A Bay Area hardware store owner said President Donald Trump’s tariffs will have a big impact on his business as most items are made outside of the U.S.
Jeff Leopold’s family has owned a hardware store in San Francisco for generations. He said he’s never seen anything quite like what they are seeing now with the Trump tariffs.
“This is absolutely crazy. There’s no sense in it, and we don’t know if it’s permanent,” said Leopold.
He said about 80 percent of the products he sells in his store are made outside the U.S., most of them in China.
“Like these umbrellas. Made in China,” said Leopold.
He said the tariffs President Trump has slapped on products coming in from other countries, especially China, will have a huge impact on his business.
“This entire isle is what I call fasteners, just basic hardware screws and bolts. This is the one that we don’t, if the tariffs don’t go away, this is an area because it’s metal and aluminum, mostly metal, we’re going to get hit hard on this stuff,” said Leopold.
He said they have no choice but to pass on the price increase to consumers.
Something he knows his customers will not be happy about.
“I’m guessing it could be somewhere close to 25 percent maybe even closer to 50 percent. We just don’t know,” said Leopold.
One customer, Sandy Brychta told KPIX she’s livid with the tariffs.
Just the stock market volatility alone has already cost her tens of thousands of dollars.
“I’ve lost $80,000 in two days. $80,000 in two days. I am too old to be able to recoup that back,” said Brychta.
Leopold said he understands what President Trump is thinking in trying to get manufacturing back into the United States, but he doesn’t believe this is the way to do it.
“You cannot produce most of the product that we sell for anywhere near what we’re buying it for from China. And until the cost of labor and parts and everything is cheaper in the US, it just doesn’t make sense,” said Leopold.
For now, he said he’s not making any drastic decisions.
He’s going to wait and see how the next few weeks go and then decide how to move forward.
“Some of these tariffs could be permanent, some of it may get negotiated, you know they’re negotiating everyday. It depends what these other countries are going to do,” said Leopold.
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