Local business owners sound off on the Biden economy, Trump's visit to Schnecksville, Pa.

My name is Ed Frack and I own supersets gyms. The younger generation is actually noticeably spending more money than my generation ever did or other generations prior to mine. But at the same time, while they’re spending more money, operation costs have double, triple and just kind of increased drastically over the last four years that we’ve been making some unorthodox changes to our business in the way that we operate and kind of changed our model a little bit to adapt to what’s going on. Because as I mentioned before, the level of difficulty in operating a Business Today versus you know multiple four years ago is much, much more challenging. Last four years has been a roller coaster of ways of doing things that I never thought would have to be done because as I mentioned before, operating a business right now is incredibly difficult with the inflation of pricing on product, just overall operating costs as far as electric goes, heating, things like that have drastically increased for businesses. The only thing I would say as far as the economy here in the Lehigh Valley, it’s strong, it’s in a good direction. It’s continuing to grow in a good direction. In my opinion, based on what I’ve been seeing, the inflation costs have hit everywhere a little bit harder than it has us. In my opinion, it has hit us. However, the Lehigh Valley is just a strong area to be. It’s a great place to have businesses. It’s a great place to open up businesses. I’m Lauren Anderson and this is my dad, Al Anderson. Leather corner post, pre Civil War hotel. Been here since 1850s. A lot of people been through it. We’re a local pub. Everybody local hangs out here and they love it while our costs are through the roof just to stay in business. From A-Z. We didn’t have this four years ago. Of course, Binomics is nothing but printing money and creating inflation. So it’s just false. Everything’s false. It’s bound to break. They’re just, I just don’t know when they’re going to break it. And I think the economy here last four years, especially customer standpoint, I mean, we have to raise prices all the time. They were just complaining yesterday too that diesel fuels up, all the 87 fuels, everything’s up. So gas prices are up, everything. Food costs are up. We’re excited. I don’t think I can stand on my feet that long, but I think she’s going to be there. Donald. Donald Trump coming to right right next door to us is is pretty awesome. The road, the roads will be a little hectic, but I think everybody that’s going to be there is going to be energized. Zane Gray flooring. He was a hardwood and laminate flooring installer in the Lehigh Valley for the past 26 years. And once once COVID Time came around and Biden’s policies, plywood and flooring went through the roof. I mean sheets of plywood were $94.00 a sheet and what homeowner can afford that? So that that really, you know burnt some holes in our pockets and ended up having to close up shop and it’s a shame. I’m just excited. I’m. I’m so happy that he’s coming to our little slice of heaven and he gets to see the the true people around here that support them. Not like all these people you see on Facebook and Instagram and all that, you know. So it’s nice to see some actual support and him coming out to see us, you know, showing that he truly cares about us Pennsylvania locals. The last 3.8 years have been very tough, not only on the wallet but also on myself. You know, just trying to afford the cost of living as a as a single man, it’s it’s tough. You know, I really feel for the for the parents out there or the veterans who don’t have a home. And you know we’re we’re giving all this money to foreign countries and people who really shouldn’t be getting it when we got tons of Americans back home who really need this, the support. My name is Doug Letterman. I own Letterman’s Diner in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. It’d be great. I wish you’d come to Kutztown, but it’s an awesome thing that he’s coming into the area. Ah, Biden’s not doing a great job. When Trump was in, Trump was doing such a great job. The economy was doing great. Food prices were down. Labor costs were down. Jobs. The economy was so much better than what it is now.