For House of Flowers, it's the busiest time of year.
Between now and Feb. 14, the mom and daughter shop will make hundreds of flower bouquets and drive thousands of miles to hand-deliver all those arrangements.
"We are driving several hundred miles this whole entire week," explain Mona Smith, the daughter part of the duo."We've already started delivering Valentine's Day orders and so will go as far south as Lenexa to north as far as Excelsior Springs."
But in the days leading up to Valentine's Day, it is they who are getting a special gift - a break in gas prices.
READ MORE: Oil supply seen outpacing demand, capping price
"I would love the gas prices stay the same, even go down a little bit more," said Smith. "That does help us with being able to operate and function in our bottom line."
GasBuddy reports that nine states in the nation are currently witnessing the lowest average gasoline prices since early 2004:
- Oklahoma ($1.37)
- Indiana ($1.45)
- Kansas ($1.46)
- Ohio ($1.47)
- Michigan ($1.49)
- Minnesota ($1.52)
- Wisconsin ($1.54)
- Illinois ($1.57)
- North Dakota ($1.63)
Why? Oil refiners offer bargain basement prices to rid themselves of winter-spec gasoline ahead of a pending shift to cleaner burning fuel.
“As gasoline supply continues to bulge, prices continue to shrink,” says Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy. “Wholesale gasoline prices in the Midwest have lost more than half of their value since the beginning of the year and prices at the pump haven’t fully reflected that yet. Incredible as it sounds, we wouldn’t be shocked to see a few stations in these states as low as 99 cents a gallon.”
While the lower gas prices are great for Main Street, they could be detrimental to Wall Street.
"Low gas prices a universal good? Maybe, maybe not," explained Chris Butler, a portfolio manager for Butler, Lanz & Wagler in Overland Park, Kan.
Butler said that the free-fall in fuel prices comes down to there being more supply than demand. In fact, he said, suppliers are running out of space to store all that surplus oil and that could spell disaster for some U.S. business. Here's why: In the past, the U.S. got nearly all of its oil from overseas. Nowadays, the U.S. refines nearly all of the oil that it uses, so when prices dip, that impacts the U.S. economy alone, as well as all of the people and businesses connected to it.
"Because of a resurgence in our own oil industry, a low fuel price here is still good for you and me, but it might not be such a good thing for the entire economy," said Butler.
For now, though, it is a good thing for small businesses that are able to use this time to rebound after a period of record-high gas prices.
Some analyst speculate that this gas price plunge could come to an end as summer approaches - after all, it is more costly to refine fuel in the summer months than in the winter. In the meantime, should gas drop below a buck, it's most likely to happen right here in the Midwest.
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Terra Hall can be reached at terra.hall@kshb.com.
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