ATLANTA \u2014 Nate Minor doesn\u2019t want to slash his workers\u2019 health benefits to pay for HDMI ports, but he\u2019s afraid he might have to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The owner of a device repair shop called ScreenFixing, Minor has weathered the past decade\u2019s upheavals pretty well. Despite the pandemic and the inflation roller coaster, he expanded his services from fixing phones to doctoring up laptops and gaming consoles, too. Sales have grown 10% to 15% per year, and he\u2019s made enough money to offer all four of his employees health insurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But President Donald Trump\u2019s expanding trade war<\/a> threatens those gains, Minor said, especially the 145% tariffs on goods from China<\/a>, where his supplier sources nearly all the screens, microchips and other gadget parts ScreenFixing relies on. Trump recently exempted consumer electronics<\/a> from import taxes but said the reprieve would be temporary, and his administration is already preparing fresh tariffs on chips<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt might become a situation where we have to source more parts directly from Apple,\u201d said Minor, who\u2019s also the president of the East Atlanta Business Association. \u201cCompared to aftermarket parts, they\u2019re going to cost significantly more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSome people say, \u2018Hey, you\u2019ve got to go through the hard to get to the good,\u2019 but that\u2019s not what this is,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is going to put people out of business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s\u00a0scattershot tariff rollout<\/a>\u00a0has\u00a0unmoored Wall Street<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0corporate leaders<\/a>\u00a0in recent weeks, but it\u2019s also rattling small-business owners who are struggling to plan around the chaos. Small businesses\u2019 outlooks soured in March, the National Federation of Independent Business\u00a0reported Wednesday<\/a>, and a group of five owner-operated companies\u00a0sued the administration<\/a>\u00a0last week seeking to block some levies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe implementation of new policy priorities has heightened the level of uncertainty,\u201d NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg said in a statement. \u201cSmall business owners have scaled back expectations on sales growth as they better understand how these rearrangements might impact them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The anxiety is palpable in East Atlanta Village, a tight-knit community of local storefronts in a city known for its entrepreneurialism<\/a> and anchored by headquarters for Home Depot, UPS, Delta Air Lines and other major brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The district \u2014 just a few square blocks southeast of where I-20 meets bustling Moreland Avenue \u2014 draws a diverse crowd of young people to restaurants, late-night music venues, tattoo parlors and a newly opened comic book shop. Operators in the area are proud of their indie status; some grumbled when a national cookie chain opened in their midst a few years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNot all of us have been wiped out by Amazon and Walmart, you know,\u201d said Park Pet Supply owner Victoria Park. \u201cMain Street is still here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Park and other local business owners said they\u2019re still regaining their footing from inflation and now worry the trade war will make it harder to compete for increasingly value-conscious shoppers<\/a>. Park Pet Supply sells about 6,500 items ranging from natural pet foods to grooming products and training accessories, many of which are sourced from Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne day we\u2019re having tariffs, the next day we\u2019re not having tariffs, and the next day we\u2019re having tariffs. Then, \u2018Oh no, we\u2019re going to do 25% \u2014 no, we\u2019re going to do 50%,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s very, very hard for small businesses to navigate when you\u2019re constantly changing things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the customers can\u2019t get what they want when they come here, they\u2019re going to find it somewhere else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Victoria Park, Owner of Park Pet Supply<\/p>\n\n\n\n Park said she bought $1,000 worth of backup stock from her Canadian suppliers in January, up from her usual $300 <\/strong>quarterly order, hoping to get ahead of Trump\u2019s 25% tariffs on many goods<\/a> from north of the border<\/a> that took effect in March. She said she\u2019s already seen price increases on more than 20 types of pet food, along with hikes on toys and collars, and fears having to shrink her assortment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf the customers can\u2019t get what they want when they come here,\u201d Park said, \u201cthey\u2019re going to find it somewhere else,\u201d like Chewy or PetSmart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A White House spokesperson didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nearly a third of independent businesses in Georgia have already experienced significant or moderate price increases from tariffs, according to a first-quarter survey of 700 such companies by the Atlanta-based nonprofit group Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany of these small businesses, but not all, run on small margins in terms of cash flow,\u201d said Martina Edwards, ACE\u2019s president and CEO. \u201cThey are balancing between what you pass on to the consumer or not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Atlanta boasted the second-most new business applications<\/a>, behind only Las Vegas. But the Trump administration\u2019s trade policies are making it harder to recruit companies to the area, said Jerry Parrish, chief economist at the Metro Atlanta Chamber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the end of the day, that\u2019s what Trump is trying to do \u2014 force people to import less and find options that are local.<\/p>\n\n\n\n King Shands, owner of East Atlanta Treehouse<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve heard from some of the companies we\u2019re dealing with that, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m just going to wait to see what happens,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cSome of those purchases that people would have made, some of those investments that people would have made, some of that hiring they would have done \u2014 just keeps getting postponed further and further, and that\u2019s going to drag on our growth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some business owners in East Atlanta Village aren\u2019t too distressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If imported fruits and vegetables<\/a> become drastically more expensive, \u201cthen we would have to further adjust our prices and try to find more local options,\u201d said King Shands, who runs East Atlanta Treehouse, a smoothie shop that turns into an event space at night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt the end of the day,\u201d he said, \u201cthat\u2019s what Trump is trying to do \u2014 force people to import less and find options that are local.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Down the street is Ten ATL Bar & Lounge, which offers hookahs and live jazz. Co-owner Joe Seymour said he expects to pay more for wine and spirits<\/a> after Trump slapped 20% tariffs on the European Union, a top booze exporter, before he temporarily substituted it for a 10% across-the-board rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Seymour, too, is keeping calm. He plans to tweak some of his prices but is counting on his clientele to stick around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n