ATLANTA — It’s too soon to know exactly how the tariffs announced by President Donald Trump on Wednesday will impact everyday items like groceries.
However, local business owners told Channel 2′s Tom Regan that there will be some type of ripple effect.
At the West View Corner Grocery, one of the owners said the tariffs are going to hit him, and his customers, pretty hard.
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The shop is a neighborhood grocery that carries lots of imported foods, wines and other items.
Owner Matt Garbett told Regan that many of the items in his store have already started to see price increases, while others will soon.
“It’s confusing,” Garbett said. “Will our price go up? Yes.”
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Garbett told Channel 2 Action News that it was just like with the automotive industry, the grocery business is globally integrated with many parts coming from many places used to produce and package food products.
“Is the aluminum for the beer we sell going to go up?” Garbett asked. “Beer, wine, maple syrup, produce, everything, just about everything is going to be impacted.”
He said it’s unclear how much distributors will absorb from tariff-caused price hikes, but if he could make a guess on the average increase, it would be in the double digits.
“I would expect across the board, 10%, easily,” Garbett said.
As much as Garbett said he’d like to eat some of those price hikes, as a small grocer, he said it would make him risk going out of business from the costs.
“We have to pass this on to our customers, that’s it, there’s now way getting around,” Garbett said.
However, the store has a lot of loyal customers, who he says will support him, even if it means paying a little more for their groceries.
“I think that means that we won’t buy what we would like and just focus on the essentials,” he said.
Channel 2 Action News reached out to the Georgia Food Industry Association for comment about how the tariffs will impact food prices.
They said they are still assessing the situation.
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