Small businesses are feeling the effects of President Trump’s tariffs as they start to impact every day household goods sold to American families.
Read the testimonials below and take action by sharing your own story on how these tariffs have affected your business.
“Even if we pass some (cost) to the consumer, we can’t pass it all…So I really think the honest answer is that businesses will close.”
“Groceries we once thought were staples—like soda—are now luxuries.”
– Lori M., Pennsylvania
“We might not have products for the holidays, which is our main sales season.”
“I think the biggest thing is … it’s not Canada vs. U.S. … this whole system is integrated together … There’s thousands of people involved, that’s their everyday life, that’s how they make a living.”
– Brendan Lane, Canadian Auto Parts Maker
“As of right now, I’ve seen from the industry multiple manufacturers increase pricing, which means the brides are now seeing their price increase because we can’t eat the full amount of the tariff…There’s no way, we’d all go under.”
“It’s going to cost you three to four times more to make it here…Our customers will not pay $8 or $10 more for this product.”
“That [import] fee used to be almost $8,000, now that fee became around almost $20,000…None of our products are being sold anymore, we took everything else off the shelves.”
– Christian Bello, Owner of Roofing Nation in Florida
“Currently [tariffs] are making the price of my products go up, which I have to now to pass on to my clients who are already being squeezed by the cost of living right now.”
– April Parish, owner of Polish Me Perfect Nail Salon in Omaha, Nebraska
“There’s so much conversation about ‘it’s short-term pain, if we can just get through this short-term, it’s gonna be better for America in the long-run.’ Well, we’ve already gone through the short-term pain in 2018 and it crushed our industry and we’re having it even worse now.”
– Bucky Pescaglia, President of MOPAC Lumber Company
“We aren’t quite sure how we’re going to handle all of this.”
– Jessica Bettencourt, President & CEO of Klem’s
“What would have cost me maybe $30,000 with a reasonable tariff is now going to cost me $200,000…It’s not even reasonable.”
– Beth Benike, CEO Busy Baby
“The uncertainty is really the worst part of this. You cannot make investments, you cannot change your strategy, you cannot do anything because you don’t know how to pivot.”
– Steve Greenspon, CEO & Founder of Honey-Can-Do International
“I can say that I know a lot of parents are already feeling the significant impacts already…This is going to be a really tricky time for people to navigate, especially as many people were just starting to feel more comfortable after getting their feet on the ground after COVID.”
– Elizabeth Mahon, Owner of Three Littles independent toy store
“For their supply chain, for every dollar that they’ve landed in the U.S., it costs them 50 cents in duties and tariffs before adding in all the freight and other expenses. So, this is their words, they’ve transformed the U.S. from a great opportunity into an unpredictable and unprofitable region.”
“[The tariffs] are really going to increase prices, those will be passed on to us, and we’ll have to pass them on to our consumers.”