As people struggle to pay for food, rent, Florida pawn shops are busy
MIAMI - Thanks to the price of gas, food, and rent, business at pawn shops is booming. People are selling what they have to pay their bills.
"Sadly, with the economy and everything in the uptake, fuel prices, inflation, and everything. Yeah, we've seen a lot of new faces, we've seen a transition," said Jose Leyva with Larry's Estate Jewelry & Pawn.
He's been in the business for more than 20 years and said the last six to eight months have been tough on his customers.
"It hurts, it hurts sometimes, because you hear some of the stories and it touches your heart," said Leyva.
He said it used to be that people would come in looking to find that rare treasure. Now, people arrive hoping to sell, and too often take what they can get, to make ends meet any way they can.
"You want to help everybody, but there are times that we just can't help everybody. So, we help who we can," said Leyva.
The shop's popular items to sell are jewelry, guns, and electronics. Torrence Robinson came to sell his Amazon tablet, he got less than he hoped for.
"He didn't give me like 100 bucks," said Robinson. "But he gave me enough for me to go do what I got to do."