BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) – Coast business owners are seeing the negative effects of rising gas prices.
Staff at Desporte Seafood LLC, a seafood restaurant and wholesaler in Biloxi, have been implementing new ways to keep up with costs. Owner Sean Desporte said he had to cut down on the number of vehicles he sends out on delivery every day because the amount the company spends on gas has almost doubled. He is also trying to only use smaller vehicles.
“The gas prices are steadily going up. When it used to cost in our smallest truck, it used to cost us $50, $40. Now it is $80-$100,” Desporte said.
Not only did Desporte have to adjust to higher costs, but his business partners are also having to adapt.
“Five out of six guys that sell us crawfish, they went up 15 cents a pound just for serve charge for the gas prices, ” he said.
Higher gas prices also mean that product costs will increase because most delivery methods use gas. According to Desporte, even the fishermen he works with have increased their seafood prices.
“I even have the shrimp boats that are selling me shrimp, they are like Sean the prices of shrimp are going to go up because gas prices are so high. It is like fishermen that go out and catch us fish are calling me and telling me, can you pay us more for the fish because it costs us more to fill up our boats,” Desporte said.
Other delivery businesses like Gulf Coast Produce are also coming up with ways to save money. Transportation Manager Jefferey Mitchell said they are currently working with a private gas company to avoid filling up tanks in other stations.
“Right now, we fill up at the shop and try not to fill up over the road to avoid rising gas prices,” Mitchell said.
There is no way of telling when prices will decrease. According to AAA, Mississippi’s gas prices have jumped by more than 60 cents a gallon, just in the last week.
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