Grocery shoppers look for deals, alter buying habits amid tariff pain

Kntrice Yvonne wasn't sure how the Trump administration's new tariffs would touch her. Then she went grocery shopping.

Yvonne is now being more careful with her purchases than ever before. That's especially tough because she likes to have fresh produce for her young son to eat, she said. But as prices for many items are getting more expensive she's started to consider alternative sources, including food banks.

“I don’t know how this will impact us long term, so I am becoming much more resourceful. There’s a food bank I’m going to tomorrow that will help with the fresh produce," Yvonne said as she shopped at the Patel Brothers store in West Ridge.

“I didn’t know how [tariffs] would impact the things that I purchase, you know," she said. "I didn’t know how it would impact me personally, but now I see.”

Yvonne isn't the only one feeling the pinch. Grocery shoppers across the city have begun shopping around at different stores for deals and putting off non-essential purchases as President Donald Trump doubles down on his tariff policies, threatening to send prices even higher.

Last week the president followed through on his campaign promise to impose tariffs on trading partners, declaring a baseline 10% tax on imports from all countries and significantly higher rates for other countries that run trade surpluses with the United States. Global markets have plummeted in response.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned Friday that the tariffs could increase inflation.

Trump has said the tariffs are "reciprocal" to match the tariffs other countries impose on the U.S., but the White House has said it calculated the tariffs through a simple calculation of each country's trade imbalance with the U.S. Trump has said tariffs will bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.

But most economists don’t share Trump’s enthusiasm for tariffs because they’re a tax on importers that are usually passed on to consumers.

Ryan Whitney, manager at the Wild Onion Market in Rogers Park, said the store is already paying higher costs for some of the produce it sells.

“A box of mangoes a couple or even a month ago was like $13 at wholesale, and now they are like almost $30," Whitney said. “Avocados are almost $100 a case, which is really expensive. They were hovering at $65 to $75 for the past year or so. Grapes are also like over $100 a case, which is very high for grapes."

That puts the Wild Onion in a precarious position, Whitney said. Wild Onion is an independent, community-owned market. Big chain stores may be able to absorb higher import costs and keep prices low, but that's not an option for small operators.

“If we have to charge more than somewhere else, like Jewel or Whole Foods, like they can charge very little for these items because they are backed by big business, but we’re not, and we can’t compete with that financially,” Whitney said. “We can’t offer those same prices as them, and that is going to hurt us as long as the tariffs are around.”

Shoppers like Jeshua Johnson are increasingly shopping around for cheaper deals. On Monday, Johnson first went to a Tony's Fresh Market for groceries, but after seeing prices there he went to one of his other usual spots, HarvesTime Foods in Lincoln Square.

Johnson was laid off in October and is now “trying to make the budget stretch while in between jobs. It's hard, you don’t see many sales anymore.”

He added that a tariff doesn't "drop our cost of living, it increases it.” He's worried about how high prices could affect the most vulnerable.

"I know people that have kids, or with medical issues where they have thousands of dollars with medications per month and lost their job and on top of that, everything else is going up," he said. “It’s going to hurt a lot, and it's just the beginning."

Melissa Codd likes to shop at smaller grocery stores, so she usually stops by La Casa Del Pueblo in Pilsen. That's where she was Monday, carrying a basket full of items.

Codd said she's fortunate in that higher food prices won't affect her too much, but she does worry about how the tariffs could damage businesses like Casa Del Pueblo.

"This store is really unique, and I like the selection, I wouldn't want it to go away," she said. "I feel like because of the tariffs their selection could suffer from that, and that might take away their selling point. Definitely concerned for the little guys."

But the recent economic uncertainty has led Codd to scrutinize her "frivolous" purchases.

"I'm thinking maybe I should be buying shoes right now because I heard shoes are gonna be really impacted, things like that" Codd said. "But then it's also like should I be buying them? There's a lot of things to take into account right now."

Johnson said that with so much insecurity shoppers are going to have to be smarter going forward.

"Just shopping around for deals wherever we can feels like all we can do right now,” he said.

Contributing: Associated Press