Special retailers in Northeast Ohio that sell imported Chinese goods are anticipating price hikes after the Trump administration's announcement of triple-digit tariffs sparked a trade war with China.
President Donald Trump recently walked back some of those tariffs, putting a 90-day pause on some tariffs, but left a 10% across-the-board tariff in place and ramped up tariffs on China at 145%. It’s uncertain how permanent these tariffs will be, but China responded with retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports at 125%.
What impact those tariffs will have in Northeast Ohio is beginning to become clear.
“We are just now starting to hear what the price hikes will look like,” said Nneka Slade, owner of Star Beauty Plus in Maple Heights.
Star Beauty Plus is a beauty supply store specializing in cosmetics and hair care products for Black people. Slade said about 90% of her store’s inventory is imported from China.
Slade said product distributors told her some products will increase in price about 30-45% next month.
“Just like our distributors have been forewarning us, we have just sort of been talking with customers about what to expect,” Slade said.
Other specialty retailers in Northeast Ohio, including Asian grocery stores and a dessert shop that specializes in delicacies from Hong Kong, also said they anticipate the tariffs will increase the cost of the products they sell.
Businesses beyond those typically associated with imported goods are also reporting they expect the tariffs to hit their bottom lines.
Ohio craft brewers, earlier this week reported they are concerned a 25% tariff on imported aluminum and steel could eat up profits. Nearly two-thirds of businesses in Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Kentucky and the northern panhandle of West Virginia told the Cleveland Federal Reserve they expect tariffs will affect them by increasing input costs, prices or driving down demand.
To try to make up for the price hikes, which would be passed on to customers, Slade said she is working with other similar beauty supply stores in the region to collectively make bulk orders at a discount with distributors.
“It will help have some sort of cushion in terms of the pricing," Slade said, "but it won’t mitigate every single product that we offer. Not at all.”
Slade said she’s also trying to bring in more domestic or locally made products, but she said it’s too big of a task to try to replace the large number of Chinese imported goods in her store. She’s also trying to create an online store to bring in more revenue to make up for potential losses in in-store sales.
While she’s concerned about the effect tariffs will have on her business, she said she likes to think of the industry as “almost recession-proof” and says her business remained successful at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I am hopeful that the trends that we’ve seen in the past will ring true. Still during this time, I know it is volatile,” Slade said. “But we’re inpouring strategies that will sort of mitigate some of that.”
