Like probably every human in the United States, I am SO TIRED of hearing about tariffs. But as a business owner who buys supplies from other businesses, I need to keep an eye on what my suppliers are doing and adjust as they adjust.
What do I buy?
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Clay. Slip. Glazes. Brushes. Bisque for repeatable things that I want to all look the same and have the same dimensions, and/or want to use as a canvas to play with glazes. Kiln supplies such as stilts and kiln wash and electrical repairs. Sprig molds, forms, texture mats, textured rollers, slipcasting molds, stamps, storage for same. Laser printer paper for decals. Electricity for firing the kiln.
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Shipping supplies such as packing paper and peanuts, bubble wrap, tissue paper, boxes, envelopes/mailers, shopping bags for craft shows.
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Soap base, lotion base, lip balm base, fragrance oils, essential oils, flavor oils, lip balm tubes and tops, lotion jars, shrink wrap, label paper.
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Undyed yarn bases, dyes, label paper, citric acid.
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Wood for laser engraving/burning, blank cutting boards, blank coasters, blank pencils, blank trivets, patterns and licensable art for products, font sets.
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Large office and studio items such as printers, slab rollers, shrink wrap machines, laser cutter, electric skeinwinder.
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Repeatable purchases like printing paper, address labels, pens, planners/notebooks, tape, packing tape.
So something I've been doing over the last ... I don't know, it feels like years but I'm sure it's only been months... is watch newsletters from all the places I buy things from to see what they're doing, because I don't want to panic and make some decisions that I might regret doing or even find unnecessary, later.
Most everything I use, I try to get from small businesses that at least started out as family-run, even if they've grown beyond that. I've been seeing a lot from those smaller places - especially those that carry packing supplies - that they're highlighting that most, if not all of their products are made in America. The clay I use is actually made here Florida, and both of the glazes I use the most of are made in America (one in Ohio and one in... Iowa? Idaho?). It's harder to find out where things like brushes are made, but those are things that I can't work without, so ... meh.
However.
I know that the two laser cutters I have were made in China, and the company here in the US that sells them just discontinued one of the ones that I have. In fact, I deliberately bought the second one in December because I knew it was made in China and I didn't know when tariffs were going to start (and they were having a massive Christmas sale). And who knows where printers, laptops, and cell phones are made. I'm guessing not here. Glad my old printer shit the bed last year and I had to buy a new one.
I buy yarn from two distributors. One is in Canada (but they sent an email out months ago saying they were going to try to raise prices as little as possible) and one is in South Carolina but they get most (if not all) of their yarn imported from the UK. I'm pretty sure the dyes I use are made in the US, since I buy them from an absolutely hippy-dippy company out in California. But the yarn might eventually be a problem.
The soap is the biggest hurdle. It was already getting hard to get supplies because of the pandemic... and now....? Soap ingredients are pricier every time I buy them. Every time I buy fragrances they're 25-50 cents more than the last time I buy them. And the place that I get the majority of my fragrances from - and also my lip balm ingredients and packaging, and lotion and packaging, and shrink wrap for my soap - recently sent an email that they're going out of business as soon as they sell everything they currently have. So. That's fun.
I don't really want to raise prices. I really don't. But I might have to on some things... but I won't know by how much until my suppliers start raising their prices as current warehouse stock sells and they have to buy more. And right now everyone is sort of in this holding pattern since What's-his-face changes his mind so often... they might decide that they have to make changes in what they stock, or reduce stock. I just got an ominous email from one of them saying that they're "reducing operating costs" in order to offset the price they're having to pay for tariffs so that they don't have to pass increases on to us, and you just know "reducing operating costs" means letting staff go.
Good thing I'm the only one here, I can't fire myself!
That's really all I have to say in this post... good thing, because it got pretty long. Thank you, if you're still reading! And if you're not still reading, here's the TL;DR -- I don't want to take any action until the majority of my suppliers/distributors make their decisions, so for right now there aren't going to be too many changes. And I'll keep y'all posted when I am about to make any.
Thanks, y'all!