I know this will shock all of our readers, but tariffs are a bad thing for consumers and not good business.
A Florida grocery store run by a Trump supporting family of immigrants is learning that lesson the hard way: all the way to bankruptcy proceedings. The grocery store is called Wong Kai Imports and was opened by John Wong and his two brothers in 1983 after they immigrated from Hong Kong to live the American Dream.
Now their dream has turned into an American Nightmare with the return of Donald Trump into office. They may have to close their store – and they put the blame solely on Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The store, Wong Kai, has immense support from the local community, becoming the “go to destination” for Asian ingredients and food products that are virtually impossible to find at other grocery and big box stores. Their offerings are heavily focused on things like authentic ramen noodles, sauces, candies, and specialty imports from across Asia.
But, tariffs are making it impossible for the store to remain profitable any longer. The owner, Wong, supported Trump in the 2024 election. In fact, one of the things that swayed him to support Trump was his promise about lowering grocery costs. But, as with all things Trump, that was a lie. Grocery costs are at an all time high and show no signs of slowing.
Wong told reporters that almost all of his store products have increased in price since Trump took office. In an example, he said that a box of mabo tofu sauce has risen from $2.75 to $3.95 at the start of this year. The most recent shipment had them coming in a $5 – nearly double the cost from last year. Which means the consumer has to pay more than double for him to turn a profit. That is not sustainable, with such high job loss all over the country, a down economy and cost of living on the rise.
Wong has tried to keep costs down for his customers because many of them are elderly or live on fixed incomes. He told reporters at NPR: “I talk to a lot of customers. They told me, ‘Mr. Wong, don’t close. Stay open for another three years,’ I said, ‘I try, but it’s hard. It’s very hard.’”
Maybe you should have thought about not supporting a guy who went bankrupt numerous times and even bankrupted a casino, which is virtually impossible. I do not feel bad for this shop owner, but I do feel bad for his customers.
FAFO.
