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Some shops see silver lining in pain at the pump

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Though it doesn't seem like it, higher gasoline prices might have a silver lining and actually help some businesses that aren't named Exxon Mobil or BP.

Take golf carts, for example.

Sales have boomed at Coastal Customer Carts in Plantation Park in Bluffton, with twice as many golf carts being sold this year as last, said owner Margie Donley.

And she has high gasoline prices to thank for a lot of that.

"Especially in Sun City (Hilton Head), many of the people are selling their second car and buying a golf cart," she said.

Using a cart is just more practical for residents there than spending $50 on gas a week to cruise around in a large car, Donley said.

"Half of our customers don't even play golf," she said.

The increase in sales hasn't been as dramatic at Club Car of Hilton Head, but there's still been a boost. The Bluffton store has seen a 10 percent increase in cart sales over last year, said manager Don Barth.

Even as higher gas prices have fueled that increase, Barth isn't sure fuel costs haven't slowed sales in some ways. There could be potential customers who aren't coming to buy a $2,500 to $7,000 cart because their budgets are tight, she said.

"We can't count customers who don't come in," Barth said.

Although there aren't many places to drive golf carts -- few residents besides those in Sun City and Belfair can drive them to shopping plazas -- they can help cut energy costs.

Barth and Donley said most carts get between 35 and 40 miles per charge, and, it costs less than $1 in electricity to charge them. And at a clip of just over 20 mph, the carts are fast enough for errands.

Bicycle shops are less certain that high gas prices are causing people to look at cycling their way to fuel savings.

"This time of year, it's hard to say what's driving the increase in sales," said Alfred Olivetti, owner of Go Tri Sports on the island. But he has heard some people say they can justify spending money on a bike because of increased gas prices.

Others say a recent run of good sales came about because of the spring weather and tax rebates.

Mac McJunkin, owner of The Bicycle Link on Hilton Head Island, gave an emphatic "nope" when asked whether people were buying bikes due to gas prices. If anything, the gas prices had hurt business in January and February, he said. But now he is seeing an increase in sales, mostly due to the weather and the tourists coming in.

As for the high gas prices' effect on bike sales, he said, "By and large, it hasn't affected anything at all."

Tom Lamb, owner of Bluffton Bicycle Shop in Plantation Park off U.S. 278, said he's seen a rise in bike sales and repairs at his shop and believes some of it is due to higher gas prices. He also says the spring weather, and the economic stimulus rebate checks also are helping sales.

"We've steadily been going up," he says of the past five and a half years at his business, formerly known as Jonathon's Bike Shop. "We're doing a lot better than we were last year at this time."

Rising fuel costs haven't make Palmetto Breeze, the Lowcountry's bus service, a winner or a loser. Ridership should hit 227,000 by the end of the agency's fiscal year in June, but those numbers are the same as they were a year ago, said Rochelle Ferguson, executive director of Palmetto Breeze.

But since the number of routes the group runs was cut from 17 to 15 last summer after a driver walkout, fuel costs haven't changed significantly between this year and last, she said.

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