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With latest tariffs in place, small businesses have some things to figure out

Owners have to figure out how these duties will impact input costs and assess whether they need to do anything differently.

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"I have three containers about to hit port, so I’m waiting to see what happens there, if I see a jump in my duty fees," says Cathrine Reynolds of Palmetto Tile Distributors in South Carolina.
"I have three containers about to hit port, so I’m waiting to see what happens there, if I see a jump in my duty fees," says Cathrine Reynolds of Palmetto Tile Distributors in South Carolina.
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Now that we have a little more clarity on what President Donald Trump’s tariffs will look like, businesses will need to figure out how the tariffs will affect their input costs and if they need to do anything differently.

Over the past 24 hours or so, Pat Whelan, president of grocery store Sahadi’s in Brooklyn, said he’s been feeling a tad regretful that he didn’t do more to get ahead of the tariffs.

“Maybe I should have pre-ordered some product and stocked up on inventory, and got some stuff in here before the shoe dropped.”

But on the other hand, Whelan said, there’s not much he could have done. After all, imported food has a shelf life. Take olive oil, for example.

“Once you press it, the clock starts ticking,” he said. “So you want to turn that stuff, you don’t want it to be sitting in the warehouse for nine months and oxidizing and degrading.”

Whelan said it’s hard to make any plans right now because he still doesn’t know how his products will be affected.

“All right, so you have some clarity on what the tariffs are. Does that mean it’s going to change in two months? I don’t know,” he said.

In South Carolina, Cathrine Reynolds, who handles imports for Palmetto Tile Distributors, said she’s expecting to learn how her products will be affected in the coming days.

“Currently, I have three containers about to hit port, so I’m waiting to see what happens there, if I see a jump in my duty fees or anything like that,” she said.

Whatever happens, Reynolds said she already has a gameplan: She’ll simply tack on a tariff surcharge to her prices, just like she did during the pandemic when supply chains were congested.

“I just keep changing what we’re calling it. It’s like, OK, this is the increase for now, and this is just the label we’re going to put on it,” she said.

Reynolds said over the last few years, her customers have been willing to pay up.

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