The New York Times reports a coffee brewer in Maine has lost its fight against President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“Our bean prices will be increasing within the next week,” posted Rock City Coffee chief executive Jessie Northgraves on Facebook.
Northgraves said her company had tried to keep prices stable, but they are now forced to raise prices on new, more expensive inventory coming in from offshore, courtesy of Trump’s additional tax on many imports. Trump vowed in July to impose a 50 percent tariff against Brazil, which directly goes to U.S. coffers, despite coffee brewers already having to pay more for beans due to droughts in Vietnam and Brazil.
Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently announced his giddiness at Trump’s tariffs generating $100 billion in new revenue, but it is U.S. businesses like Rock City Coffee that are paying that revenue. The Times reports small businesses in high competition markets, including coffee suppliers, have less cushion and are loathe to raise prices and discourage customers.
“I thought maybe it would be temporary,” said Northgraves. “We were kind of trying to ride it out the past few months, not change our prices and just kind of absorb it as much as we could.”
She told the Timers she had tried to ignore the president’s on-again/off-again tariff threats, but her profit margins kept slipping with the cost of beans doubling. Trump’s tariffs even hit the price of the company’s Chinese-sourced coffee bean packaging.
“We have been seriously hit by the tariffs in coffee-exporting countries, and must raise the prices of our beans,” she wrote in an accompanying Facebook post. “Please know that we wouldn’t do this if it wasn’t totally necessary.”
While compiling a script to explain the higher prices to customers, Northgraves took care to include the reason behind the hikes. She says linking them honestly to tariffs rather than “quietly” raising prices gives her customers a much deserved explanation.
“It just felt better to be upfront about it,” she told the Times.
Trials & Tribulations of King Donald
This revolution will be televised.
