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NEW YORK (AP) - While $2-a-gallon gasoline grabs plenty of media attention today, small businesses are well aware of another source of rising costs — the upward creep of interest rates. Owners say they've been feeling the effects of rising rates in the nearly 10 months since the Federal Reserve began nudging rates higher.
"They do affect what we do and how we're going to do it," said Jeffrey Wolfe, owner of Moosejaw Mountaineering, an outdoor equipment and apparel retailer.
Wolfe, whose company has six stores in Michigan and Illinois as well as a Web site, said Moosejaw needed a new computer system to manage inventory and other aspects of the business. So the company built its own system, rather than dip into a line of credit and pay someone else to do it.
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