Businesses that rely on the transport of goods are especially feeling the pinch of these high gas prices, and that's especially true for pizza restaurants.
With gas now above $4 a gallon at many stations, pizza places are scrambling to reimburse their drivers for the gas they use in their personal vehicles.
Farmers Branch-based MrJims.Pizza uses a formula to adjust the drivers' gas reimbursement each week.
"Pick a gas station locally, and then use that as your standard," Jim Johnson, founder and owner of MrJims.Pizza said. "And then each week, you give a new driver reimbursement."
MrJims.Pizza
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Not only is it getting more expensive to reimburse the store-based delivery drivers for the gas they put into their own vehicles, but it's also getting much more expensive to get the product delivered to each store.
"Trucking is the biggest part of our product flow," Johnson said. "And we get products from California, from Kentucky (and) from all over the country. And it all comes by truck; and so if gas goes up by 25%, our freight rates go up substantially."
Johnson says if gas prices keep going the way they're going, he may be forced to temporarily raise menu prices.
"There are lots of ongoing expenses," Johnson said, "and gasoline is one of them that we have to sometimes pass it on to the customer, because it is a real cost that we're having to absorb."
But he says if he does have to do that, the prices would return to their previous level once gas prices return to normal.
One of the biggest challenges these days, according to Johnson, is getting people to order Pizza in the first place.
"What we see is people are having less money to buy pizzas too," Johnson said. "So it's a very big factor in our success."
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