Families, businesses cope with $4 gasoline

Gasoline prices were at or near the $4-a-gallon mark at West Side stations this week, leaving residents and businesses alike to cope with the increasing pain at the pump.

Prices for regular unleaded surged past the $4 mark at one Gustine station last week, and others were only pennies behind.

The record-high gasoline and diesel fuel prices are putting a crimp in household budgets – many already strained by the economic slowdown, rising food costs and implosion of the local housing market.

Area families are doing what they can to reduce unnecessary driving, trying to economize wherever possible, cutting out some extra activities and rethinking vacation plans as the nation’s first summer of $4 gas approaches.

“I have a lot less money to spend on other things,” semi-retired Gustine farmer Roger Bloom said as he pumped $80 worth of fuel into his pickup truck at Richard’s Market. “I bought a diesel truck and travel trailer last year. We were going to travel, but those plans have changed.”

Like many others polled at the pumps over the weekend, Bloom said he was trying to be as positive as possible about the situation and make the necessary lifestyle changes.

Richard’s Market employees Heidi Auld and Lajuana Graham have seen the buying patterns change as fuel costs have skyrocketed.

More people are turning to credit cards rather than cash, and are often not filling their tanks.

The clerks have heard stories from people who changed jobs because they could no longer afford the commute, and from those who are staying over with family or friends near their job site instead of commuting back and forth daily – taking a toll on time spent with family.

Young Newman mother Patricia Carrillo can relate to that situation.

Her husband spends three or more nights a week with his brother rather than driving home each evening.

The Carrillo family looks for other ways to save as well.

“Now I plan meals and shop once a week instead of whenever I wanted to,” she explained.

The Carrillos have also scaled back on family outings.

“It affects our budget in a lot of ways,” she lamented.

College student Daniel Flores of Newman made his own sacrifice, selling a truck in favor of a smaller model.

“I travel to school in Merced. It cost me $100 a week,” he pointed out. “The truck takes too much gas, so I am selling it and using a smaller truck.”

Families are not alone in feeling the pinch of fuel prices.

The impacts are being felt in agricultural circles and in the business community.

Charlie Souza at Souza’s Milk Transportation said the trucking industry has been hard-hit by diesel prices well above $4 a gallon.

“You try to put a fuel surcharge on it, but some of the customers are just refusing to pay it,” he commented. “When we have to get more, groceries are more and everything else is more. You have no alternative.”

At Superior Truck Lines in Newman, Frank Amaral agreed that surcharge are a fact of life in today’s trucking world.

“The rates are based on fuel that was much cheaper in past years. Every time fuel goes beyond those parameters, you have to pass it along. Nobody is going to roll their trucks for no profit, and certainly not at a loss,” Amaral reflected. “One of the things I dislike the most is having to put on a surcharge, and the higher the fuel prices go the worse it gets.”

Some people are simply getting out of the trucking business, he added.

“A lot of independent truckers are working through brokers who are only willing to give them so much, which is not enough to cover what they are paying out,” Amaral noted.

And that which affects the price of trucking, he pointed out, affects virtually everybody.

“No matter where you are, if you look around you virtually everything you see was on a truck at one time or another,” he stated. “There are very few things in this world that have never been on a truck.”

Historically, Amaral added, diesel prices have been lower than gasoline.

“Years ago people would buy diesel engines, because the fuel was cheaper than the low-grade gasoline,” he said. “Now diesel fuel is more expensive than premium grade gasoline.”

Fuel prices have dramatically altered the market for vehicles, said Bigelow Chevrolet owner Lloyd Bigelow.

Some buyers still need the full-sized, diesel pickup trucks, Bigelow said, but those with a choice are looking to downsize.

“I have seen people driving late model SUVs and trucks who are just getting tired of the fuel prices, so they come in and trade them for something smaller. People are making an effort to have at least one fuel-efficient car in the family,” Bigelow explained. “I think we’re ready for less power and more fuel economy, and this time around I think it is a permanent shift.”

People are upset at fuel prices, but are rarely venting that frustration toward the front-line workers who deal with gas-buying customers on a daily basis, said Manish Thakker at Newman Mini-Mart.

“The public is more aware of pricing because the media covers it all the time,” Thakker explained. “Because they are more aware, people are not blaming the station owners for the high prices.”

He agreed that the price of fuel is taking a toll on pocketbooks.

“At payday I see $20, $50 and $100 bills, and later in the month I start seeing the lower bills and change. People have come in with just enough to get them to wherever they need to go at that moment,” Thakker said.

The higher gas prices have also translated into less money customers have to spend on the convenience store items, such as snacks and sodas.

Thakker recalled selling 99-cent gasoline during the store’s grand opening celebration 10 years ago.

The trend over the years since has been steadily upward.

He doesn’t look for relief from high gas prices.

“I am not happy to sell the gas at $4 a gallon, but prices are not going to go down,” he predicted.