Asbury Park Press: “Trump's unpredictable tariffs pressure Jersey Shore pizzerias, shops, manufacturers”

Jack Ciattarelli: “There’s going to be some pain”

TRENTON, NJ – The Asbury Park Press reports today that “Jersey Shore companies are grappling with President Donald Trump's scattershot tariff policy, trying to calculate how much of the price increase they can absorb, how much they can pass onto customers. And they are unsure whether a tariff will even take effect.”

Having heard from Shore business owners directly, the Press concluded that “there is no way to escape tariffs completely.”

REMEMBER: Jack Ciattarelli supports them wholeheartedly, and has from the beginning –

• Ciattarelli: “The president has told us that there’s going to be some pain… We’re just going to buckle up and see how things go.”

• Ciattarelli: “Tip our cap to the president… there’s going to be some short-term pain.”

• Insider NJ: “Ciattarelli backs Trump on tariffs.”

• “He backs the president's tariffs, which have riled Wall Street and not in a good way.”

Asbury Park Press: Trump's unpredictable tariffs pressure Jersey Shore pizzerias, shops, manufacturers

By Michael L. Diamond

• Kelly Hayes, the co-owner of Saltwater Culture in Point Pleasant Beach, got an email from a vendor last spring alerting her that the price on a dress and top that she ordered from the United Kingdom would increase by as much as $20 because of a new tariff.

• She decided the increase would be too much for her customers and skipped the order. But a month later the vendor sent another email about the tariff. It was rescinded. Never mind.

• Jersey Shore companies are grappling with President Donald Trump's scattershot tariff policy, trying to calculate how much of the price increase they can absorb, how much they can pass onto customers. And they are unsure whether a tariff will even take effect.

• At the Shore, a pizza place hit with higher costs for Italian flour is restructuring. A manufacturer that exports its high-tech systems is worried about how other countries will retaliate.

• Giovanni Kittaneh, the owner of Saturn Pizza in Brick, decided to change his business strategy. Kittaneh used top-of-the-line ingredients from Italy. But he said the price for a pallet of flour increased last spring from $788 to $1,100 in part because of a 20% tariff on the European Union. And he watched as Trump threatened a 30% tariff on Aug. 1 before announcing a deal to set it at 15%.

• Kittaneh said his customer base is working class, so he absorbed the first increase. But he can't continue cutting into his profit margin.

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