Tools

Small Biz Owners Seeing Consumer Confidence

by KREX News Room
by Amanda Brandeis

Story Created: Jan 7, 2013 at 8:45 PM MDT

Story Updated: Jan 7, 2013 at 8:56 PM MDT

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. The last minute fiscal deal provided many consumers a sigh of relief. While Americans will still experience tax increases, small businesses owners are seeing more consumer confidence post fiscal deal.

While we didn't fall off the cliff, Congress's drawn out debate on the matter impacted America's small businesses.

Paul Knaysi, owner of Pablo's Pizza, said, "They must live in an alternate universe because they don't feel the consequences like we do."

Owner of Colorado Baby, Megan Reinertsen, said, "Through the month of December it felt like people weren't willing to spend money."

"It did affect I think our December, I talked to other retailers and they had a similar experience. We still grew, but it wasn't as much as we'd expected," Knaysi said.

Despite being off schedule, their fiscal deal may have been enough to get folks out and spending.

Reinerstsen said, "Last week I was really shocked at how well the week had gone. My immediate thought was, maybe the fiscal cliff really was keeping people back."

However, middle-class American's will also see a slight decrease in their paychecks.

Gina Tallman, CPA Senior Accountant at Chadwick, Steinkirchner, Davis & Co., P.C., said, "They did not extend the payroll tax holiday, which has been in affect for the last two years. Everybody who makes less than $113,000 a year will see that two percent decrease."

"That's money you can put towards gas or groceries. It will definitely affect some people to a degree, definitely, any money that's cut," Reinertsen said.

Tallman said, "It's not a huge amount, but it will affect people."

However, this extra money in our paychecks was never meant to be permanent.

"It was part of the stimulus package passed by Obama. It was meant to give everybody a little bit of a boost in their take-home pay and sort of stimulate the economy," Tallman said.

Despite a crunch in middle-class paychecks, business owners are hopeful that mitigated cliff concerns will be enough to boost consumer confidence.

Add a comment

Name:

Comment: 1000 Characters Left

KREX - News, Weather, Sports for Grand Junction | Montrose | Glenwood Springs - Coverage You Can Count On and its affiliated companies are not responsible for the content of comments posted or for anything arising out of use of the above comments or other interaction among the users. We reserve the right to screen, refuse to post, remove or edit user-generated content at any time and for any or no reason in our absolute and sole discretion without prior notice, although we have no duty to do so or to monitor any Public Forum.

Most Popular
This content requires the latest Adobe Flash Player and a browser with JavaScript enabled. Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.
News Channel 5 Weather