Small business owners struggle amid rising inflation

carleyshaffer1December 10, 2021

A pedestrian walks by a sore that is closing. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 6:10 PM PT – Friday, December 10, 2021

Amid the country’s highest inflation since 1982, small business owners are having no choice but to raise prices. Under the Biden administration, inflation is at its record high of 6.8 percent, compared to last year’s 0.8 percent.

During a press conference on Friday, Joe Biden said inflation is expected to fall in the upcoming months. However, consumers and business owners across the nation continue to suffer financially due to the cost of nearly everything consistently going up with no signs of stopping.

Due to a number of obstacles, small business owners are more or less being forced to raise prices in order to survive.

“My business partner and I see that we need coffee cups, coffee, sugar, milk, everything is a lot more expensive,” said small business owner, Neha Chawla. “Everything is inflated, and as you know, the workforce is…it’s hard to find people to work that’s finally turning around. So, everything is inflated. It’s just what the new life is now.”

Meanwhile, Biden and his administration have continued to downplay the country’s supply chain crisis and blame it on the coronavirus. Although, certain small business owners disagree with the virus being the sole cause of inflation, adding their business thrived when the pandemic started.

The pandemic started in 2019.

But crushing inflation didn’t start until shortly after Joe Biden took office in 2021.

That’s not a coincidence.

— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) December 10, 2021

Hobby shop owner, Marc Hobbs, said his business was doing exceptionally well at the end of 2020, but over the past couple of months things shifted drastically.

“If, you know, the wholesale price goes up 15 percent, then our MSRP or you know, the suggested retail price, would also go up 15 percent,” explained Hobbs.

In the meantime, small business owners have continued to ask for more support from consumers and have yet to see if Biden’s promise that inflation would level out will actually come true.

“It’s important for all of us to do our part, especially in the holiday season and shop local as much as we can instead of supporting the big box stores,” said Chawla. “Everyone has supply chain issues. We have a retail store. We have a ton of inventory, our inventory’s up by a decent percentage. So, every little bit helps by supporting local businesses.”