Small business owners say tariffs are hurting their bottom line. On Thursday, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes listened in on their concerns in a roundtable as she awaits the U.S. Supreme Court’s hearing on tariffs against the Trump Administration.
Local brewery OHSO Breweries and Distillery is seeing the financial impacts more now than earlier this year, according to John Goodstein, the operator of their brewery.
“Most of the equipment in here is stainless, so a lot of that comes from China,” Goodstein said.
Goodstein says they’re trying to build up production at one of their locations and the costs for those materials also increased.
“We’ve seen delays or even products that aren’t even available,” he said.
The costs for plastic, aluminum and stainless steel, all used to package and sell their beer, all went up, Goodstein said. He told ABC15 that a case of 24 beers now costs around 50 cents more to make.
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“If you run a massive brewery, you can weather some of that from different supply chains, but these tariffs specifically hurt small businesses,” Goodstein said.
These are the concerns Goodstein relayed to the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild, which met with Attorney General Kris Mayes on Thursday, along with other business owners and industry leaders. It was part of a roundtable Mayes had before, listening to those affected by the tariffs.
Mayes, along with several other attorneys general from other states, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration a few months ago.
“We're just going to continue to highlight the damage the tariffs are having on our economy, on consumers, on people who are just trying to afford their everyday lives,” Mayes said.
The U.S. Supreme Court will be hearing oral arguments in the tariffs case at the beginning of November, according to Mayes. She said she and other attorneys general will also be there.
“It'll probably be a few months after that for the United States Supreme Court to make the final decision,” Mayes said.
As business owners and industry leaders hope costs stop rising, Goodstein said their brewery will continue to do what they can as they move forward.
“This is the hardest time of the year for businesses and compounding that with increasing prices. There's been some real tough conversations internally about what we can and can't afford to do,” Goodstein said.
