KSHB 41 reporter Grant Stephens covers downtown Kansas City, Missouri. He also focuses on stories of consumer interest. Share your story idea with Grant.
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Small business owners in Kansas City say tariff uncertainty has already cost them, regardless of Supreme Court rulings eliminating some tariffs.
Two local entrepreneurs say the back-and-forth over tariffs has disrupted planning, threatened margins and, at one point, nearly forced one of them to shut down entirely.
A Kansas City coffee roasting and brewing company and a Parkville specialty laundry hamper business are among the small businesses feeling the effects of ongoing tariff uncertainty. Both owners say the recent court ruling is only part of the story.
David Bulcock, general manager and co-owner of Rochester Brewing and Roasting in Kansas City, said his business was hit on two fronts. First, by tariffs on coffee beans, and second, by tariffs on metals used in beer canning.
"I never expected to be an expert in international trade, but I've had to be," Bulcock said.
He said the challenge has been absorbing cost increases without passing them on to customers.
"It's been trying to absorb cost increases without letting it hit our end user," Bulcock said. “Originally, it was huge on our coffee bean imports, because that was not an exemption. Now, later, about six months into the tariff, into the emergency use of tariffs, they realized that there were some things that can't be made in the States, and coffee can't be grown in the States, except for in Hawaii, in a very limited amount. And so they made coffee beans exempt, which was great for us, but that was still about six months worth of pain.”
Bulcock said the bigger concern is what comes next.
"What it's going to do in the future is create again," he said. "This has been the thing I've been talking about ... disruption and uncertainty."
Zach Cleary, co-founder of The Active Hamper in Parkville, sells specialized odor-fighting laundry hampers designed for people with active lifestyles.
"A laundry hamper for active individuals. It's to contain the clothes so they're not [damp] hanging over a door or hanging over a laundry hamper after a workout," Cleary said. "There's buckets at the base of it that dry the clothes, and there's a fragrance granule that removes the odor."
Cleary said he spent six months trying to manufacture the product entirely in the United States before concluding it wasn't possible.
"I think every American business owner probably tries, or should try, to have it made in America, for a lot of reasons, but an acceptance when it simply can't be made here. It's a tough one," Cleary said. "It was a gut punch after like six months of trying to get the active hamper made here without any foreign dependence."
With manufacturing requiring some foreign sourcing for the nylon-spandex insert used, Cleary said the shifting tariff landscape made it nearly impossible to plan, and at one point, threatened the business entirely.
"The changes over the past 12 months of what the tariff would be made it really difficult to plan," Cleary said. "There was a period in time where we thought we would have to shut the business down because [of] what the tariff would do to our costs and margins... Increasing your order quantity. That's one solution, because then your per unit goes down. But you know, small business has to have the capital to afford that."
When asked what they need going forward, both owners pointed to consistency as the priority.
"Every country has tariffs," Cleary said. "My main point ... is just consistency. Every business owner who has to source internationally just wants consistency."
Bulcock said the recent court ruling is a step forward, but more action is needed.
"I would say this is a step in the right direction. But we still need to hold Congress accountable. The administration has made it incredibly clear they want to levy tariffs..." Bulcock said. "A group I've worked with, we went and lobbied Congress last March... I met with multiple local reps and their aides, and every single one of them were so comfortable giving their power, their constitutional authority, to the executive branch...
"Each one of the congressional aides I met with said, 'We know this is likely going to get overturned, and we're just going to let that play out.' Instead of doing their congressional and constitutional duty, and doing something about it then. So they let us go through eight to nine months of pain unnecessarily, knowing that it was likely to get overturned. We can't let Congress get away with that."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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