TULSA, Ok — President Trump’s skyrocketing tariffs on China have some small business owners worried their shelves could look a little more bleak in the future.
Nestled in Brookside is Ida Red, which offers unique gifts, pop culture items, and clothes.
But with all the uncertainty on tariffs right now, store owner Angelene Wright is struggling with what to stock for the holidays.
“As much as we’re rooted in the community and Oklahoma made things, a lot of that stuff still goes through China, whether it’s t-shirts, or mugs, even when I have local designers or makers, they’re still printed in China or the initial mug is made in China. So yeah, it affects us. It affects literally everyone I know in this industry,” said Wright.
In April, President Trump put a 145% tariff on nearly all Chinese imports.
Wright said one of her biggest expenses are her shopping bags that come straight from China.
One pallet of shopping bags costs her $25,000.
As she and other small business owners navigate these unchartered waters, she is concerned she might have to sell her novelty items at a loss, or be forced to pass the price hike on to her customers.
“This is going to put a curve ball in it because we can only do so much, and there will be a point where we are just going to have to take a loss, and I don’t know as a small business that we can, or it’s going to be passed onto the consumer,” said Wright.
She is hoping customers like Debbie Voegli will weather the storm along with her.
‘It’s a hard situation. I feel sorry for the store owners because they are here to make a profit. They want to make money and if their prices get raised, then they are going to have to raise it to the consumer,” said Voegli.
This isn’t the first challenge Wright has faced.
A fire damaged Ida Red on Brookside back in September, so to help make up for the loss of sales, Wright is offering a 20% discount on all items at the Brookside location on Saturday from 10 to 2.
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