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The
Alignable Small Business Inflation poll asked 5,268 businesses
in May if they were concerned about inflation and over half said
they fear they won’t be able to stay open over six months.
Illinois was in line with the national average, with 49% of
small business owners concerned over inflation-driven shutdowns.
Many business owners said this is a more difficult time than the
pandemic, researcher Chuck Casto said.
“In one of our polls we asked point blank, what has been more
damaging for your business, inflation or COVID, and over 60%
said inflation,” Casto said.
Rastaurants are the most concerned sector of the economy. Of
those asked, 72% said they were concerned about shutting down
because of inflation this year. That was followed by beauty
salons (65%) and gyms (63%).
According to the poll, 49% of small business owners said their
costs have increased by more than 25%, but only 16% are able to
pass those expenses onto customers.
The states with the most-worried small business owners included
Maryland, Connecticut and Tennessee.
One business owner said fuel costs would be the death of his
business. In Illinois, gasoline is averaging $5.40 a gallon,
putting a strain on many businesses.
Relief doesn’t appear to be coming anytime soon. Laffer Tengler
Investments’ Arthur Laffer, Jr. told Fox News inflation will get
“higher” and be here a while.
“We think that inflation is going to be here higher and longer
than we would have thought. But, this is pretty ugly. We have
CPI coming out Friday, so we’ll see what it is. But this is
definitely putting pressure on the economy. I think these prices
are here for a while,” he said.
Kevin Bessler reports on statewide issues in
Illinois for the Center Square. He has over 30 years of
experience in radio news reporting throughout the Midwest.
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