After months of struggling to keep prices the same, Adan Ventura celebrated the Supreme Court’s ruling that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority by imposing a sweeping tariff policy, acknowledging the blow from tariffs over the past several months has been harsh.
Ventura owns two catering companies, Tasty Paella and ACD Kitchen, as well as Easy Paella, a brand of ready-to-eat paella. Many of the ingredients he uses are imported, so the tariff increase was a direct blow to the heart of his businesses.
In 2025, he said, he saw profits decrease by up to 15% compared to the previous year. He absorbed the costs to avoid raising prices for his customers, he said.
“When I heard the news, what came to mind was that politics should not be mixed with the law,” Ventura said. “Now it has been said that it is not legal, but it has already affected many of us.”
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In Ventura’s case, the tariffs caused some of the products he buys to increase in price by 18% to 25%.
Beyond tariffs, he said general cost concerns meant he had fewer event calls, smaller events and a drop in sales of his products.
“Last summer was when we started to feel the pinch,” Ventura said. “But we decided to sacrifice our profit margin so as not to affect our customers and lose them.”
Ventura said he does not expect the Supreme Court ruling to have an immediate effect on the prices of imported products, but he said that at least there is now certainty that costs will go down.
Trades Delicatessen located at Bishop Arts District, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024 in Dallas.
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
At Trades Delicatessen, a bagel and coffee shop in Oak Cliff, co-owner Amy Wallace Cowan’s team has done “a lot of juggling” over the past year to deal with a spike in coffee imports while trying to keep costs manageable for Dallas consumers.
“Your customer doesn’t suddenly want to pay $7 for drip,” she said.
Trades used two methods to deal with tariffs: They mixed higher-priced imported coffee beans with more reasonably-priced beans, and they raised prices.
Different kinds of bagels on display Trades Delicatessen during bagel pop-up, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024 in Dallas.
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
With the news that prices could come down on coffee beans imported from Latin America, Cowan said her first priority is to go back to buying more high-quality products. The company has been roasting coffee beans in the Bishop Arts District since 2017.
“First and foremost,” she said Friday morning, when news of the Supreme Court ruling hit, “we want to get back to the farms we love.”
Four big burlap sacks of coffee were delivered to the Dallas store yesterday from Mexico, El Salvador, Bolivia and Colombia. Those were just one day too late for the “good news” on tariffs, Cowan said.