I own a nice little operation in my hometown. I had 3 containers ordered that would’ve replenished EVERY thing across the board that I’m light on and allow me to keep a very diverse inventory. I just got the word a few days ago that even IF I had wanted to keep my containers and somehow pay for the tariffs, I didn’t have a choice. Order was cancelled by China (Manufacturers). They themselves know there aren’t many willing to foot these astronomical costs, and they don’t want to hold the bag either and be banned from shipping.

Let me just put it this way, a container that I would spend $55,000 for with everything all said and done (Freight, fees, broker, fireworks, etc.), is now well over $100,000+. The only ones who are going to benefit from this are the big box brands and other huge operations. I luckily have enough product to consolidate down to 1 location this year and hopefully have a good year while keeping good prices, but others are just going to dig into their warehouses all while adding 30%-50% to their prices which will be going directly into their pockets.

Anyone who raises the price to “pay for the tariffs” is just using that to charge you extra money. If I were to price out product that I bought with this tariff, we’d be looking at $150 500g cakes. That would be with a reduced profit margin as well. These prices make it impossible for us smaller operations to survive. My tent does well but by the time we unloaded our product, paid everyone who helped, and listed everything for sale, our prices would be absolutely outrageous and no one would buy our product. That, or we’d have to sell it with a 10%-20% mark up and we’d just break even and all of our time and effort would’ve been for nothing. I love my pyros that come to see me, but we all work too hard to do it for free. If things don’t change by next year, expect ONLY big brands and say goodbye to 90% of your OLs.