nbc's miguel almaguer is in west covina, california, tonight with this story. miguel, let's start with those gas prices over your shoulder. >> reporter: yeah, brian, good evening. sticker shock for so many californians. while us out west are used to higher gas prices, what's happening here is trickling down well beyond the pump. this los angeles suburb pumping out some of the highest gas prices in the nation. in west covina, you pay a premium for premium. $4.99. >> it's frustrating. >> reporter: in this bedroom community, we found the price of gas affects an entire city's economy. >> daniel, you're getting ready to go on a delivery pretty soon. >> reporter: 79-year-old mario del fonte, a second generation florist, worries his business will wither away if prices continue to soar. his livelihood and that of his eight employees is on the line. >> this is one that's going by 9:00. >> reporter: when gas prices shot up, so did delivery costs. $50 now to fill up his small van. >> how much more we can stand, i can't answer that. >> reporter: realtor barbara akins says w

we're joined by nbc's miguel almaguer in west covina, california. john yang is in chicago and ron mott in atlanta. ron, we'll start with you. good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening to you. the average cost for a gallon of regular here in georgia, $3.43. that is up 13 cents in just the past week. 40 cents over the past month and almost 80 cents higher than it was this time a year ago here at this exxon station in the buckhead section of atlanta. the prices are a little higher than the state average. the pain at the pump starting to spread as well. taxi riders are being hit with a $2 fuel surcharge every time they get into a cab. that went into effect a few weeks ago. and school districts around the state starting to pay attention to those bus budgets, because especially those districts that did not lock in their gas prices. >> reporter: this is john yang in chicago where gas prices have gone up 11% in the last month alone. now an average of $3.71 a gallon. that's 20 cents higher than the national average. one reason why it's higher here is th

julia has a 52 mile commute from west covina to work. this week, she bought a prius. >> if i had a four hour shift it wasn't worth my commute to go out to work because i would pay more in gas than i was going to be making that day. >> reporter: students nearby at a commuter school are barely scraping by. isabella makes $8 an hour, but she pays $4 a gallon to get to class. >> i'm trying to figure out how i'm going to get home today. >> reporter: one silver line, the pinch at the pump has pushed many on to the rails. mass transit use is up 10%. and experts predict what's happening in this community may be coming to a city and a pump near you. for "today," miguel almaguer, nbc news, west covina, california. >> joining us with more is steve liesman, cnbc's senior economics reporter. great to see you. >> good to be here. p. >> we can't buy a break here. one moment we're saying more people are going back to work, but a lot of that paycheck is going to gas. >> it's just the thing we've been waiting for. i've had the pleasure and sometimes displ

in west covina, california, this mobil station was selling gas at $4.89 a gallon, but across the street this shell station was nearly a dollar cheaper. >> i noticed right across the street it's about a dollar difference. i had to come over and take advantage of the dollar difference. >> reporter: we went in and asked the manager at the more expensive station why his gas was so special, and he wouldn't explain why. the experts say that now more than ever it pays to shop around. >> it certainly does. when prices are rising, some stations have already raised their stations, and some stations are a little bit slower to raise their price so it certainly can pay off very much so. >> reporter: there's an app for that that leads to you the cheapest gas at gasbuddy.com and as you might imagine, traffic to the site is through the roof. they say to avoid gas stations near highways or in wealthy neighborhoods. they usually charge more. they also say it's usually better to buy your gas at the beginning of the week or at discount stores or locally owned stores because their gas, diane, is cheaper. >>

. >> i sent it off to whoever does it, some place in west covina or something like that, and i think, you know, al's trophy restoration. >> jimmy: al is the best. >> and i got the word back, well, i tell you, mr. hanks, the best thing we can probably do is just replace these things because they're shot. and i said, well, no. >> jimmy: they're shot? >> they said they were in such bad shape that they would be happy to just give me replacements. >> jimmy: what kind of poison is coming out of your pores? >> well, everybody's got it. but you know, i didn't want to give -- because those are the ones, you know, and they have serial numbers and stuff like that. so they said, women, next best thing we can do probably just try to redip them. so i, they are going to try to replate them so, to get, and then i will never touch these things again. >> jimmy: i don't blame you. >> i won't touch them. and everybody comes to the house, can i hold it? no, no. >> jimmy: you're going to look like a real jerk now. >> no one's touching those freaking things. they're going to go in the freezer with all the

in west covina, california, this mobil station was selling gas at $4.89 a gallon, but across the streetbout a dollar difference. i had to come over and take advantage of the dollar difference. >> reporter: we went in and asked the manager at the more expensive station why his gas was so special. and he wouldn't explain why. the experts say that now more than ever it pays to shop around. >> it certainly does. when prices are rising, some stations have already raised their prices and some stations are a little slower to raise their price. so, it certainly can pay off very much so. reporter: there's an app for that that leads you to the cheapest gas at gasbuddy.com and as you might imagine, traffic to the site is through the roof. they say to avoid gas stations near highways or in wealthy neighborhoods. they usually charge more. they also say it's usually better to buy gas at the beginning of the week and to buy at discount stores or locally owned stores where the gas is cheaper. steve osunsami, abc news, duluth, georgia. >> one of the reasons for the skyrocketing prices is the ongoing vio