At Mad Mike’s Barber Shop in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, Ismael Acuña Jaimez puts the finishing touches on a customer’s hair while a TV screen plays “Ford Vs. Ferrari” dubbed in Spanish.
Acuña Jaimez has run this shop with his parents for about 12 years in this predominantly Latino and immigrant neighborhood.
He said there was less foot traffic in front of the barbershop during the first couple of months of the year, but business has picked up recently.
Now, Acuña Jaimez is worried how the Trump administration tariffs, particularly the 145% levy on Chinese goods, will affect his business — namely the cost of clippers, blades, and other equipment, most of them made in China.
“They’re already expensive as they are,” he said. “One of my blades costs $45, and if I want to replace it now, I’m probably going to be paying $55-60. So it adds up.”
He said he has also purchased extra gloves, gel and other hair products.
Acuña Jaimez is one of many Chicago area small business owners who are scrambling to stock up and bracing themselves for the financial impact — even as news about the tariffs changes by the day.
“We don’t know how much of that was going to be trickling down to us,” he said. “We are good for six to nine months. Then after that, we’ll see.”
He added that being a small business means there’s not a lot of extra cash to spend on stocking up for the future, nor does he have the help of an accountant who can provide projections and advice.
Acuña Jaimez said he can’t just raise prices either, as the clientele in Little Village is largely immigrants and low-income families.
“We always try to keep our customers as happy as we can because we understand that we are all in this together,” he said.
Just a few miles southeast, at City Tire & Auto Repair in Fuller Park, Marc Imyak said there’s not much he can do to protect his business amid the uncertainty around the tariffs — and that stocking up on auto parts now is out of the question.
“If we see 30 cars a day, I could almost guarantee you that no two are going to have the same parts,” he said. “Even if you saw five Toyotas, there’s a good chance that they’re all going to have different parts [that need repaired].”
Imyak, who has run City Tire for more than three decades, said his shop is actually likely to get busier since he believes more consumers will choose to repair their cars instead of buying new ones.
“People say that auto repair is a recession-proof business,” Imyak said. “If there’s stuff that breaks, they have to fix it. It’s like at the beginning of the pandemic when there was a shortage of vehicles.”
Imyak added that the tariffs will still affect the way his shop operates, potentially increasing the repair times and likely the cost for customers.
“It’s hard to get all those jobs out, to turn 30 cars a day when you have bigger repair jobs,” he said. “There’s a pain point for everything.”
He added that the tariffs were “not well-thought out, but it is what it is. I’m not the president of the United States.”
For Elisa Knotts, owner of Elisa’s Cake By the #Pound, a custom cake business she runs out of her home, the tariffs are just the latest in a series of hits.
In the past several months, she has had to raise prices due to the cost of eggs, since “90% of my menu involves eggs in some capacity.”
And then, just as she started ramping up the corporate catering side of her business, the Trump administration began reining in diversity and inclusion programs at companies and universities, affecting the budgets of organizations looking to patronize businesses like Knotts’s.
“I’m going to hope that some of these large corporations still have it within their identity to have DEI and to support small, minority-owned businesses,” Knotts said.
Knotts moved to Chicago from New Orleans about three years ago and relocated her business as well.
She was starting to gain momentum in her new city — even getting Chance the Rapper as a client.
Her Instagram features elaborate custom cakes, stunning cupcakes, and — true to her New Orleans roots — colorful King Cakes.
The news of the tariffs, though, have her very worried.
On a recent morning, she rummaged through her shelf of baking and decorating supplies and found that nearly everything she uses is made in China.
“Aluminum ramekins … Juneteenth cupcake toppers … edible tropical leaves … all made in China,” she said.
Knotts fears the prices of all these items will go up with the tariffs.
She’s already looking at her past two years of sales to see what she should buy in bulk now, including cake boards and boxes.
She’s been doing breathing exercises and checking the news to keep track of all the new announcements about the tariffs.
“It keeps getting closer and closer and closer and closer to where this is affecting my livelihood,” she said.
But during her more resolute moments, she reminds herself that she survived Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago.
“I lost everything in Katrina. I’ve survived 100% of my worst days,” Knotts said.
“I’m still here. I’m alive for a purpose. It may be a little tough, but we’re going to make it through.
image source from：https://www.wbez.org/economy/2025/04/16/chicagos-small-business-owners-are-stocking-up-and-bracing-for-the-impact-of-trumps-tariffs
