By Don Rhodes II | The Birmingham Times
Melissa Kendrick, owner of Sojourns Fair Trade on Crestwood Blvd., told a Small Business Roundtable in Birmingham on Tuesday that tariffs imposed by the Trump administration have hit her bottom line.
Kendrick, whose gift shop features items handmade by artisans around the world, said “I’m absorbing costs from the 10 percent tariff, which is affecting my profit margins. The uncertainty makes it challenging to plan for the future,” she said.
Zebbie Carney, owner of Eugene’s Hot Chicken, said rising food costs due to tariffs have forced him to reconsider pricing strategies. “We just have to be smart about how we do things and change how we do things,” he said. “We’ve had to raise our prices, and our customers have been supportive through this tough time.”
Congresswoman Terri Sewell, who represents Alabama’s Seventh Congressional District, hosted the roundtable at Innovation Deport and, expressed deep concern over the “reckless and sweeping tariffs” have impacted small businesses like those owned by Kendrick and Carney, she said. “These tariffs amount to the largest tax increase in American history, taking a horrible toll on our nation’s small businesses.”
Since Trump took office in January, employment in small businesses with fewer than 10 employees has decreased by 3 percent, equating to approximately 366,000 jobs lost, she said.
“Small businesses create pathways to opportunity, economic independence, and thriving local economies,” she said. “These tariffs are not just an attack on our small businesses; they are truly an attack on our economy and the American dream itself.”
Sewell moderated a panel that included Kendrick, Carney, Patrick J. Murphy, the Goodrich Chair and head of the J. Frank Barefield Jr. Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Selena Rodgers Dickerson, president of SARCOR, LLC, a Birmingham-based civil engineering firm.
Dickerson said the rising costs of materials and labor have led to difficult choices. “If the cost of building infrastructure increases, it may prevent projects from moving forward,” she warned.
Murphy noted the unpredictability of the current economic climate, stating, “The fear that many have is just the unpredictability of our economy, which feels different because it is different.”
He concluded on an optimistic note, saying “strong communities do not fail. Members support each other, they coordinate with each other. The diversity of the members has become a superpower.”
