The owners of Fort Worth’s Inlay Mart aren’t sure how much it will cost to restock. Economists agree prices will go up if President Trump’s tariffs take effect.
FORT WORTH, Texas — Inlay Mart’s owners are among the local grocers unsure how President Donald Trump’s proposed tariff plan will affect their bottom line.
The Fort Worth store is an Asian market, importing about 90% of the items on its shelves. The shop’s produce, including fresh vegetables, comes from the United States.
Though the items are hard to find elsewhere, owner Seng Raw Tsumhpawng said customers come for the experience.
“Our food comes from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, China, as well as from Burma,” Seng Raw Tsumhpawng said. “We interact and explain to them how to prepare the food and enjoy.”
Tsumhpawng’s family, immigrants from Burma, opened the store in 2019. They navigated the Coronavirus pandemic and made “sacrifices” to stay open, she said.
They got through tariff hikes during Trump’s first term and President Joe Biden’s tenure, though those levies were not as high or far-reaching as the taxes Trump said he intends to enact now.
Inlay Mart’s supplier would pay 24% more for Japanese somen, 25% more for Korean Kimchi, and 32% more for Taiwanese rice cakes, among other increases.
“We don’t want to rush and then stop. Or sell up, then stop,” Tsumhpawng said. “We don’t want that. We just want consistency, so we’re going to go with the flow.”
Tsumhpawng isn’t sure how much she’ll have to pay to restock the store if the tariffs are enacted, though economists predict they will increase.
“Manufacturers and consumers have to brace for the quick changes coming,” said Venkatesh Shankar, a professor at the SMU Cox School of Business. “They have to plan better for all these things, and that’s created some kind of anxiety and uncertainty.”
Tsumhpawng remains hopeful that some Asian manufacturers will open production facilities in the United States to circumvent the tariffs, though she acknowledged that certain ingredients simply do not grow in the U.S.
Stockpiling supplies ahead of the price hikes isn’t an option, either, due to expiration dates on many products.
Perhaps an economic boom would offset a cost increase, she mused.
“We are hoping that everybody is going to have extra money to enjoy the groceries,” Tsumhpawng said. “We just try to be positive.”
Inflation has already forced the store to raise prices.
“That’s how the business goes,” Tsumhpawng said. “We kind of apologize, gently.”
