Trump's tariffs were 'last straw' for this business owner's now-shuttered store

WASHINGTON – For 44 years, Jennifer Bergman's family toy store was a community institution, a place where generations of families marked birthdays and holidays. But in July 2025, the brightly colored aisles went dark for good. The business, a mainstay of its local main street, became another casualty of a difficult retail environment.

According to Bergman, the final, insurmountable pressure came not from online giants or big-box competitors, but from a federal policy enacted years earlier: the Section 301 tariffs imposed on Chinese goods by the Trump administration.

"It was the last straw," Bergman told NPR's Michel Martin in a recent interview, her voice reflecting the exhaustion of a multi-year battle. "You absorb one hit, then another. The tariffs were a body blow we just couldn't recover from."

The story of Bergman's shuttered store is a potent case study in how sweeping national trade policies can ripple through the economy, landing with decisive force on the smallest of businesses.

The Margin Squeeze

For a small, independent retailer like Bergman's, the business model relies on navigating thin profit margins. The tariffs fundamentally upended that delicate balance. The majority of toys and games sold in the United States are manufactured in China, placing Bergman's business directly in the crosshairs of the trade dispute.

The tariffs, which ranged from 10% to 25% on various goods, represented a direct tax on her inventory. This left her with a brutal choice: absorb the costs and erase her profits, or pass the price hikes on to customers and risk losing them to larger competitors.

• The Cost of Goods: A 25% tariff on a toy that costs Bergman $10 to import from a supplier means her cost immediately rises to $12.50. Across thousands of items, this increase becomes a catastrophic financial burden.
• Competitive Disadvantage: Large retailers like Walmart and Target have immense purchasing power and diversified supply chains. They can negotiate better terms with suppliers, absorb a portion of the tariff costs, or shift production to other countries more readily than a small family store.
• Consumer Sensitivity: In an era of price transparency, customers are highly sensitive to price increases. Raising the price of a popular board game by 20% could drive a loyal customer to an online competitor with a single click. Bergman found herself priced out of her own market.

"We tried to hold the line on prices for as long as we could," Bergman explained. "But you can't sell products at a loss and expect to keep the lights on. Every shipment that came in was more expensive than the last."

A Broader Economic Context

While Bergman identifies the tariffs as the breaking point, her store's closure comes amid a "polycrisis" for small brick-and-mortar retailers. The tariffs did not act in a vacuum; they compounded a series of pre-existing and emerging challenges that have reshaped the American retail landscape over the past decade.

The Headwinds Facing Main Street

Bergman's struggle is emblematic of the pressures facing countless independent business owners. Economists note that these businesses often lack the financial cushion and operational scale to weather multiple, simultaneous economic shocks.

• E-commerce Dominance: The relentless growth of Amazon and other online marketplaces has permanently altered consumer behavior, siphoning sales from physical stores.
• Big-Box Competition: The scale of national chains allows them to operate on razor-thin margins and offer discounts that independent stores cannot match.
• Post-Pandemic Shifts: The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the move to online shopping. Subsequent inflation, supply chain disruptions, and a tight labor market created a difficult operating environment long after lockdowns ended.
• The Tariff Factor: For businesses heavily reliant on imports, particularly from China, the tariffs acted as an accelerant on these other fires. A 2022 report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimated that the tariffs had cost American consumers and businesses billions of dollars, with small enterprises being disproportionately affected.

The Policy and its Aftermath

The Section 301 tariffs were a cornerstone of President Trump's trade agenda, intended to punish China for what the administration cited as unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft. The goal was to encourage a "reshoring" of manufacturing to the U.S. and rebalance global trade.

Proponents of the policy argued that the long-term strategic benefits of confronting China outweighed the short-term economic pain. They pointed to some companies moving supply chains out of China to countries like Vietnam, Mexico, and India as evidence of a successful realignment.

However, for thousands of small business owners like Bergman, who lacked the capital or logistical capacity to reorient their entire supply chain, the policy was felt not as a strategic geopolitical maneuver, but as a direct and painful tax on their livelihood. The toy industry, with its deep and decades-long manufacturing roots in China, was particularly vulnerable.

What Comes Next

The closure of a 44-year-old business is more than a statistic; it represents the loss of a community anchor, local jobs, and a family's legacy. Bergman's story serves as a stark reminder of the real-world consequences of trade policy.

• The Ongoing Debate: The future of the tariffs remains a subject of intense debate in Washington. While some have been paused or modified, the core structure remains largely in place, and the prospect of their expansion or renewal continues to create uncertainty for importers.
• Supply Chain Diversification: Businesses that survived are actively seeking to diversify their sourcing away from China. However, this is a slow, expensive process that is not feasible for every small company.
• A Cautionary Tale: For policymakers, the fate of Bergman's store is a lesson in the granular impact of macro-economic decisions. It highlights the critical need to consider the vulnerability of small and medium-sized enterprises when crafting broad national and international policies.

As the dust settles on her former storefront, Jennifer Bergman is left to navigate the personal and financial fallout. Her experience has become a defining example of how a business that survived decades of economic cycles and shifting consumer tastes could ultimately be felled by a decision made thousands of miles away.