Businesses across Griffith are having to contend with the spike in living expenses as petrol, food and other necessities skyrocket in price and wallets get tighter.
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The impacts of increased housing costs and petrol prices are rippling out, with Linking Communities Network reporting a 30 per cent increase in those seeking assistance.
Jarrod Salton, owner of Sultan Hobbies on Banna Avenue, said that as a hobby shop, there was concern of the situation worsening but that for now, they were managing.
"We've only been open three months so it's a bit early to say. This has coincided with the end of COVID bounceback."
"That was rough, it wasn't uncommon to do fifty-dollar days. That was different to this though."
"The end of COVID stuff has evened it out, so I'm pretty hopeful for the future but I do still find it scary that everything is going up."
While their customer base is still supportive, they added that some suppliers had increased costs to cover the extra overhead.
"If we offer the same prices as before, we'd be eating that cost."
That cost increase applies only for new releases though, so most product is still at the same price it was before.
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The main concern for Sultan Hobbies though is the possibility of things getting worse, as they remain aware that hobbies are likely the first thing to go when budgets get difficult.
"I'm really hoping this doesn't lead to a recession, as I only just opened."
Peter Hall from the Salvation Army had also seen the impacts, with an uptick in customers coming in.
"We do get a lot more people, but it hasn't impacted us too much. The only thing we've had to do is increase our delivery fee from $10 to $15 to cover the petrol," Mr Hall said.
"We're seeing 80 to 100 customers a day. Before, on a good day, it would be about 70 or 80."
That's not the only change Mr Hall has seen, but he's not sure if there's any connection there.
"There's a lot more backpackers coming in recently, I notice towards the end of the day or on Saturday, we get a lot coming in."
Whether Griffith's backpacker population and permanent residents are going to op-shops to save on tight budgets or not, it's clear that small businesses are looking down the barrel and hoping things become cheaper soon.
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