Craig Daily Press

Craig — Katrina Springer, Serendipity Coffee Shop owner, said she loves her Bug.

Springer recently bought a 1973 Volkswagen Bug to supplement her 2004 Dodge Durango, which she said was an effort to stay ahead of rising gas prices.

Now, she drives her Bug around town and saves on mileage, but can use her Durango when she needs the hauling space.

It was one step, she said, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be others.

Q: At what point did gas prices become a big concern?

A: They became a big concern when they hit $3.70 a gallon, to me.

Q: If prices go back down to $2 a gallon, would you go back to driving your other car?

A: Probably. I’d drive it more than I am now. But, I’ll probably still stick with my Bug.

Q: How come?

A: It just works for me. It’s a little grocery-getter, you know? I don’t really need a big thing every day.

Q: Have fuel costs impacted your business at all?

A: They have. My price of food has gone up. I now pay a service cost for each delivery. I’ve really seen that influx of prices.

Q: How have you had to overcome that?

A: So far, I have not passed them on to the customer, yet. I’ve just absorbed them, but if it gets any worse, I will have to.

Q: If gas prices keep going up, what would be the first cut you would have to make from your personal budget?

A: Probably just managing my time better, because I live out of town. Get as much as I could get done in town at one possible time and it might even have to come up to cutting down the kids’ activities, which would be real bad.

Q: What kinds of activities?

A: They both do 4-H. They play soccer and football and stuff like that.

Q: It’s hard to travel to all those places?

A: It is. My folks live in Meeker and we’ve cut down on going down there very much.

Q: What would you cut from your business budget?

A: I already have, kind of. I used to get a lot of my paper goods at Sam’s, but right now getting them through my food supplier is cheaper in the long run because it’s so expensive to go down there right now. So, I’ve been having to order more supplies through them. It’s hard to cut down. We haven’t cut portions or anything like that, but just watching our orders now. I only order exactly what I need from suppliers, not in excess. I really watch that because it’s just getting really expensive. I don’t want to pass that on to my customers. Eventually, I might have to, but so far I haven’t.

— Interview by Collin Smith