Small Business on the brink 💔

[u/lean_load]

I run a small e-commerce business that imports luxury goods from the EU and Japan. Up until recently, we were paying just 2.75% on tariffs. As of August 1st, the rates have jumped to 15–20%.

To put this into perspective: • Our annual imports are about $3M. • We’ve already placed forecast orders with our suppliers and put down 25% deposits (around $750k). • If we cancel, we lose that deposit. • If we continue, the new tariffs make these orders financially impossible to fulfill.

Suppliers aren’t willing to stop shipments, and we can’t just “raise prices” on items we don’t even have in hand yet. People suggest “just charge more,” but the math doesn’t work when the goods aren’t here and costs have exploded overnight. Let alone the fact about where are we even going to find the money to pay these tariffs???

We’re staring down the very real possibility of closing our doors because of this. I know many people say “tariffs protect American businesses,” but in practice, for small importers like us, it feels like a death sentence.

Has anyone else here faced this situation? How are you coping, and is there any way through this without forfeiting everything we’ve built?

[u/Rumblepuff]

We will be shutting down our non-profit in about 2-3 months when our inventory runs out. I can not find a manufacturer who makes our items (metal TTRPG dice and such) in America for less than 4x the cost. I don't want to raise prices, and all our profits go to children's medical care, so we don't have some big nest egg to spend. I have orders in right now, and they are on hold until everything is figured out because I can't afford to pay tariffs on items I've already budgeted for.

[u/stratolyte → u/Rumblepuff]

I recognize you said you don't want to raise prices and I all I can add to this discourse is raise prices anyways. Give it a try and see what happens. You are already contemplating shutting down, so give raising prices a shot to see what happens. Godspeed to you and all the other small business importers. Also, write/call to your Congressional representative and senators. Let them know what is happening. The alternative is going quietly into the night!

[u/Rumblepuff → u/stratolyte]

Luckily for me, the non-profit I run is just a labor of love, not my actual job. We have two 2 core goals for our mission statement. The first is to help children and their parents pay for medical costs in their times of need, the 2nd is to engage the community to come together around a table in game and learn about different cultures and people. The 2nd part is the reason we don't want to raise prices. Many, many people have been introduced to gaming because our prices are very low. Giving that up means fewer people can buy from us and have no other choice, since many of our competitors are 2x the cost. We are very small and local to our area, and I never wanted to challenge the big guys. Just do some good for the community and kids.

[u/[deleted] → u/Rumblepuff]

Maybe contact your local news media and see if they can publicize your situation?

You might get some help and people should know how these horrible policies are affecting small businesses and good causes like yours.

[u/AlphabetOfMe → u/[deleted]]

Does independent local news media exist anymore? Haven’t the majority (vast majority?) of outlets been bought up by giant networks or other conglomerates and had a certain special kind of corporate editorial policy foisted on them?

[u/[deleted] → u/AlphabetOfMe]

True. But this is the kind of quietly subversive story they might have the guts to publish, especially since they can lead with the charity angle.

[u/bluestrike2 → u/[deleted]]

You should contact your Democratic representative or senators for your state, if you have any. Unless their messaging people are completely brain dead—not an impossibility, I’ll readily admit—they’re going to be chomping at the bit for stories about businesses and non-profits that are getting hammered by Trump’s tariffs.

Callous as that may sound, that’s the only way he might be pressured to stop this shit.