Black tea from Sri Lanka.

Oolong from China.

For the Spice and Tea Exchange in South Anchorage.

Imports make their business possible.

There isn't a single product in our store that isn't affected by the tariffs that we're looking at.

Even with that 10% baseline, we don't have that kind of working capital to just sort of absorb that without passing on that cost, you know, to a consumer.

The store sources products from roughly 60 countries.

Some teas have become more expensive and harder for the company to find as a result of tariffs.

She says the supply issue is similar to the Covid pandemic.

There's a lot about this that feels very familiar to where we were in 2021 and where we were already having to fight with other companies and brands to get, you know, the amount of product, that we are used to having for a reasonable price.

The United States doesn't produce enough tea to come close to the domestic demand, so Eldridge is stocking up in hopes of mitigating Trump's reciprocal tariffs from countries like Vietnam, Thailand and Japan.

Which are paused through early July.

That looming deadline makes it hard for businesses like hers to plan for the future.

There's so much uncertainty.

It changes by the day.

So I am just taking it one day at a time.

Continuing to operate my business as best I can.

Tariffs are also stressing Eric Parsons, owner of Revelate Designs.

An Alaska based company that manufactures bikepacking gear.

About half their goods are manufactured in Seattle, the rest overseas.

When Trump announced reciprocal tariffs in April, Parsons says his heart sank.

So when I saw 46% for Vietnam and 49% for Cambodia, like I just despaired.

Like my heart just totally sunk.

And I was just like this wave of, I would say, panic and like, anger swept through me because I was just like, why are you destroying our business?

Manufacturing outside of the U.S. gives the company flexibility to adapt to the industry's changing demands and ramp up his manufacturing volume.

Right now, Revelate has an order being made in China worth $50,000, which Parsons says is subject to tariffs totaling around 200%.

He'd like to avoid that, and sell the gear internationally instead, but that may not be possible.

But the problem with that is we needed we need some of it to sell ourselves because it's not we don't have the inventory here.

So we are going to have to be shorting like I, for example, on some things we're going to be short, you know, we're going to run out of some of those products if we don't import them.

Even businesses that manufacture in Alaska aren't necessarily celebrating the tariffs.

Paxson Woebler is the owner of Ermine skates, which he says is the only Nordic skate manufactured in the U.S..

So you think that we might be kind of excited to have tariffs on, foreign goods, but the reality is actually quite a bit more complicated.

Everything from the skate ceramic coating to sharpening is done in Alaska, but they're made of steel and aluminum, which is subject to a 25% tariff.

There is also a movement across the globe to boycott American products, which is bad news for companies like Ermine that sell to retailers abroad.

I don't think that's very productive for our, for American businesses that are trying to manufacture and export to the rest of the world.

Woelber says he's talked a lot with his customers, who have canceled orders because of economic conditions and political tensions.

There's really no way of knowing what's going to happen.

It's hard to know what the tariff, regime is right now, let alone a week from now or a month from now.

For now, business owners say they're taking tariffs day by day, and they hope Alaskans keep supporting local businesses.

In Anchorage, I'm Ava White.