3 days ago
Myrtle Beach businesses feel tariffs' effects; Chamber of Commerce may offer resources to members
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — As tariffs on imports continue to affect Myrtle Beach businesses, the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce asked its member businesses on Tuesday if they need more help navigating the changes.
The Chamber sent out a survey to its member businesses to see if the Chamber needs to give those businesses more educational resources to better handle tariffs' effects.
News13 spoke to the owner of Maz Fresco Supermarket, which is not a Chamber member business. It is scheduled to open in two weeks.
The owner, who wanted to remain anonymous, says tariffs have not yet affected the supermarket. However, he is worried that may change and impact the store's success.
'As a grocery store, we want to be able to bring the best price to the market,' the owner of Maz Fresco said. 'By that being in place, it would actually change the pricing, which would hurt the customers and us because people won't buy anything.'
He also says he cannot stock up on his products from Mexico and Latin America because they will not last.
'Our cookies and anything else other than canned goods only has about a month, a month-and-a-half-worth of shelf life,' the owner said. 'So, you can't really sit there and stock a lot of things because we don't have the space to stock things like that.'
News13 also spoke to the owner of Asian Mart, another non-member business. Sak Yiengjuntuek said the market gets many of its products from China and Japan.
Unlike Maz Fresco, Asian Mart can stock up. Therefore, its customers can pay the same prices, even if tariffs increase.
But when suppliers raise their prices, Yiengjuntuek says he needs to do the same.
'Sometimes suppliers, they change my price,' he said. 'I have to do, probably, a 2% to 5% increase. That's the most that I can do right now because I don't want to hurt the customers and local community here.'
The U.S. currently has a 25% tariff on Mexican imports and a 20% tariff on Chinese imports.
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Skylar Musick is a multimedia journalist at News13. Skylar is originally from Long Island, New York. She joined the News13 team in June 2024 after graduating from Villanova University in May 2024. Follow Skylar on X, formerly Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, and read more of her work here.
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