CENTER LINE, Mich. (WXYZ) — As we transition from fall to the holidays, finding decorations may be a little tougher this year.
Tariffs and supply chain issues are hitting businesses right before the most wonderful time of the year, including at one family-owned craft store that's been part of the Center Line community for decades.
"I’ve been doing this for over 30 years and we’ve never had to deal with anything like this," Vince Paine, the owner of Dealer's Discount Crafts and Florals in Center Line, said.
Dealer's offers just about every Christmas decoration you can imagine, from pink and gold trees to nutcrackers.
"All the ornaments you could ever want, baskets for gift baskets, we sell florals, ribbons," Paine said.
It's a beloved discount supplier in the community, and Paine said this year has been especially difficult, with tariffs to blame.
"We usually have a lot more variety. Since the factories shut down in the spring due to all the tariffs, didn’t know what was going other than happen so they stopped producing the stuff and then when there was a 90-day window, everybody tried to rush and get everything shipped and that caused the freight prices to almost double, the ocean freight, so, that was even a bigger hit than the actual tariff cost," Paine said.
Oakland University supply chain expert, Dr. Henry Aigbedo, said global tariffs are pushing prices up, with businesses eating most of those extra costs right now.
"When you have tariffs on goods, what’s going to happen is that the prices of those items is going to go up," Aigbedo said.
The tariffs are also tightening up the supply.
"Companies now have to make decisions as whether to continue to purchase the product or whether they will now need to look for new sources to get the items if they are too expensive.
He says the impact's slowly trickling down to consumers.
"When we talk about these Christmas decorations, a lot of them do come from China, so can we expect them to cost more this year?” I asked Aigbedo.
"The answer is yes, but like I said before, mainly because of the expectation that the tariffs are going to make things more expensive, many of these companies brought in a lot of goods, so they’re going to be able to sell from what they have. But even then, you do not have enough to meet the regular demand," he said.
Depending on what you're buying, Aigbedo says you could see Christmas decorations priced up to 15% higher this year.
Consumers I spoke with say they haven't seen or heard anything yet, but neither higher prices, nor lower supply, would impact their shopping habits when it comes to buying decorations.
“It's not going to matter. I’m still going to buy the stuff I need to buy," one person told us.
"I have some stuff at home that I purchased last year that I already had, but if I need new lights, because you know, lights go out all the time, I’ll definitely go out and get lights," another consumer told us.
Aigbedo said consumers should buy early and don't stress too much.
Paine said he's doing his best to shield customers from those rising costs.
"For this year, we’re going to keep them the same. We ended up eating the cost on those with the extra charges for this year, trying to help our customers out," Paine said. “Next year at this time, if things aren’t better, we are going to have to pass along some of those costs in order to stay open.”
