AJC: “New tariff policies have rattled local small businesses and driven up costs.”
As the holiday season begins, Georgia small business owners are sounding the alarm over the major impacts they and their customers are facing thanks to the tariffs backed by GOP U.S. Senate candidates Buddy Carter, Mike Collins, and Derek Dooley, according to the AJC.
Carter, Collins, and Dooley have all come out in support of the Trump tariffs that are hiking prices, keeping small business owners and consumers in constant uncertainty, and making the holiday season more unaffordable and out of reach for hard working Georgians.
AJC: Metro Atlanta retailers hopeful for strong holiday season after chaotic year
By Amy Wenk | November 28, 2025
KEY EXCERPTS:
- […] some independent retailers in metro Atlanta are entering this holiday season feeling battered by what they call a chaotic year.
- In interviews with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, local retailers shared that new tariff policies have driven up prices on their inventory.
- Some, but not all, are worried consumers may be cautious as they face rising costs on necessities such as groceries.
- Here’s what four local retailers are anticipating as the holiday shopping season kicks off.
- “It’s been so chaotic and up-and-down,” [Mary] Moore said.
- When President Donald Trump announced new tariffs in April, Moore said she started buying inventory “like crazy” to get ahead of rising costs.
- Consumers are talking about tariffs and cost-of-living increases, she added.
- [George] Lawes said the retailer has seen solid sales this year, but tariffs have dampened growth. Consumers face an overall average effective tariff rate of 16.8%, the highest since 1935, according to The Budget Lab at Yale.
- “We’d be up more than we are if tariffs hadn’t kicked in,” Lawes said. “We don’t know from month to month what they’re going to be. That uncertainty is really difficult for small business owners.”
- “We have no other choice, and although we have fought hard to keep our prices as competitive as possible, they’re inching up,” Lawes said.
- General Manager Emily Costley said it’s confusing for the customer, who may not understand why items cost more. “I’ve kind of gotten less shy about saying it’s our costs, our costs due to tariffs,” she said.
- “This is a challenging environment for small businesses to navigate” the increased costs, Lawes said.
- “It’s never felt like this, just with all the uncertainty, all the chaos,” Brown said Wednesday. And he doesn’t have a clue how the holiday shopping season will pan out.
- “Core inflation, directly caused by the tariffs, has really eaten into our sales,” Brown said […]
- “That reflects a lot of the uncertainty that the consumers have,” Brown said. “I know as a consumer myself, I don’t know what my bag of coffee is going to cost every week.”
- “Prices of everything have gone up,” [Sara Beth Brown] said. “We’ve had to absorb it at the end of the day.”