Courtney Nguyen is a self-taught baker who recently opened a brick-and-mortar location for her former at-home bakery, The Flour Petal Bakery. (Courtesy of Jamaal Vince)
As the economy changes, business owners in the Tomball and Magnolia area have begun to notice that the cost to maintain their business has steadily increased over the past year. Local business owners have attributed rising costs to rent, utilities, gas prices and importing goods.
The big picture
Billy Schiel is the owner of Honor Society Coffee and has been a Tomball local for 45 years. He recently expanded his cafe with 2 new locations and has 30 employees on payroll. Schiel said the recent rise in gas prices and the cost of goods have affected not only his own product, but also the payroll for his staff.
“Employees want to make more money, and if you want to have good employees that want to work for you and do a good job, you have to pay them more,” Schiel said. “Then it costs a lot more money for them to drive their car back and forth, so it's a circle, right?”
According to the Texas Restaurant Association's recent economic insights poll, many restaurants have reported increased costs for labor and operations this past year. In the poll, 38% of restaurant owners reported that they don't have the workforce they need to be successful.
Managing the impact
Courtney Nguyen owns Magnolia area cafe Flour Petal Bakery and said that the cost to purchase supplies for her services has grown over the last year.
“I've gotten two emails this year from our distributors for just basic supplies like flour and sugar, that they're having to increase prices again because of increased tariffs and then the increased costs in oil and gas," Nguyen said.
“It's not one individual expense,” Wooten said. “I think it's the accumulation of having to pay more for products and materials and utilities and rent and insurance and transportation, obviously fuel.”
The catalyst
Tina Paez and Allie Macias run Tina & Allie's Hair Parlor in Magnolia. The pair have been working together in the hair industry for decades. This past year, Tina and Allie said the products and supplies they import, such as clippers and hair coloring products, have increased compared to last year.
What they're saying
In Harris and Montgomery counties, researchers remain cautiously optimistic about the economy's recovery but remain on guard. Daniel Potter, director of the Houston Population Research Center, asked local Houstonians in a 2025 poll how they felt about job opportunities in Houston. While 70% said they felt good, Potter said since then he’s seen an unprecedented decline in trust in the economy in 2026.
“In 2026, the number one problem that people identify facing the Houston area is the economy, point blank,” Potter said. “That 70% number that we were talking about at the start of 2025 was under 50% by the time you got to the start of 2026.”
Potter said this was the largest single-year drop in Harris County behind only the 1982-83 oil crisis and the largest single-year decline in perception of job opportunities ever detected in Montgomery County.
Potter said the economy and buyers operate on a push-and-pull. He explained that if locals think the economy is doing great, they will act accordingly, invest locally and spend money.
However, if consumers don't think the economy is doing great, they will act accordingly independently of anything the economy is actually doing.
“[There is] lots of concern about the economy, lots of concerns about the jobs right now, lots of pressures being felt by people from a variety of different angles," Potter said.
What's next?
As the economy continues to change, both the Magnolia and Tomball economic development corporations have various programs to help support the growth and stability of small businesses in their areas.
