The owners of small businesses try to survive the Trump prices: NPR

Many owners of American stores feel as collateral damage in the World Trade War.

Sarah Wells explores how her 13 -year -old business, selling backpacks for breast pumps and other articles for new mothers, will take place under President Trump New prices on all imports.

Only this year, his company Sarah Wells Bags increased the cost of two tariff cycles, which took effect, because the expedition of Wells from China was on the way.

Its large order was responsible for the port in February, when the White House increased prices on Chinese imports by 10%. As he accosted in the United States in March, prices had further increased another 10%. Wells had to spend unexpected $ 15,000 to release customs goods.

Now, with the last round sending total prices on Chinese imports 54% – eat your beneficiary margin – Wells is in shock. Perhaps she will have to increase prices, but how much before buyers rebel and stop buying? She plans to entrench: order less, take a break, stop developing new products.

“Even if we pass a little (cost) to the consumer, we cannot pass everything,” explains Wells, based in Virginia. “So I really think that the honest answer is that companies will close.”

For some, this is the mode of survival, which means reducing selections and hiring freezing

The quantity or speed with which buyers can withdraw is not clear. The National Federation of Retail provided for retail sales to grow this year – slower than in recent years, although more like before the pandemic: Between 2.7% and 3.7%.

But the forecasts were published before the extent of the new prices became clear – covering the globe, ranging from 10% to more than 50% – And now, the commercial group says that it is “impossible to predict … the extent of the change on prices and on consumer spending”.

Giants like Walmart, for example, now put pressure on their foreign suppliers for discounts to compensate for some of the prices. The smallest retailers do not have this kind of muscle. In surveys, retailers at all levels warn that they will have to increase prices.

And then there is the scale. Like Wells, many business owners plan to back down: perhaps reducing the selection of the store, so there is less to ship, to freeze hiring, to take an advertising break or to develop new products – stop growing and switch to survival mode.

“What is the need in Have compared to the pleasure of having … I think from the start, this is where it will start,” explains Jessica Bettencourt, who heads the general store of Klem in the Massachusetts. Founded by her grandfather 75 years ago, Klem sells a wide range of products, including equipment, pet food and clothing.

The United States can mean 3 to 4 times the cost

A key argument of President Trump in favor of prices is that they would release American manufacturing, forcing more companies to obtain their products at the national level.

Wells, Bettencourt and many others will say: they tried.

American manufacturers could not fight against the magnitude of the Wells commands, she says, when she sought to make or at least assemble her backpacks and her handbags here. In addition, these manufacturers have told him that the raw material should come from China anyway.

Southern Caroline business owner Rozalynn Goodwin has encountered a similar challenge.

“For the past eight years, we have been trying to make in the United States,” said Goodwin. She and her daughter sell double snap hair bars called Gabby Bows.

“Each manufacturer in the United States to whom we spoke said to us:” You must continue to do this in China. It will cost you three to four times more to get there here “” Goodwin says. “Our customers will not pay $ 8 or $ 10 more for this product.”

The case of $ 400 of work boots

For many common items – Clothes, shoes, toys, electronics – The United States have not make them on a large scale for agesIf ever. Small -scale operations are much more expensive, doubly or triple the price of options abroad, and generally require imported supplies anyway, as Wells had discovered.

Bettencourt says, consider the work boots. Its store carries American manufacturing boots, and there are $ 400 per pair. The imported alternatives are sold for half of this amount.

“Not everyone can buy a pair of work boots of $ 400,” she said. “So I always want to watch this product made in the United States, but I also have to offer my customers what they can afford.”

As another merchant said: owners of small businesses like to make their own decisions and feel as if they can live and die by them; General coverage rates remove this capacity from their control.