‘Costs us more’: Lincoln businesses feeling the impact from the war in Iran

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — The war in Iran is hurting the wallets of many.

From gas prices to shipping costs and deliveries, it’s proving to be a problem for small businesses in Lincoln.

“Costs of goods have sort of crept up slowly but surely, along with shipping stuff,” said Daniel Schmidt, the owner of Hobby Town USA. “When we do an order, it costs us more to have it shipped here to Lincoln than it used to be.”

For some, like Schmidt, the increases seem to be causing a domino effect.

Consumer behavior is changing, affecting the amount of money stores are seeing come in.

“The big ticket items we carry in the store, there’s less of them going out the door,” Schmidt said. “So the big ticket items aren’t selling as well anymore, but we have more sales of the smaller ticket items.”

With so much uncertainty surrounding the war and when relief from the high prices will come, Schmidt is doing his best to keep things running smoothly.

Planning and keeping a close eye on what’s happening in the war are crucial to staying as prepared as possible.

“When it comes to shipping costs, I spend a lot of my energy and time on the logistics side of things,” Schmidt said. “I really try to stage when an order is coming in and how much it’s going to be, and if I can put it on a palette or two or ship it via truck instead of a normal shipping service. We’re getting more trucks more often than we were before, so it requires us to plan ahead.”