Local restaurant concerned how Trumps Tariff’s will affect business
REHOBOTH BEACH, De. – President Trump announced 90- day pause on reciprocal tariffs against most of our trade partners Wednesday, and though some see this as a good thing, business owners are still concerned on what this will mean for them.
Tariff War
The war on Tariffs is here. Shortly after President Trump announced his pause, China unveiled retaliatory tariffs of 84% on imports of US goods, creating a stand-off between the world’s biggest economies. One local restaurant and its patrons say it’s only a matter of time before the tax hits Delmarva and affect their pockets.
Reciprocal Resolutions
Eggs, coffee, beer, and avocados are all goods that come from countries affected by Trump’s Reciprocal Tariffs. President Trump said in part, “In a few moments I will sign an historic executive order instituting reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world. Reciprocal- that means they do it to us and we do it to them.”
Concerned Citizens
Sunny bay Cafe Restaurant Owner Laurie Orfanidis says, they’ve been trying to stay reasonable with pricing since the egg inflation earlier in the year, but now the tariff prices have her extremely concerned.
“As a breakfast place we use so many eggs, and it really impacted our business to begin with. Now with everything else going up- our Avocado toast is one of our best sellers and with Mexico, they produce the best avocados, so we like to use those, and we only use premium products.”
Canola oil which comes from Canada as well as soybean oil from China are in a lot of her products, and that not the only hit she’ll take. “We use cases and cases of coffee a week and that obviously is going to impact us as well… Obviously, it’s going to really affect a lot of small businesses to the point where they can’t even stay open.”
Boardwalk Beef
May 15th visitors on Rehoboth’s boardwalk will have to pay $4 an hour to park. Orfanidis says that plus the rising prices will discourage business. Long-time patrons Eugene Kidwell and Paulette Godin say they want to support as much as possible, but realistically, there’s only so much they can afford.
Paulette is a coffee lover and says there’s only so much she’ll pay for a cup. “I’ll go as high as $4.50; I’ll stretch it for $5 if I’m having withdrawals like ‘I got to have coffee’, but yeah, it’s affecting.”
Patron Pause
Eugene says he usually pays around $25 to $30 for a meal for 2 and is concerned about the way things are going. “I’d say over $42 that’s starting to get steep for pensioners. [Reporter: and how often do you go out to eat?] It depends on who’s buying. ”
President Trump, however, says this is the way to go. “67% so we’re going to be charging a discounted reciprocal tariff of 34% I think- in other words, they charge us we charge them less so how can anybody be upset? They will be, because we never charge anybody anything.”
Sunny Bay Cafe says they haven’t made any immediate changes yet, and they plan to wait it out to see just how much the tariff war will affect them. In the meantime, they hope you continue to support all your local restaurants.
The trade war has widened after the European Union announced it would begin collecting retaliatory duties on US imports starting next week.
