Columbus’ coffee shops weigh in on potential tariff hit
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Many of us can’t have a hard time starting our day without a cup of coffee.
Now, tariffs could drive up the cost of your morning brew.
This has some coffee shop owners grinding and trying to keep prices down.
Drive Research reports that more than half of Americans drink coffee from a coffee shop.
But now there has been uncertainty about the cost of the fan favorite beverage.
Coffee is one of the most essential drinks for U.S. citizens to get through the day.
“Whenever I drink the coffee, I feel like it helps me be able to focus sometimes, and it helps me to keep me energized, just because I have a busy schedule. It helps me keep going throughout the day,” Hunter Latiner said.
With a large number of coffee drinkers in the U.S., tariffs could brew higher prices.
This could challenge business owners to keep a steady flow of traffic.
“With tariffs, obviously, somebody is going to feel the cost,” Cynthia Walls said. “So for some time, there’s going to be a shift and there’s going to be a cost and demand on us as the people who are supplying coffee to people. But it could mean price increases for our coffees, but right now, nothing has taken place. We are really hoping to keep that.”
There are over a dozen coffee shops in Columbus.
The goods that make the beverage are shipped from countries like Brazil, Canada, and Colombia.
Cynthia Walls said this is not the first time there was a scare about the coffee business being scorched.
“It is just such a pleasure to interact with the community to see them, they are so behind us, even I think when we went through COVID, and supply and demand were a little bit difficult to get things in,” Walls said. “But our community rallied around us, and they helped us to stay afloat and still be here. So, I just believe even with these tariffs we’ll have the community support, we’ll have people still here and loving on us and understanding.”
The retail price of ground coffee hit an all-time high in March of this year, making it nearly $8 a pound.
