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The economic downturn has some Benton businesses struggling with bills and seeing fewer consumers as the summer begins.  Michelle Marshall of Benton buys books from Cindy Blacklock at used bookstore Books and Baubles in Downtown Benton. “Books are a cheaper entertainment,” notes owner Janet Ausburn, who says the economic downturn isn’t hurting her business. “People say, ‘Gas is so expensive to drive somewhere, I’m going to get me a book and read.’”
“The first thing people do when they cut back is stop going out to eat,” said Sharon Skinner, owner of Sharon’s Home Cooking in Downtown Benton. “I am doing a third of [the business] I was doing this time last year.”
Skinner said the restaurant’s income is devoted to utilities, which she said have skyrocketed.
“I’m trying my best not to go up on my prices,” she said, noting that a price increase will not help business.
To help cope, Sharon’s has reduced its hours of business. The eatery, formerly open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays, is now open from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Kay Diemer, owner of Ed and Kay’s restaurant in Benton, said she’s in the same boat, dealing with a slowdown in business.
“We’re usually booming right now, but we’re about half there,” Diemer said last week.
Natalie Toon, formerly of Benton and an Ed and Kay’s customer, said fuel prices have kept her from dining at Ed and Kay’s because of her job in Little Rock.
“It’s hard with a job like mine,” Toon said. “I work in ad sales and the company doesn’t reimburse us for gas.”
To ease the economic strain, Diemer said she is watching her waste and cutting back on labor costs.
“We usually have a lot more fresh vegetables than we have now,” she said, adding that the food suppliers have increased their fuel charge for delivery and are raising prices on their products.
Staring Tuesday, the milk that Diemer has delivered to her restaurant increases from $4.75 a gallon to $5.03. “Things like this will put us small independents out of business,” she said.
Diemer also pointed out that the weather has a lot to do with costs, using this year’s drowning Midwest corn crop as an example.
But, while the nation’s economic downturn has hurt some businesses, others say it has actually helped sales.
Dianne Roberts, owner of Dianne Roberts Art Studio & Gallery in Downtown Benton, said that although her freight delivery price has gone up because of fuel prices, more people are frequenting her business because they don’t want to drive to larger art suppliers like Hobby Lobby and Michael’s.
“I have an increase in customers because they don’t want to drive all the way to Little Rock for a couple of canvases,” Roberts said.
She said she did lose a few students in her summer art classes because some of the students live too far away.
“Parents are really having to look at their schedules,” Roberts said. “They don’t have the time or the gas to drop their kids off and then go home and back.”
Roberts normally includes the cost of art supplies with the class fee, but she said she is taking a second look at that because of the rising costs of supplies.
Down the street, Cathy Prater, co-owner of Wallpaper for Less, said she has seen an increase in wallpaper sales, although the sluggish housing market has caused the demand for blinds to decrease.
“Maybe [the customers] are choosing to update rather than buy [homes],” Prater speculated.
She said she hasn’t felt the need to cut back her business hours or labor. “Every year we’ve enjoyed an increase in sales; this year, it’s just been kind of flat,” Prater said.
Economic stimulus checks, which have begun arriving from the Internal Revenue Service, may have made a difference for some local businesses and residents.
“I think that it did help a little bit for my employees,” but it mostly helped them pay their normal bills like utilities, Diemer said.
Skinner, on the other hand, did not notice a difference from the stimulus checks, which aren’t helping offset the long-term effects of the current high gas prices. “[Prices] are very, very bad,” she said.
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