President Trump's new tariffs are partly on, partly on hold and partly up in the air — but some businesses around Charlotte are seeing the impact already. That includes Asian grocery stores, which import most of their goods from some of the countries facing the highest tariffs, such as China and Vietnam. The Ledger’s Cristina Bolling joins WFAE's Ely Portillo to talk about this, and more, on this week's BizWorthy.
Ely Portillo: So, Cristina, you talked to several local stores that are seeing higher prices and grappling with a lot of uncertainty. What did you hear?
Cristina Bolling: Sure, Ely. So, we'd heard that local Asian grocery stores were already feeling stressed from the tariffs. So reporter Rachel Black visited several of them here in Charlotte, and the owners told her that they're already getting price increases passed on from their distributors, and in some cases, they're seeing limits to the amount of goods that they can buy. The store owners Rachel talked to are really stressed about it. A majority of their customers are people who have moved to Charlotte from other countries, and they rely on these stores to be able to cook the foods that they enjoy from home. So, in many cases, they're on tight budgets and they can't pay much more for groceries. And one of the store owners that Rachel talked to said he's cutting his profit margin just about as low as he can go, so he can make sure that people get what they need. Large bags of white rice that used to sell for $38 at one store are now going for $48.
Portillo: Yeah, and I know a lot of these stores are independent or smaller chains, so they might not have the wherewithal or the resources to hold the line on price as well as, say, a Walmart.
Bolling: That's exactly right. I mean, a lot of these are mom-and-pop businesses, and they get by on very thin margins. One store owner that Rachel talked to said he's really trying to get creative with his sourcing.
So, before, he got a certain type of noodle from China, which is now having 145% tariff, he's trying to source that noodle from another country so that he doesn't have to raise the prices that much for his customers.
Portillo: The Charlotte Ledger wrote about a new program at Atrium Health that's designed to make care for children with severe diseases more comfortable by providing that care at home. So, what's the thinking behind this, and what effect might this have on the cost and quality of care?
Bolling: Yeah. So, Atrium just launched what's really the first program in the country that offers full hospital-level care for children in their homes. They have regular daily visits from paramedics. They're monitored by doctors and nurses remotely. Parents are pretty excited about this option. Many of them that a reporter, Michelle Crouch, talked to said that it keeps their kids at home, where they're most comfortable and they're not exposed to these hospital infections.
But Michelle also talked to some experts who said that hospital care at home can be a little bit risky, and there's also a financial incentive. Some of the experts told Michelle for hospitals to offer these programs. Basically, they can charge the same fees — and facility fees — that they would charge if a patient was in the hospital, but the hospital is not facing the large overhead costs of having that child in the hospital.
Portillo: Finally, over the weekend, one of your reporters wrote about a hidden piece of Charlotte history — and that's the Carhartt mansion ruins in Rock Hill. So, we're talking about the family whose name is on workwear all over.
Bolling: Oh, yeah. So, this was a fun story. So back in 1909, a guy named Hamilton Carhart — who did own that denim workwear company that we are all familiar with — he bought a thousand acres along the Catawba River and he built a summer retreat. It would be near his cotton mill that produced denim for his company.
So, he lived there for a while — but not very long — because in the 1920s he had to sell the mansion because of the Great Depression. And the house was dismantled in the 1950s, but the ruins of it are still there.
Support for BizWorthy comes from the law office of Robertson and Associates.
