{"id":290852,"date":"2025-11-30T04:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T04:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/290852\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T04:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T04:28:08","slug":"us-small-businesses-sound-alarm-over-trumps-tariffs-amid-crucial-holiday-season-small-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/290852\/","title":{"rendered":"US small businesses sound alarm over Trump\u2019s tariffs amid crucial holiday season | Small business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs have increased prices on an array of popular holiday goods and driven a \u201cmassive\u201d number of small firms out of business, industry leaders have warned.<\/p>\n

On Small Business Saturday<\/a>, firms have their fingers crossed that strong holiday sales will ease the impact of a tough year. But many aren\u2019t holding their breath.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband and I have invested a lot of our retirement money into this business,\u201d Joann Cartiglia, owner of Queen\u2019s Treasures, a toy company in Ticonderoga, New York, during a press briefing organized by We Pay the Tariffs, a coalition of small businesses, this week. \u201cAnd now I have absolutely no hope of retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly feel the government is putting me out of business,\u201d added Cartiglia, 64.<\/p>\n

Lawsuits,<\/a> opposition from big business<\/a>, and pleas for help from small importers have failed to persuade the Trump administration to reconsider its aggressive strategy on trade from overseas, which the US president claims will raise trillions of dollars for the federal government.<\/p>\n

Opponents of tariffs are \u201cserving hostile foreign interests\u201d, Trump has claimed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The tariff rates of various holiday goods have risen in the past year<\/a><\/p>\n

Small businesses, particularly in the retail industry, typically rely heavily<\/a> on the holiday trading season, but are grappling with increased costs, supply chain disruption, logistical issues and uncertainty due to tariffs.<\/p>\n

Tariffs have hit some small businesses especially hard, as they often have smaller margins \u2013 and are less able to absorb costs, or secure exemptions \u2013 than bigger firms.<\/p>\n

Jared Hendricks has run Village Lighting Co in West Valley City, Utah, which specializes in holiday lights and decorations, for over 20 years. He estimates his tariff costs are approaching $1m so far this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, we\u2019ve kind of transitioned from working for profits to working for tariffs,\u201d said Hendricks. \u201cWe are just in business to pay off our tariff debt.\u201d<\/p>\n

But some operators anticipate that the problem is likely to get worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever price increases you\u2019re seeing in the holiday industry for your Christmas trees, for your lighting, for your other decor, this year will be small compared to next year, if tariff relief isn\u2019t given for the 2026 season,\u201d added Hendricks. \u201cAmerican manufacturing has never done Christmas goods, so it\u2019s not responsible for taking away any jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe supply chain for Christmas items is simply too complex, and [it] would take billions of dollars in decades to build that infrastructure to move that production here. And then, even if you did, the workforce is not sufficient to support it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boyd Stephenson, owner of Game Kastle College Park in College Park, Maryland, said the firm\u2019s costs had soared due to the tariffs. \u201cMost of my manufacturers and publishers don\u2019t really have the space to absorb, or to pass on price increases to their customers, so they\u2019re getting squeezed,\u201d he said. \u201cThe number of toy and game studios that I have seen go under this year is massive.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp until a month ago, I\u2019d be saying: \u2018Hey, most of the federal workforce isn\u2019t employed either, so we\u2019re hunkering down for a terrifying holiday season.\u2019 But we\u2019re still pretty scared, even with the shutdown being over.\u201d<\/p>\n

A survey <\/a>of 1,048 small businesses conducted by Small Business for America\u2019s Future found 71% of small business owners expect tariffs to have a negative impact on consumer spending this holiday season, and 44% expect a very negative impact.<\/p>\n

About 44% of small businesses surveyed reported raising prices due to tariffs, and 74% reported being worried about their business surviving over the next 12 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe administration has consistently maintained that the cost of tariffs will ultimately be paid by the foreign exporters who rely on access to the American economy, the world\u2019s biggest and best consumer market,\u201d said a White House spokesperson, Kush Desai. \u201cAs tariffs secure new trade deals and trillions in investments to make and hire in America, the administration is simultaneously implementing a pro-growth agenda of tax cuts, deregulation, and energy abundance for big and small businesses alike to thrive again as they did during President Trump\u2019s first term.\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs have increased prices on an array of popular holiday goods and driven a \u201cmassive\u201d number…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-290852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}