Ask Purchase Street retailers about U.S. tariff policy and you are bound to get an earful.
Rye merchants say they have needed to raise prices and they are reconsidering their strategies because of the increased costs and confusion caused by tariffs.
“There’s no easy place for small businesses to go to get information on the tariffs so I’m Googling about this every day,” said Samantha Benson, owner of Sammy & Nat, an 11-year-old baby and children’s clothing boutique at 88 Purchase St.
Big tariff swings have made this holiday season a lot less merry for many. Benson was recently hit with a $20,000 customs fee on a $40,000 order of goods from India. In response, she has cut some of her staff’s hours, foregone planned marketing projects, and been more cautious in buying non-clothing items like toys.
Great Stuff manager Hayden Maitre said there was “no way out” of raising prices for the luxury women’s clothing and accessory items sold at the store’s 54 Purchase St. location. As an example, she pointed to an Avant Toi Italian sweater priced at $825 that sold for about $700 a year ago.
The store is still having a very good year, Maitre said, but shoppers “are being a more selective.”
Complaints about tariffs fell into two categories among eight retailers interviewed:
Tariffs have increased costs, especially on goods from countries hit with heavy duties like India. Retailers have passed along some cost increases and lowered their profit margins to absorb others.
And tariff policy has not been consistent. Some tariffs have gone up dramatically and others, especially those aimed at China, have gyrated, making it difficult to be strategic about buying and pricing goods. Once as high as 145 percent, tariffs on Chinese goods now are at least temporarily at 10 percent for most goods.
Some store owners are trying to buy goods from lower-tariff countries or changing the mix of products they sell.
Palmer & Purchase at 43 Purchase St. imports about half of the women’s clothing and accessories it sells from foreign producers who make them under the Palmer & Purchase label, said owner Abbie Durkin.
To cushion the impact of tariffs, Durkin said, she has worked with manufacturers to create attractive products made of high-quality, but less-expensive materials. As an example, Durkin described how she had added a $148 triangle wrap made of a cashmere blend while de-emphasizing a pure cashmere travel wrap that had cost $198.
Village Mercantile at 36 Purchase St. has stopped ordering what had been one of the store’s most popular items: an Indian robe that retailed for $68, according to owner Vonnie Sullivan. A 50 percent tariff on Indian clothing imports would have forced Sullivan to tag the item at more than $100, a price she did not think would sell.
Tariffs on Chinese jewelry, plus a rise in the price of gold, moved Royal Jewels of Rye owner Nanete Givelekian to raise the price on a pair of gold earrings for girls who had recently had their ears pierced from $99 to $149. It’s now more common, Givelekian said, for customers to buy one set of those earrings instead of the two they often bought before the price hike.
Unlike many other retailers, Givelekian said, her business was fortunate because only a small portion of its merchandise is imported. Most of her store’s work involves repairs and custom creations.
Customization, absorbing some cost increases, and high levels of service — such as providing fashion styling and gift wrapping — have provided Purchase Street retailers with some inoculation from harsh shopper reactions to increased prices. But it has them pondering what strategies to follow.
In August, the U.S. tariffs on South African goods rose to 30 percent, the highest rate for any country in sub-Saharan Africa. That hurt Sarza at 84 Purchase Street, which has sold contemporary South African furnishings for 10 years.
“We’ve had to increase our prices to stay in business,” said owner Sarah Briginshaw.
The tariff gyrations may have made things more challenging for Briginshaw, but it seems to have solidified her determination to make one change: she’s shifting Sarza’s primary focus to serving interior designers rather than more price-sensitive retail customers.
