{"id":403396,"date":"2026-09-18T09:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T09:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/403396\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T09:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T09:16:12","slug":"high-gas-prices-challenge-cape-coral-small-business-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/403396\/","title":{"rendered":"High gas prices challenge Cape Coral small business owners"},"content":{"rendered":"

High gas prices challenge Cape Coral small business owners<\/p>\n

\"Kendall<\/a>CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n

Small business owners in Cape Coral are facing significant challenges as rising gas prices increase their operational costs and strain their profits. <\/p>\n

According to AAA, gas prices averaged $4.35 on Thursday, up just over 50 cents from one month ago. <\/p>\n

Jorge Gutierrez, owner of Grass King, said the cost of filling up his three trucks has skyrocketed. <\/p>\n

“This truck, I will say it fills for 100 bucks. Now, I can’t even fill it with 150,” Gutierrez said. <\/p>\n

Gutierrez said the fuel for the truck is not the only gas he needs. <\/p>\n

“We have our lawn mowers, the tillers, the weed whackers, the edgers,” Gutierrez said. “Almost every piece of equipment we have uses fuel.” <\/p>\n

The rising fuel prices are also affecting prices <\/p>\n

“Some of my customers are older customers where I still have them at the older prices, and I have never changed just because of respect or whatever I’m eating,” Gutierrez said. “The newer customers, I’m just putting them as they come.”<\/p>\n

A study by research firm Vistage found that 70% of small business leaders say fluctuating oil prices have negatively impacted their businesses. <\/p>\n

Michael Karczewski, owner of Vibrant Pool Pros, said the increased fuel costs are directly affecting his bottom line. <\/p>\n

“Obviously, the more money we spend on fuel, the less we’re making,” Karczewski said. “It really hurts the profits.”<\/p>\n

Gutierrez, who offers free lawn mowing services to elderly customers, said the high gas prices are making it hard to help people out. <\/p>\n

“You got to have it,” Gutierrez said. “If it’s going to be 10 to $20 a gallon, you’re going to end up paying it anyways.”<\/p>\n

According to AAA, West Palm Beach has the most expensive gas in Florida, followed by Naples, with the Fort Myers-Cape Coral region ranking third.<\/p>\n

DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"High gas prices challenge Cape Coral small business owners CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 Small business owners in Cape…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[11246,1185,209,211,210,6025,10721,104,160480,28,897,160484,11370,27172,160483,160486,11248,160487,134491,92599,82633,160489,54329,213,74603,160490,5387,11412,160481,160482,160479,117062,6652,160491,160485,197,86826,6525,160488,221,4556],"class_list":["post-403396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-aaa","tag-alert","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-cost","tag-customer","tag-entertainment","tag-fill-up","tag-florida","tag-fort-myers","tag-fort-myers-cape-coral","tag-fuel","tag-fuel-costs","tag-gas-impacts","tag-gas-king","tag-gas-prices","tag-grass-king","tag-high-gas-price","tag-high-gas-prices","tag-iran-war","tag-jorge-gutierrez","tag-landscaping","tag-late-news","tag-lawn-care","tag-michael-karczewski","tag-naples","tag-oil-prices","tag-pool-care","tag-pool-cleaner","tag-price-at-the-pump","tag-profit","tag-small-business","tag-small-business-leader","tag-small-business-owners","tag-sport","tag-triple-a","tag-truck","tag-vibrant-pool-pros","tag-weather","tag-west-palm-beach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}