Lancaster’s Asian Center Supermarket has been bustling lately.
On the morning of April 11, it was the typical kind of busy. But the weeks before that? Store owner Ally Chen said many packed carts were pushed by people buying in bulk to get ahead of tariffs — like the 145% one now in effect on nonelectronic goods from China.
Chen estimates about 30% of the inventory in his East Hempfield Township store comes from that country. Customers cleaned him out of some of his rice and flour. Empty spots on shelves reveal where those had been, and Chen is having trouble replenishing.
“I think wholesalers are scared to order,” he said. “They don’t know what the price will be. And if you (raise) it too much, the supermarkets won’t buy the food, and the food can expire.”
Many shoppers at stores across the spectrum are preparing for the full impact of President Donald Trump’s tariff plan. But those who frequent independent grocery stores that sell ingredients and cookware needed to make tastes of various homes are at the tip of the spear.
From cookware to fish sauce
The tariff saga comes at a tricky time for Bijay Ghimire, a managing partner at International Supermarket. That’s the new name of a business on Columbia Avenue in East Hempfield Township that had been Asian Mini Mart before expanding a few months back into what used to be a Tuesday Morning next door.
The business added seafoods and a meat counter and now boasts a huge mound of bagged rice from places like Bangladesh and Nepal — just two of many countries represented there.
So far, the tariffs on China are primarily impacting the store’s cookware, Ghimire said.
“Whatever stock they (the wholesalers) have in the warehouse, they already started taking the price up,” he said.
Consider one particular sauce pot. He said cost to him for already went up about 50% last month — prior to the 145% decision — meaning he’s already had to raise what his customers will pay for that pot from $39.99 to $59.99.
Sam Guo, co-owner of Silantra Asian Street Kitchen, has been keeping his fingers crossed, hoping the tortilla press doesn’t break at his chain with Lancaster and Camp Hill locations. He’s watched online and said the cost to replace that press jumped within days from $1,800 to $2,800.
Guo suspects he’s seen bulk-buying behavior ripple out to his world.
“We’ve definitely noticed a sudden, random drop in sales since the news of the tariffs,” he said. “I think some of it’s psychological. And I also think people are buying more stuff to stock up. So, they have less money to spend at restaurants.”
Guo, too, is watching food prices and availability.
“There are certain ingredients that our suppliers are having trouble even bringing in because of the sudden increase in pricing,” he said. Those include edamame beans and some spices.
“Luckily, we have enough to last us for a month or so,” he said, adding he isn’t getting much visibility from suppliers about what happens next. “We might have to end up changing some of our recipes.”
Sokha Meas, manager and son of the owner at Asian Market on Liberty Street in Lancaster city, said his customers will try to avoid changing theirs. It’s why he’s running low on popular brands of fish sauce after some people bought that by the case in recent weeks. And it’s why many are prepared to pay more, he said.
“They’ve got to have that. If you’re cooking without that, you’re missing that flavor,” he said. “Same for me. If I don’t get it, my food won’t taste the same.”
One especially popular brand of fish sauce was marked at $4.50 for a bottle last week. That was from a shipment prior to the 145% tariff announcement. Were that bottle to go up by 145%, that would make it around $11 per bottle. It remains to be seen how much the wholesalers will actually raise the bottom line on that sauce. Meas is expecting it to be a lot. He then must then decide how much of the increase he will pass on to his customers.
A balancing act
He’s watching each item carefully and it’s already been a wild ride. A salesman who stopped by the store April 11 checked his electronic tablet to tell Meas the current price of a coffee that he’d just delivered. Within hours, it had jumped $8 per case. The two men shook their heads in disbelief.
Meas said he will likely have to raise prices on that coffee next time a shipment of it comes in. How much remains to be seen. As a family business and an independent grocery store operating on thin margins, Meas said he can’t afford to absorb the entirety of the hikes. But he knows he won’t be able to pass all of it onto customers or he risks scaring them away. It’s going to be an item-by-item balancing act, he said.
Several customers buying Asian food at his store and elsewhere last week said they were watching to see how those types of decisions play out. Others were nonplussed, like Lew Frank, of Myerstown.
He was shopping April 11 with his wife, who hails from the Philippines, at Asia Food Supermarket on Franklin Street in Lancaster city. Frank said he enthusiastically supports Trump and that tariffs, while causing some temporary pain, will likely pay off in the long run. Tariffs weren’t impacting what he bought at the store.
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“It didn’t even cross my mind,” he said. “Besides, when my wife buys stuff, our refrigerator and freezer is so packed full, we could go for the next five years, anyway.”
Back across town at Asian Center Supermarket, golden rice crackers sold out while they were $3.39 per bag. There hasn’t been a run on every item from China. Peppa Pig-themed drinks from that country priced at $1.59 each, for example, were still plentiful.
“Snacks aren’t very serious,” Chen said. “Flour is serious.”
He shrugged when asked about his next steps. Chen is working the phones to see if he can find alternative sourcing – that is, when he isn’t fielding normal, day-to-day customer questions.
“What can we do?” he said. “All we can do is say, ‘OK, wherever the market goes, we go.’ “
