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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (4073)	5/4/2006 4:37:34 PM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 24240

I think that, if the fuel prices stay high for any length of time, everyone is really going to start noticing rising food costs. Imo, there's just no way that farmers can absorb the cost of fuel. Then there's the shipping costs to bring food to the customers, the processing, packaging, refrigeration, and any other transportation. Well, you add the "fuel" part of any of those costs, and I just see an upwards spiral. As for "other" industries and what will happen... well, I expect fuel costs kick everyone in the ass. For example, anyone who has to ship goods (mail order, etc..) has already been paying through the nose for shipping, whether by mail, UPS or whatever. I know, because a friend had a manufacturing company that markets product and ships mail order and the shipping costs are getting so ridiculous that it has really put a crunch on the biz. Also, the plastics used in part of the product have taken off like a rocket. Steel is also up so much that it's nuts. Customers were not happy with having to pay more. The friend just shut down the company. Then you have places like the local garages that repair cars. I probably wrote about this last year, but from what we're seeing it's even worse now. You would think that little repair shops might hang in and do okay...but no. A couple we know just shut down because their customers aren't bothering to fix that 'second car' when it breaks down. They can barely afford to run one car, so they think twice about the second car. Most people's 'first car' is newer and under warranty, so they get service work done at dealerships. What the small garages have been seeing is people coming in and saying, "fix it if it doesn't cost more than $XX, but if it's gonna cost anything more, just stop and we'll get it towed away." Of course, the garages are falling over themselves trying to fix old beaters for the least they can charge so that at least they get SOME business... but as anyone who has fixed older cars knows, they're often harder to work on.. especially up here where cars get pretty rusty under the hood. In other words - no damned money in that and some are going out of business for just that reason. Anyhow, yeah.. i think there are going to be many businesses that are going to be hurt by rising fuel costs. Even sort of weird things you might not consider... such as small towns that depend on a lot of weekend tourist traffic, people staying at inns and B&Bs, eating in little restaurants, and visiting artisan shops and studio tours. Last time the price of gas went up a lot, a couple of those kinds of towns around here were dead as a doornail for weeks and some of the places actually closed down and never reopened. Well, we'll see what the next while brings if fuel costs stay high. ~croc