The price tag on a few items sold in the historic Charleston City Market is up slightly because of tariff policies, vendors say, and there are varying reactions on how they have affected local tourist traffic.
Meanwhile, the ever-changing cost of tariffs imposed or threatened by the Trump administration on foreign goods, particularly from Canada, has turned some Canadians off from traveling to the Grand Strand and other major U.S. cities, according to news reports.
But overall, tourism in Charleston was extremely strong in April, said Daniel Guttentag, assistant professor of hospitality and tourism management and the director of the College of Charleston’s Office of Tourism Analysis.
If an economic downturn caused by the tariffs occurs, “then generally speaking the tourism economy, like most other industries, is going to slow down,” Guttentag explained. “It really depends on how things continue to unfold.”
High tourism traffic in April, however, might not be a real-time indicator of the current tourism economy, warns Pramon Sembiring, owner of Maccaro on King Street.
Sembiring said foot traffic to his coffee and bubble tea cafe — and other businesses near him on upper King Street — was down sharply in May as compared to last year.
“It is very obvious to see that,” he told the Charleston City Paper.
Sembiring said he and neighbors monitor the declining customer flow daily. If the trend proves to be a city-wide reality, the next monthly tourism report might not be so rosy, he predicted.
Tariffs not impacting air travel
Doug Warner, executive vice president of the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, said, “There is not a tariff on air travel, so cost to visit has not gone up.”
Charleston’s share of the international travel market is much smaller than New York and Las Vegas where travel is off by as much as a third, he said.
“We are not seeing that yet, and optimistically, we don’t think we’re going to see that big of a drop because most of our international visitors are from the U.K., and that seems to be a little more resilient,” he said.
The early signs
Spotty signs of the tariff’s effect are showing up along the four-block stretch of vendor stalls in the city market where hundreds of visitors daily file by vendors who display an array of small-ticket items and expensive artwork.
Most of the goods are produced locally, but many are made in China and other countries, like the holiday decorations at Charleston Christmas Collectibles.
“A lot of our vendors are attempting to navigate [the tariffs] as best they can,” company CEO Brittany Wilson said as she stood dwarfed by colorful Christmas trees adorned with ornaments and collectibles in her booth at the market’s Meeting Street entrance.
The replacement cost of inventory already on hand has increased from 13% to 40%, she said. The company has absorbed some of the increase, but it has raised the price of some items.
“It’s very frustrating because we pride ourselves in keeping our prices as low as possible,” she said.
If the price of some items from a foreign supplier becomes too high, however, that item might be removed if Wilson decides she can’t sell it at a reasonable price.
Christmas Collectible’s manager Carrie Smith said if tariffs continue, “it is going to keep hurting small businesses.” She added the tariffs have delayed the company’s plans to expand the 55-year-old business founded by Wilson’s grandmother, Frenchie Richards.
A morning staple
Fraser Young sells a product that helps his customers kick start the day. He sells a high-end gourmet blend of coffee at Big Kick Coffee Roasters on the East Bay Street end of the market.
Young buys coffee beans from as many as 15 countries, and he grinds an average of 1,000 pounds of the black beans weekly.
A tariff on coffee is not new, and the price of coffee was already high before the latest tariffs, said Young, who also operates a coffee roaster on upper Meeting Street.
“The tariffs make absolutely no sense in an already stricken [coffee] economy that already has been devastated by two years of crop failure in Brazil, which makes a third of the world’s production,” he explained.
Young has been in the coffee business for more than a decade, and this is the first year he has scrabbled to find supplies.
Elsewhere in the market, the cost has not gone up on hand-crafted wooden pens made from foreign-grown trees and French-made table cloths.
Chuma Nwokike, owner of the market’s Chuma Gullah Gallery, said if the tariffs persist, no business will be immune from it.
The Gullah and African-inspired artwork that Nwokiki sells is created by artists throughout the country, but the cost of the supplies to mat and frame them have not yet gone up.
“Everybody is affected one way or the other,” he said. “But the impact is not obvious right now.”
Help keep the City Paper free.
No paywalls.
No subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations.
Help support independent journalism by donating today.