is a net exporter, meaning it produces a lot of oil domestically, economists say that because everything is interconnected globally, there is a worldwide oil price. Everything is tied to that, so prices will likely go higher before they start to decline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is too much fear, too much uncertainty in the market for gases to come down; the volatility of the price is all due to the uncertainty,\u201d said Austin.<\/p>\n
That level of uncertainty presents major concerns for businesses like Miletic. In his case, he\u2019s fortunate to operate at a location where he can connect his food truck to an electrical hookup at a food truck lot on State Road 84 and 595, bypassing some of the need for fuel.<\/p>\n
Despite that advantage, he acknowledged that the cost of simply doing day-to-day business doesn\u2019t appear to be going down anytime soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day that the, let\u2019s say, war lasts longer, I\u2019m less optimistic. The thing with us Serbians is \u2019cause we, back in \u201990s, survived like three wars, war humbles you in a way that you realize that you\u2019re running a business day-to-day, you know, planning things and that\u2019s something like that happens, and everything changes,\u201d said Miletic.<\/p>\n
Experts say overcoming uncertainty is one of the biggest hurdles business owners face.<\/p>\n
Austin added that even if the war with Iran were to end immediately, it would still take several months for the hundreds of tankers stuck in the Strait of Hormuz to resume normal flows, which would allow global prices to adjust.<\/p>\n
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