KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City businesses are keeping a close eye on fuel prices as they are predicted to increase due to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and Russia.
Delivery services play a vital role in how Minsky’s Cafe and Pizza Bar runs their business. On a busy Friday night, their location off of Main Street gets anywhere from 180 to 200 delivery orders.
In order to get the job done, their drivers have to provide their own cars and fill up their own gas tanks.
Sankar Bhowmik has been with the company for over 15 years. He said he enjoys the hustle and budgets $15 to $20 for gas daily. Bhowmik explained he’s already tied up with the current gas pump prices and is curious how a potential increase will impact his pay.
“Yes, of course I’m worried gas prices are already getting higher day by day,” Bhowmik said.
Minksy’s Pizza currently charges a $3.50 delivery fee charge, which went up last year. General Manager David Reeder said the increase was in preparation for unexpected economic changes and hopes to keep the delivery prices where they are at.
“The delivery charge is the number one way to get drivers the gas money they need,” Reeder said. “All of our employees are getting raises, and so we’re increasing the compensation for all of our employees and that is another way and helping offset these cost. It’s not just the drivers being impacted, the cooks and the servers have to pay for the gas to get here and we’re just trying to take care of the employees.”
Inflation is also taking a toll on Minsky’s Pizza.
Reeder estimates prices for raw materials and goods needed to make their iconic pizza have gone up 10%-20% in the past year. If gas prices end up going up, he thinks they will be paying for it in other ways since they rely on raw materials to be delivered.
“Things are going to get more expensive, vendors will have to pay for fuel and the money has to be generated somehow so yeah it’s a trickle down effect, and Minskys is trying to absorb as much as we can,” Reeder said.
A local economic expert explained this trickle down effect is already being felt, and with fuel prices impacting everything and being an indirect cost of nearly everything we buy, businesses will need to start charging more to cover it.
“Even if you’re not directly seeing a fuel charge or even a freight cost, it is an indirect cost of nearly everything we buy,” Larry Wigger, assistant teaching professor of supply chain management, said. “Even if they don’t identify it separately to customers, eventually businesses will need to charge more to cover their inflation in fuel costs.”
Wigger said it’s hard to predict just how much fuel prices will be going up with the situation in Russia and Ukraine being so fluid, but consumers will be paying more for goods and services on top of the increased gas prices because the economy will be stretched thin.
“All that demand for all that stuff that we're manufacturing, packaging, shipping and trucking and diesel fuel and air freight….all that is competing for gallons of gasoline as well,” Wigger said. “We've got that running flat out in overdrive and approaching summer travel season.”
