Concerns high among food, fashion industries in the Tri-State amid Trump's tariffs
MANHATTAN, New York (WABC) -- Fear and anxiety are being felt among within the Tri-State's food and fashion industries amid President Donald Trump's tariff announcements.
On Madison Avenue of Manhattan's Upper East Side, where luxury boutique clothing stores line the street, black cars still double park, drivers still hold doors and consumers still consume, there is uncertainty causing panic behind the scenes of the fashion industry.
Gary Wassner, the CEO of Hilldun Corporation which factors and finances fashion brands, supports bringing manufacturing back to the United States, but says it would take five to six years to revive fabric mills, train skilled workers, and source materials. He says doing it through tariffs will be too disruptive, and will cause retail prices to skyrocket.
"The fashion industry runs on a very strict calendar," Wassner said. "You show in February, you show in September. You have sold it to the retailers in February, and you're not delivering it until August. So, your prices are fixed. You can't go back now and go back to your retailer and tell them you need to charge more because of tariffs."
Over at Yama Seafood in Jersey City, New Jersey, where 100,000 pounds of fish and seafood a week supply some of the finest restaurants in the region, there is no shortage of anxiety.
"We can only control what we can control. Do we talk to our suppliers, our partners in Japan to see if they can participate or take a little bit of a hit on their margins?" said Nobu Yamanashi of Yama Seafood. "We take a little bit of a hit on our margins, but we still have to pass something off to our customers because there's no way anyone in our position can eat 24%. We don't even make 24%."
"What I've seen... what one of my customers say is that they might put a surcharge, a tariff surcharge, instead of changing the menu price, so that it's very clear," Yamanashi said. "Hey, the price is still the same but we're just taxing on the surcharge because that's easier to take off than to change the whole menu prices."
At restaurants full of carefree diners, like at the Vietnamese spot Saigon Social in the East Village, uneasiness may not be on the menu, but there is plenty of it in the kitchen.
"Internally, there's rollercoasters and tornados happening," said Helen Nguyen, Saigon Social's owner and chef.
Nguyen is stockpiling about a month's worth of ingredients as 90% of the restaurant's spices are sourced from Vietnam.
Nguyen is now rethinking the menu, and some suppliers are telling her in a few weeks, they may stop sending some ingredients altogether.
From industry to industry, even more than the tariffs, it's the unknown that is consuming them.
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