Tariffs Force Price Increases, and It's Killing Small Businesses and Hurting Anyone Who Isn't Rich.

If you want the tl;dr, the title will suffice.

If you want some of my thoughts, my obvious takes that those in power either genuinely or intentionally don't understand, and an apology for being forced into price increases that may still kill my small business...then read on.

(Preemptive Note: This was written without AI. FuzzHugger doesn't, and will never, use AI in anything it does. I'm an English major, and I like the em dash, okay?! I'll write a future, shorter, blog about AI.)

I first want to acknowledge the broader suffering caused by the US' self-inflicted wounds in the middle of a recession and inflation crisis.  (Yes, some of the inflation is greedy corporations seeing what they can get away with.) This is about way more than me, or the guitar pedal / musical instrument world, or small businesses. The US Government—by not only misunderstanding tariffs, by not only failing to calm economic chaos but inviting it—is hurting people. Not the ultra-rich string-pullers they seek to further enrich, but small businesses and regular people in the lower and (what's left of the) middle classes.

It's going to be a bloodbath for many small businesses in the coming months. I'd like to stay open, but so did those who've already made the terrible decision to close.

I started FuzzHugger in '08, during "The Great Recession," and was quickly reasonably profitable and sustainable. Not to discount others' experiences and struggle during that time (I'm only speaking from my experience then, and at the time I was single with no kids), but the current situation is way beyond '08, as far as the level of inflation across the board, the cost of running a business, and the cost of living. Incredibly, if I wanted to—or am forced to—end FuzzHugger, my employment options in my area would pay me the same as my employment options in 2008.

Throughout 2025, recession, inflation, and trade war threats have been hurting small businesses, and people in general. After lots of bluffs and delays causing uncertainty and contributing to inflation, these bizarrely-calculated tariffs are now in place and impacting FuzzHugger.

I source the best parts from all over the world...what I can get made or done in the US, I do (such as USA-made PCBs, to doing enclosure drilling, graphics, PCB population, and more in-house. Many builders have long outsourced some to all of these). There are many components that are simply not manufactured in the US. No amount of tariffs are going to bring back US factories to make many / most of these parts. Not any time soon, and probably not ever.

We're looking at at least 19-30% (and higher) tariffs on many components (even those shipped from the US, if they were made with imported components at some stage of production), on top of already-inflated prices, rising costs of shipping, rising costs of everything.

I haven't raised prices since early covid, and even then it was a $10ish increase. I wasn't making enough before or after that small increase. With the inflation of the past several years, I've mostly eaten it and just made even less money. Now we're adding these bizarrely-calculated tariffs imposed on purchases and businesses of any size. If I raise prices 20-30%, let alone during a recession with unsustainable inflation, I can of course expect fewer sales. So to compensate for selling less, should I raise prices 40-50%? Then who's buying?

I've never wanted to sell to primarily wealthy people. Handmade pedals aren't cheap, especially when almost every stage of production is done in house. But I want to sell to working musicians, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and bedroom and basement players. I'll sell to who I have to in order to survive, but regardless of who I'm selling to, I doubt FuzzHugger could survive a 40-50% price increase. It can barely survive current prices, before the price increases I'm being forced into. So lately, many small businesses are forced to choose between options that require losing lots of income either way. It's basically, gamble on which way you'll lose more money, but expect to lose a quarter to a half of your income.

I know that most of my offerings have 6-12 knobs and up to 4 footswitches. I build what I want and I continue building what sells, and it tends to be more feature-rich designs. While I'm hoping to release some more affordable pedals with fewer features, that's not a simple solution: designing takes me away from building and causes short-term loss of income, and less expensive models means I'd need to build more, sell more, and ship more to make money. I'm already task-saturated to the max, and literally can't work more.

This essay-of-a-blog-post is mostly just a peek into what most businesses are facing. It doesn't have a resolution or natural conclusion. It's Oops, All Predicaments. I guess it's "fuck these morons who lied about how tariffs worked, who lied that they'd magically bring factories back to the US, and who knew that they and their ultra-rich buddies and donors could survive indiscriminate tariffs and trade wars, while the lower class suffers, works harder, and gets paid less than ever."

For now, like so many others, my goal is to survive and grow. But it's a global marketplace and global economy, and these trade wars and extreme arbitrary tariffs are, and will continue, destroying small businesses. So support small businesses while you can. Moreover, take care of yourself. But while trying to survive—they'd rather you be too overworked, exhausted, and defeated to do anything—do what you can to fight these rich psychopaths, their awful fucking ideas, and their callous disregard for our health and livelihoods.