High prices hurt gas station owners, too

SHALLOTTE — Early predictions say gas prices could reach somewhere in the $4 mark by summertime. And it’s not just the drivers rising prices are hurting.

A local gas station owner says gas prices are making it hard to make a profit, much less keep business going.

Chuck Ward has independently owned an Exxon gas station in Shallotte since 1999. He says a good portion of the $3 and change people are paying at the pump goes to things like pump maintenance, liability insurance and costly tanker loads.

This makes it hard for him to make a profit on gasoline alone, especially when people are trying to drive less. He has to rely on people spending money inside the store, on things like chips and soda.

But now even that’s not happening all the time.

Ward said, “When they spend all their money at the gas pump, which is by far the lowest profitable item that we have, and sometimes no profit that leaves them little or no money to come inside.”

In order to stay competitive where he is in Shallotte Ward is charging $3.27 a gallon at his store. North Carolina’s state average is around $3.20 cents a gallon.

According to AAA the national average is about $3.40 a gallon, up 40 cents just in the past month alone.

Will high gas prices hurt tourism?

With gas prices going up right before the busy summer travel season we wanted to see how that would affect the areas that depend on tourism.

Local officials say it likely won’t, instead of people driving out of state to vacation it’s likely more people will stay put, and discover new things about their hometown.

Mitzi York with Brunswick County Tourism Development said, “In the past when people have been concerned about gas prices, what we have seen is that people continue to take their vacation they just maybe save in other ways they don’t spend as much money going out to eat or buying souvenirs or gifts.”

Our area ranks ninth in the state for tourism, which annually draws in around $300 million for our local economy.