Soaring gas prices hiking up LA County food truck menu prices
"We need to increase our prices a little bit because if not, we can't be in the market anymore," said one owner.
EAST LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- With California leading the nation with a state average of $5.07 for a gallon of gas on Friday, according to AAA, food truck owner Fausto Devora says he's spending more on his business, Jason's Tacos in East Los Angeles.
"I use a lot of gas," he said. "Weekly, I used to fill up the gas for transportation, we would go around, [it] was $100. Now, we are at $170."
Devora said he's also spending more on his generator that he fills up twice a day, which takes $10 more to fill. As a result of gas prices going up, he's forced to charge more for his food.
"I don't have a price on the menu," said Devora. "Every day is going up, higher and higher."
Meanwhile, Nolan Chavarria, who owns El Pollon food truck in East L.A., said because of the spike in gas prices, he recently had to increase his menu prices for a second time by about 25 cents.
"We need to increase our prices a little bit because if not, we can't be in the market anymore," said Chavarria. "Hopefully the government can help."
With the government blaming the war in Ukraine for the soaring gas prices, some industry experts say with or without the war, prices were expected to go up.
"The prices were going to increase. They were going to hit $100 a barrel, even without the Ukraine crisis," said Shon Hiatt, a business professor at USC. "But now, there's talk if this Ukraine crisis continues, we can see the price hitting $130 a barrel, which would translate here well over $7 a gallon in California."
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