WEST ALLIS, Wis. — Like many Asian supermarkets nationwide, New Asian Market in the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis is grappling with more aggressive tariffs on Chinese imports.
“We’ve stopped ordering some of products just because the price went crazy high,” said Shen Xin Yu, who runs New Asian Market with his parents. “In order to make profit, we had to turn up the price even more, but at some point, it’s not even worth to get it anymore.”
Yu said decisions come down to what’s affordable to stock; sometimes that means losing beloved products.
“A couple days ago, there was a customer asking for a curry sauce, like the specific brand of it, but we can’t get it anymore because the price went crazy high,” said Yu. “Some customers drive 30 minutes just to get a certain product. I have to explain to them what’s happening.”
Yu has noticed that it’s hitting the older generations of customers the hardest. They’ve relied on New Asian Market to get the hard-to-get products from home that that they’ve used their whole lives.
“It’s a hard switch, especially for older people, which is most of our target,” said Yu. “We have to find a substitute product for it in a cheaper price, but I don’t know if the quality is the same than the product that most people are looking for.”
With tightening trade restrictions on Chinese imports, Yu and his family – along with Asian grocery store and restaurant owners across the country – are bracing for the long-term impacts.
“If it doesn’t get better anytime soon, the price of products will just keep going up and we will just have to eventually drop them,” said Yu.
