Gas price plunge gives businesses a break

When News13 interviewed Don King, owner of King’s Florist, in Socastee in May 2004, King worried that the then-rising gas prices would force him to charge his valued customers too much to offset the operating costs.

“Unless it gets lower, the customer will have to help us out,“ King said four and a half years ago.

On Tuesday, King said he did have to implement an additional $0.75 on each delivery charge for a very long time, because of the gas prices.

“It got real bad,“ King said. “When you fill up a tank and it’s over $100, and that’s probably about a day and a half for one van, so you’re talking about a good bit of money when you’ve got two or three vans running.“

King said he normally does 40-50 deliveries a day, but now he is up to 60 every day with the extra holiday business, so it’s a good thing he has stopped charging his customers more for deliveries, courtesy of the lower gas prices.

According to AAA, the national average gas price is 33 percent lower than it was at this time last year, and that means savings for business owners like King, and his customers.

“People realize that you have to go up, and our customers are very friendly about that,“ King said. “They know I don’t go up unless I absolutely have to,“ he said.