How 11 Berkeley businesses are grappling with Trump’s yo-yos on tariffs

Nina Cooper, owner of Nina Designs, in her West Berkeley warehouse. Cooper is a wholesaler of Indonesian and Thai sterling silver jewelry to small businesses across the country. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight Local

Early this month, when President Trump first announced the hefty “reciprocal” tariffs the U.S. would be imposing on imported goods, “I had a sick feeling in my stomach,” said Nina Cooper, the owner and founder of Nina Designs in West Berkeley, a designer and wholesaler of sterling silver jewelry and parts that are crafted in Indonesia and Thailand. 

Cooper started the business in 1983 after selling handmade jewelry on Telegraph Avenue as a Berkeley High student. Nina Designs has since grown to a $5 million company selling to 1,600 gift shops nationwide, while its parts are bought by 1,000 designers and resellers who sell online and in small shops. 

While the reciprocal tariffs are now on a 90-day pause, all imports have been hit with a universal 10% tariff that went into effect on April 2. Cooper feels lucky to have avoided the worst but fearful for the future. The reciprocal tariffs were slated to add 32% on goods from Indonesia and 37% from Thailand, bringing some of Nina Designs’ tariffs up to 50%, Cooper said. 

“That’s a catastrophic scenario for a small business,  Cooper said. “The problem is we just don’t know how it’s going to shake out.” 

Cooper is among the many Berkeley business owners who have been affected in some way — mostly in their bottom line — by the recent Trump tariffs. They are stocking up before the pause expires in early July, freezing spending and in some cases trying not to raise prices on customers. And while the Trump administration insists that the tariffs will spark American manufacturing, Berkeley businesses often cannot find domestic substitutions for foreign items that make their products unique.

At Luca Cucina Italiana, chef-owner Luca Rocci said prices for “everything that is from Italy is up” like pasta, olive oil and parmigiano cheese, but so far he has not passed on that cost to his customers. 

A Banksy-inspired stencil is visible on the wall outside Luca Cucina Italiana on San Pablo Avenue. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight Local

Jabriel Isa, owner of Heyma Yemeni Coffee on University Avenue, placed a big coffee order right before a 10% reciprocal tariff on Yemeni goods was paused. He’s trying to absorb what will likely be the increased cost of Chinese paper cups, already subject to high tariffs.

Billy Weiss, owner of North Berkeley Imports, a wholesale distributor of French and Italian wine in the U.S. and a North Berkeley retail shop, halted all shipments out of France and Italy for 45 days in early March, when a 20% tariff was floated on European wines.

Fern Solomon of Fern’s Garden on Solano Avenue said 20% of her gift products are fair trade and those companies, she said, are “freaking out.” A handmade greeting card from Vietnam, which is facing a 46% reciprocal tariff, would go from $12.99 to around $20. She would no longer be able to sell it. 

“Nobody’s going to pay $20 for a card that somebody’s going to dispose of,” she said. 

Trickle-down effects have customers spending less

Hector Alejo, member of the family that owns Mi Ranchito Market in West Berkeley, said that customers are now only buying essentials. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight Local

The economic uncertainty that has worried businesses and investors, seen in the recent plunges in the stock market, is shared by consumers. As a result, many shop owners have reported a slowdown in sales as customers tighten their belts, buying only on the essentials.

At Mi Ranchito on San Pablo Avenue, Hector Alejo, whose family has owned the Latin American market and bakery for the past 24 years, said the store hasn’t raised prices. But he has noticed customers buying “just the necessities,” he said, like “meat for the whole week and produce.” They’re skipping extras like Jarrito sodas, chips and Bimbi packaged sweets. 

At Roopam Sarees on University Avenue, which stocks a minimum of 300 saris from India, the store has seen a 40% decline in sales based on fear alone, said Nitikin Khagri. Even though the store hasn’t raised prices, there’s a misconception that the reciprocal 27% tariff has taken effect. It, too, has been paused until early July. 

“It’s unpredictable now,” he said. “You have to struggle hard to sell something.” 

Fear has also affected Rug Masters on University Avenue, which has been selling Iranian, Afghani and Indian rugs and cleans and repairs rugs, including antiques, for the past 20 years. Phone inquiries for rug cleaning have dropped 40%.

“I’m sure they are scared,” said owner Iraj Baghestani, who was on his hands and knees resizing a rug for a customer on Monday. When customers are scared, he noted, they don’t want to spend money. 

