SPOKANE, Wash. — Local bridal shops are struggling to keep prices low as tariffs threaten their business.
Since the beginning of March, the Trump Administration has implemented sweeping tariffs, including 145% tariffs on imports from China.
Local businesses have felt the squeeze, including a bridal shop in Spokane.
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Most of the wedding gowns at Love Beauty Fame are imported from China. Kandi Bartlett, the owner of the shop, said the tariffs have already raised prices for both dresses and the materials needed to make them.
“Most wedding gowns are manufactured in China, even major retailers, they’re designed and sent to their production houses in China and they’re sent back to the U.S.,” she said.
She said some suppliers in China have even stopped shipping to the U.S.
Bartlett said she hopes to offset the rising import costs by making more dresses in-house, but that depends on the cost of the materials.
“I’ll either have to pay the higher tariff fees for the ones that will still ship here, or I would definitely be relying more on the fact that I can manufacture dresses as long as I can still get the laces and other things,” she said.
She said she wants to keep her prices affordable, but it’s difficult to balance while also making the shop profitable. The possibility of the tariffs continuing is a problem many other bridal shops are also facing.
“I wonder how that’s going to impact everyone in this industry, when the bridal industry has already been struggling for the past few years,” Bartlett said.
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