5 days ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump's tariffs blamed as popular Spanish grocery announces Berkeley closure
The owner of a popular Spanish grocery says President Donald Trump's tariffs are forcing him to shutter his Berkeley store after 24 years.
Bastian Schoell, who owns the Spanish Table, said he hoped he could keep the Berkeley store open for at least another year to celebrate its 25th anniversary. But the shop has become so detrimental to his personal finances he couldn't hold on any longer.
'It's emotionally gut-wrenching because I consider myself a successful businessperson,' he said. 'The Spanish Table's been around, it's like an institution.'
The Spanish Table's stores in Berkeley and San Francisco saw a boom during the pandemic lockdown as home cooking increased in popularity. But then large retailers including Amazon cut into the boutique's market share, and declining drinking habits depressed wine and beer sales. Schoell primarily blames Trump's economic policies for forcing the closure of his store, which relies on European imports.
The tariffs cast 'a very, very dark shadow over what we do,' he said. The mercurial nature of Trump's tariff policy — the president has abruptly announced new massive tariffs or called off promised tariffs multiple times since he took office — makes it nearly impossible to order large shipments of products from Europe, Schoell said. That's because tariffs — taxes paid by U.S. importers such as Schoell — are added once products arrive in the United States, not when they are purchased. The rapid shifts in tariff policy mean Schoell can't know for sure whether he'll be able to afford the products he's ordered when they arrive.
'It's tariffed when it lands, not when it's ordered, and it just creates an amount of uncertainty that is untenable,' he said. 'The clown in Washington, I don't know what he's going to do tomorrow.'
Trump has argued his tariffs will spur companies to manufacture more products in the United States. He defended his policies Thursday, when he increased tariffs on goods from more than 60 countries.
'We're seeing phenomenal numbers in terms of the business we do with other countries and the business we do within our own country,' Trump told reporters early this week before defending his decision to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after the agency reported lackluster jobs numbers.
Independent economic forecasts do not support Trump's claims. Inflation has grown and economic growth has slowed since Trump took office. The nonpartisan Budget Lab at Yale found that the tariffs could cost the average American family $2,700 in 2025 dollars. The nonpartisan Anderson Forecast at UCLA predicts Trump's tariffs, immigration crackdown and federal spending cuts will slow the U.S. economy this year and next, though in the longer term his deregulation and tax cuts could increase growth in 2027.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has been highly critical of Trump's tariff policies, saying they hurt American businesses and families. He's fighting the tariffs in court, arguing the president doesn't have the authority to unilaterally impose the tariffs he's announced.
In the meantime, Schoell plans to continue and expand his partnership with Evergreen, a Berkeley cafe that serves several Spanish Table sandwiches. He also plans to continue operating the Spanish Table's San Francisco location and its online store. But the business is still affected by the same economic headwinds the Berkeley location faced.
The Berkeley store's final day of operation will be Aug. 17.
