Planning for uncertain times

The gift and souvenir industry is responding to the tariffs impacting their businesses.

The ever-changing global trade landscape that has come about as a result of President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements has had a major impact on the gift and souvenir industry. Many wholesalers rely heavily on imports to fill the sourcing demands of destination retailers, and this winter and spring, the industry was feeling the effects.

Even the threat of tariffs during the winter trade shows prompted action from retailers. Howard Aspinwall, owner of Mellow Monkey, located in the coastal town of Stratford, Connecticut, took the potential for tariffs into consideration while attending Atlanta Market in January to buy for his store for the year ahead and even posted reels about it on his social media pages which got him noticed by national media outlets.

“I just wanted to get the word out because small businesses are disproportionately affected by this,” says Aspinwall. “We don’t have the capital and the flexibility of bigger businesses.”

Aspinwall estimates approximately 80% of the merchandise he carries is made overseas. He does the majority of his buying for the year in January and February and placed orders at Atlanta Market with the understanding that if there were going to be surcharges then the order may be cancelled.

“I think that for the most part, I’ve been able to get my vendors to commit to the pricing for everything I placed at market, including some orders that I could place now with advanced ship and preserve that pricing through the end of the year,” he says. “We looked at our inventory and we planned it out with four different ship dates in 2025 in addition to what we already scheduled in Atlanta so that we have the inventory if we need it at the price that was pre-tariff.”

At New England Made, which took place in Portland, Maine, in March, Stefa Normantas, show producer, noted that macroeconomic concerns — especially around tariffs and rising raw material costs — were on attendees’ minds. Jewelers, in particular, expressed challenges with surging metal prices.

“There was a lot of concern, there was a lot of talk,” she said. “The jewelers were really struggling with the price of metals hitting that all-time high. I think the day of the show, gold hit its highest ever.”

While many exhibitors manufacture in New England, she noted that raw materials are still often sourced elsewhere. “Even though everything’s manufactured in New England, you still have raw materials that you depend on others for,” she said.

Despite the uncertainty, some buyers placed larger orders, possibly in anticipation of tariff impacts.

Tariffs were a major topic of conversation at The Reunion, in Las Vegas, particularly among its advisory board of retailer members. While some tariffs that were announced globally by Trump were rolled back, the tariff rate on goods imported from China was raised to 145% in the midst of the show.

According to Shoda, buyers were taking a proactive and collaborative approach with vendors to navigate the situation. Some vendors had signs in their booth either denouncing the tariffs or pointing out that their businesses were not affected by them.

“Now is the most important time to meet face-to-face,” Shoda said. “We need to figure out how to navigate this together.”

He added that availability and timing of product were currently even more critical to buyers.

Some vendors at the show had already taken some proactive steps to work with suppliers to help reduce the impact to their customers.

Jay Sada, founder and CEO of Ocean World Imports, said during The Reunion, that the factories he works with in China to supply his business with its variety of glass, ceramic and polyresin gifts and souvenirs have been willing to work with him on price.

“I told them we had to work out different prices or I would have to source from somewhere else because it is not going to work with the tariff, and so now I have better negotiating power,” he said.

As of mid-April, Sada said he wasn’t planning on raising his prices but if the tariffs continue, he may consider it temporarily. Sada predicts while the second or third quarters might be a bit shaky that in the long run, there could be a positive outcome.

“The U.S. has the biggest purchasing power. We do the most purchasing in China. They cannot find another buyer like us. They will have to give in at some point. We keep giving them business but they’re not buying anything from us. The next three or four months are going to be interesting. I’m not saying it is going to be a smooth ride but it will balance out and it will benefit us more.”

One of the categories Aspinwall is particularly concerned with for the retail industry is holiday merchandise, which he notes is usually exempt from tariffs, but not this time around.

“If retail stores have to somehow absorb that cost, you’re going to see some pretty high prices on holiday merchandise this year,” he says.

Aspinwall started out as an online seller 13 years ago and opened up a small brick and mortar retail store in a warehouse 10 years ago that he said has blown up over the years, “eclipsing our online business.”

He doesn’t think that tariffs alone would be something that would cause a store to go out of business, but if a store owner was already thinking of retirement and was having trouble keeping up with social media, the addition of tariffs could be something that could be that final push toward closure.

Toys are another area of concern. “The Toy Association is aggressively advocating for a tariff exemption for toys and your input helps us make the strongest case possible,” said Kathrin Belliveau, chief policy officer at The Toy Association, in a press release to its members on April 14. “With tariffs of this magnitude on the table, it is more important than ever for us to understand how your business will be affected.”

One vendor at The Reunion has opted to move his manufacturing out of China and relocate a portion of it in the U.S. Steve Oldroyd, owner of the reusable bag company Belvedere, has introduced 100% made in Made in America bags. The company had been manufacturing its bags in China since 2002 until this year when he says the tariffs became prohibitive.

“We’ve taken our most popular sizes and we offer them from a factory that uses exclusively all American made products and prints it in the Chicago area, so not only do you get American made, for our East Coast customers, there’s significant freight savings and turnaround time is about 30 days.”

In addition the company has a new factory partner in the European Union that is a 10% tariff country, which Oldroyd says allows his company to get back to pretariff pricing on its overseas product and the time on that is approximately 70 days.

For Mystic Knotwork, a family business dating back to 1957, tariffs aren’t a threat — they’re an unlikely competitive edge. Matt Beaudoin, who revived and now runs the Connecticut-based rope goods business, said that nearly all of the company’s raw materials are American-sourced, and the company produces everything in-house.

“Tariffs actually will help my business ever so slightly,” he said, noting that overseas competitors often benefit from lower labor costs and fewer regulatory restrictions. “I’m paying my people $18 to $20 an hour.”

Though Mystic Knotwork produces about 16,000 handmade bracelets annually, Beaudoin acknowledges the business is boutique compared to mass-scale overseas operations. His team of 14, most of whom tie product themselves, crafts everything from sailor bracelets to rope doorstops. “Every person who works for me except my admin ties — it’s in their job description.”

Mystic Knotwork’s two retail stores — located just 600 feet apart in Mystic — are focused almost exclusively on products made by the company, with a few contributions from employees’ own side businesses. Beaudoin doesn’t try to scale rapidly. Training someone to tie at the quality and speed required takes about a year.

To Beaudoin, the takeaway for retailers navigating tariffs and uncertainty is clear: American-made alternatives are out there, often with compelling stories and strong regional identities. “There are local, domestic solutions,” he said. “You just have to know where to look.”