New York (AP) – The main orders have been canceled. Product containers have been failed abroad. No roadmap for what comes next.
Trump administration Prices for goods on goods from China at 145% in early April. Since then, owners of small businesses who have depended on imports from China to survive have become more and more desperate, because they decrease the inventory and the row.
President Donald Trump seemed to go back a little last week When he said he expected the prices to drop “substantially”. This helped trigger a rally on the stock market. But for small businesses that operate on thin margins of the razor, the back and forth causes a massive upheaval. Some say they could be a few months before bankruptcy.
The Massachusetts Family Game Company
Game manufacturers have been particularly sensitive to prices since The majority of games and toys sold in the United States are made in China, according to the Toy Association.
WS Game Co., based in Manchester-by-The-Sea, Massachusetts, is a family business that obliges Hasbro board games like Monopoly, Candy Land and Scrabble and creates luxury versions. Its most popular game line is available in boxes that look like vintage books and sell for $ 40.
The company’s games were presented in the list of Oprah’s favorite things in 2024 and sold in 14,000 stores in North America, large national channels at Mom-And-Pop stores, the owner Jonathan Silva said, whose father founded the company in 2000.
All WS Game’s production is carried out in China. The prices have attracted the last 25 years of healthy growth.
In the past three weeks, WS Game has had three finished game containers, worth $ 500,000, blocked in China. He lost orders for three of the largest American retailers totaling $ 16 million in business. And there is not many Silva to do on this subject.
“As a small business, we do not have the track or the capacity to move manufacturing on a whim,” said Silva, who has 22 employees. He said the prices “disturbed our business and put us on the point of insolvency” and believes that he has about a four -month track to stay afloat if nothing changes.
“We really hope that the cooler heads prevail,” he said.
Artificial flowers in Kentucky
Jeremy Rice co -owner House, a house decor store in Lexington, Kentucky, specializing in artificial floral arrangements for the house. About 90% of the flowers that his business uses in China.
Rice uses dozens of sellers. The largest absorb part of the cost of the prices and transmitting the rest. A supplier increases prices by 20% and 25%. But rice expects small suppliers to increase the much higher percentage prices.
House offers mid -range artificial flowers. A large Hortensia head will cost $ 10 to $ 16, for example. China is the only place where better quality silk flowers make. It would take a year of supplier to open a factory in another country or move production elsewhere, said Rice.
Rice ordered its vacation decoration at the start of this year. But even after storing before the prices, he has only enough daily floral inventory to last two to three months.
“After that, I don’t know what we are going to do,” he said.
Rice is concerned about the fact that the trade war will eliminate a lot of Mom-And-Pop stores, similar to what happened in the great recession and the pandemic.
“There is nowhere to turn, there is nothing to do,” he said.
Tea in Michigan
A tea store in a university city in Michigan is also taken in the middle of the current pricing fight.
“It is essentially a question of putting a large pit in my stomach,” said Lisa McDonald, owner of Teahaus, located in Ann Arbor, who houses the University of Michigan. McDonald has been teahaus for almost 18 years and sells tea to customers in the United States
The Americans bought around 86 billion portions of tea in 2024, according to the Tea Association of the United States. Almost all of this is imported because tea is not cultivated in the United States on a large scale, due to factors ranging from climate to cost.
McDonald imports tea in China leaf, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka and other countries. She says her clientele is “from all over the United States and in the world”. But she is worried, there is a limit to what they will spend. Its premium teas can cost up to $ 33 for a 50 gram bag.
“I don’t think I can charge $ 75 for a tea bag at 50 grams, no matter how incredible this tea is,” she said.
McDonald understands Trump justification to want to use prices to stimulate American manufacturing, but says it does not apply to the tea industry.
“We cannot grow tea in the United States insofar as we need. We cannot simply turn the industry and” make tea again “in America. It just can’t happen,” she said.
Oklahoma car accessories
The activities of Jim Umlauf, 4knins, based in Oklahoma City, make vehicle seats and freight liners for dog owners and others. To do this, he needs raw materials such as fabrics, coatings and components of China.
Umlauf has explored manufacturing in countries other than China since 2018, when Trump first instituted a 25% rate on goods from China, but has encountered complications. Meanwhile, 4knines absorbs the additional cost, which, according to Umlauf, has limited its growth and has tightened its margins.
Now the new prices make it almost impossible to do business. The demand is there, but the company cannot afford to provide more products.
“We only have a limited quantity of inventory, and without a certain relief, we will soon exhaust ourselves,” said Umlauf.
As the owner of a small business that worked hard to develop a high quality brand, create jobs and contribute to the community, Umlauf is frustrated. He tried to contact the White House and other decision -makers to request support from small businesses. But he did not get any response.
“It is time for political decision-makers to consider the full impact of trade policies not only on stock prices or global competitiveness, but on real people who manage small businesses,” he said.
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AP Video Journalist Mike Householder in Detroit contributed to this report.