The average price of regular gas in Pennsylvania is ringing in at just under $4 per gallon. Drivers are certainly being hit hard, but so are some businesses.
Gas prices are holding steady at high numbers.
According to AAA, the national gas average has jumped $1 in one month.
Local businesses say they’re taking notice.
“Customers don’t (want to) come out because they’re getting hit with the cost of gas, you know, it’s hard,” says Gerry Coppola, owner of The Crust Pizzeria and Restaurant in Allentown.
Coppola says in addition to impacting customers, the rising cost of fuel is also impacting how expensive ingredients are.
“It’s a concern because it drives products up, it drives costs up, you got tractor-trailers driving all over the place,” says Coppola.
Meanwhile at Schuler Service, their crews are driving their 23 vehicles around the Lehigh Valley for plumbing repairs.
“We have on any given week maybe 50 service calls that we’re out to for homes around the Lehigh Valley,” says Joe Mrochko, vice president of Schuler Service.
The local business uses a small company to supply its gas.
So Mrochko says the price at the pump isn’t an issue, but some of their vendors are tacking on fuel stipends.
“We’re hoping that the impact will be minimal, and our hope is that prices will resume to a more normal or maybe even go down as the trend that they were on before all this,” says Mrochko.