Candy shop owner to spend additional $500k on sugar to counter inflation: 'Highest' in 22 years

Small business owners are struggling to stay afloat as they battle 40-year high inflation on the heels of economic challenges associated with the pandemic. 

Small business owners Larry Johns, Martin Garcia and Jen Fertig discussed how surging costs are impacting their ability to keep their doors open on "Fox & Friends."

"Sugar was up this year, along with pretty much most of our ingredients and packaging materials," Johns, who owns McJak Candy, told co-host Steve Doocy. "But next year it is the highest increase year over year in sugar that I've ever seen in my 22 years here. It'll be up over 40%, partly due to the high transportation cost of sugar… with the fuel surcharges and so forth."

INFLATION, GAS PRICES STILL DWARF ABORTION CONCERN, POLL SAYS 

Johns said he anticipates spending an additional $500,000 to buy sugar next year in order to produce the same amount of candy. 

Garcia, who owns Gramercy Gift Gallery in San Antonio, Texas, has also struggled with surging costs but says he is "determined" to keep his doors open despite the economic woes. Garcia said he has had to turn to credit to deal with the cost increases.

"Sometimes you go ahead, and if that's your only option, and I'm determined to keep the doors open," Garcia said. "And now that I have survived the pandemic and the store is still operating, there's a new challenge currently that we're experiencing then that has to do with inflation."

More than one-third of small businesses cannot pay their rent, according to an Alignable survey, while 65% of small companies said they'd be forced to close if inflation continues to rise, according to a Digital.com survey.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Fertig, who owns Finn Knows Soap, explained how she has improvised her overhead expenses by closing her storefront and working out of her Oklahoma home to cut costs. Fertig said she sells her products at farmer's markets and other local events. 

"I'm just making everything here at home, and as you can see, I've jam-packed my entire store into my spare bedroom at my house," Fertig said. "So I'm trying really hard to just work around the mess and get my product out and to my customers."

Inflation sits at a 40-year high as gas prices also continue to surge, sitting at over $5 per gallon across the country.