Iraj Baghestani, owner of Rug Master on University Avenue, walks across some rugs in his store. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight Local

“I am pretty sure the prices will go up, little by little, for everybody,” he said. 

So far, he’s lucky that the inventory he has on hand was purchased two to three years ago. And the price of a new shipment that’s waiting in an Oakland warehouse, Baghestani said, predates the tariffs.

For many businesses, the uncertainty is almost as painful as the tariffs themselves. 

“How do I figure out how much to order or not order?” Cooper asked. “It could go up again and [Trump] could change his mind tomorrow and the 90-day pause would become moot. How do you plan?”

The hardest hit — imports from China

In its burgeoning trade war with China, the U.S. has slapped Chinese imports with the highest tariffs of all, a whopping 125% tariff on most goods, 145% for toys, dolls and puzzles and 245% for syringes. The latest tariff hike on China went into effect after April 9. 

“I am, admittedly, very stressed about this,” said Devin McDonald, one of the owners of Mr. Mopps’ Toy Shop in North Berkeley. “It’s been so confusing the way it’s been presented by our president.”

McDonald said the toy store is buying more stock from vendors at pre-tariff prices, but that is not going to last much longer. After that, new toys are going to cost exponentially more. The 145% tariff would turn a $19.95 toy into a $50 one, McDonald said. He doesn’t know how that will be sustainable.

Devin McDonald, an owner of Mr. Mopps’ Toy Shop, says the 145% tariff on toys, dolls and puzzles from China could soon turn a $19.95 toy into a $50 one. Courtesy: Mr. Mopps’

“We operate on pretty thin margins already, but we love what we do and we do it for the families and kids who live here,” McDonald said. “If this continues for a sustained amount of time it will be devastating — not only to us but the other toy shops and the other people they employ and all the families that can longer buy games or toys for their kids.” 

Mr. Mopps’ also has an adjoining book store, but so far books from China are not affected by the tariffs because they’re considered “informational materials.”

Anxiety about the high tariffs on Chinese goods has also rattled the owners of Great China restaurant in downtown, which has been owned by the Yu family since 1985. “Once we heard about the tariffs we were pretty anxious,” said Tai Yu, who, with his brother, James, runs the eatery. “But right now the impacts have been pretty minimal.”

That’s because only about a fifth to a quarter of the restaurant’s dry goods — seasonings and specialty soy sauces, for example — come from China. Meats and produce are purchased domestically. 

“We are bracing ourselves. It’s going to happen,” he said. “We’re going to try to hold out as long as we can and not raise prices until we can’t take it anymore.”

At Walsh Brothers, which specializes in repairing Volvos and late-model cars, owner Louise O’Connor relies on imported parts from Sweden, along with European and after-market parts that come from China, which make up at least 75% of her stock.

“I’m noticing here that they’re a few bucks more than they were the previous week,” she said, “and we’re passing it on to customers.” 

She said she’s expecting parts to go up about 50% in the coming weeks. “It’s all so new,” she said. “We’re holding our breath to see what happens.”

Nina Designs froze hiring and paused shipments from Asia

Nina Cooper shows off some of her silver sterling pieces. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight Local

When she learned of the reciprocal tariffs, Cooper immediately froze hiring at her company, which employs a dozen women, and all shipments from Asia in order to sort out the pricing. 

Cooper said she has already ended up paying $3,500 in extra tariffs, when she rushed to purchase inventory from her suppliers before the tariffs went into effect. Because of so much confusion at U.S. Customs and UPS, “We actually got charged the 32%-37% tariff on a bunch of shipments we thought were going to clear,” she said. 

Even the 10% tariffs have had a noticeable impact on her business and the prices she charges.

If Cooper wanted to source from American companies, she said the U.S. no longer hosts a viable supply chain for producing sterling silver jewelry at scale. That would require extensive investments in equipment and many years of training — if you could find a workforce willing to be trained, she said. 

In the 5,000-square-foot warehouse she purchased in 2008, Cooper pointed to a framed tree of life that represents her business as an ecosystem, with roots in Asia, which flows up through the Berkeley office and branches off to distributors, designers, and eventually customers.

“There are thousands of people involved,” she said. “I built this company in a way that everybody wins. The American artist wins. The overseas artist wins. To pull the rug out on these people — there’s a real human cost.”