We Pay The Tariffs Anecdotes, Lost Sales And Going Bankrupt

By Mish Shedlock of MishTalk

Sunday, November 30, 2025 1:00 AM EST

“We are just in business to pay off our tariff debt.”

Small Businesses Describe Tariff Impact

Small business owners from across the country today detailed the devastating impact of tariffs on their ability to stock shelves and compete during the holiday shopping season.

A coalition of over 800 small businesses, retailers shared firsthand accounts of inventory shortages, forced price increases, and financial strain during what should be their most profitable time of year. The briefing included new analysis of Census data revealing the tariff burden on popular holiday shopping categories.

Tariff Increases

Christmas decorations: Average tariff rate jumped from 0.8% to 23.3%, with American companies paying $409 million in tariffs
Toys: Average tariff rate increased from 0.0% to 22.3%, with companies paying $1.2 billion in tariffs
Playing cards, dice, and board games: Average tariff rate rose from 0.0% to 22.5%, with $73 million paid in tariffs
Musical instruments: Average tariff rate increased from 6.0% to 20.8%, with $157 million paid in tariffs
Speakers and headphones: Average tariff rate jumped from 1.6% to 15.6%, with $773 million paid in tariffs
Video game consoles: Average tariff rate rose from 0.0% to 15.2%, with $325 million paid in tariffs
Pet products: Average tariff rate increased from 5.3% to 28.5%, with $124 million paid in tariffs
Apparel: Average tariff rate rose from 15.0% to 27.3%, with $16 billion paid in tariffs
Wine and spirits: Average tariff rate increased from 0.4% to 7.6%, with $423 million paid in tariffs

Small Business Voices from Main Street

Joann Cartiglia, Owner, The Queen’s Treasures (Ticonderoga, New York): “Our sales so far in November are 50% down from last year because of availability. In the meantime, I am trying to reinvent myself so I don’t have to declare bankruptcy. This is an assault on small business and innovation. When we should be creating new products, we’re not.”

Boyd Stephenson, Owner, Game Kastle College Park (College Park, Maryland): “We’ve seen massive supply shocks in the U.S. with price increases on trading card games. Some of these products doubled in price, going from $50 a pack to over $100. It wasn’t because there was a shortage of the product—it was because there was a shortage of the product in the U.S. Prices are up about 20% across the board. Board games have seen price increases anywhere between $5 and $20. Role-playing games like D&D have gone up in price by about 20%. And accessories—things like paints, dice, and miniatures—have all also risen in price by about 20%.”

Jared Hendricks, Owner, Village Lighting Co. (West Valley City, Utah): “We’re approaching a million dollars in tariffs this year that weren’t in the budget, weren’t in the forecast, and frankly, weren’t in the cash flow, so we had to finance that. At this point, we’ve transitioned from working for profits to working for tariffs. We are just in business to pay off our tariff debt.”

Aaron Brown, Owner, Town Center Music (Suwanee, Georgia): “We lost $12,000 worth of sales during our busiest month of the year—August, which is back-to-school time. We couldn’t get $12,000 worth of instruments into our store because of the confusion in the ports over who’s paying who what. We just could not get the instruments in to be able to sell to school kids in a community that we really need. Watching all of these things be tossed around by a policy that seems capricious at best has been hard to take.”

Anne Robinson, Owner, Scottish Gourmet USA LLC (Greensboro, North Carolina): “We raised prices to offset the tariffs we paid. In the last three months, I’ve paid an extra $30,000 on top of the tariffs I would have already normally paid. We’ve also been hit by worldwide price increases on coffee, tea, chocolate, and beef because I’m in the food world. The chaos caused by the tariffs and the huge uncertainty they created have left us now with expensive debt, higher prices, and lost sales.”

This story is from We Pay the Tariffs.

We Pay the Tariffs is comprised of small businesses that believe that by banding together and raising our voices, we have a better chance of influencing policy decisions and securing a more stable future for ourselves and our employees.

Those interested in the organization, sharing your story, or joining a march on June 25 in Washington DC, may wish to to consider We Pay the Tariffs Small Business Instructions.

The Idiots Cheer

There is no “free tariff money” from foreign countries. American businesses and American consumers pay the tariffs.

Only idiots cheer higher prices and putting small businesses out of business.

I sympathize and wave a symbolic flag in support. Unfortunately, Trump is an economic illiterate who just does not give a damn about small businesses except farmers.

Trump proudly collects money from US small businesses and consumers and wants to redistribute the money to farmers who lost export business when China retaliated.

His latest vote-buying scheme is to redistribute tariff money in $2,000 rebate checks.

No jobs will return to the US over this nonsense. Tariffs are a net destroyer of jobs while driving up prices in the short term.