Jordan, a restaurateur in the Raleigh-Durham area and former owner of a family-run Chinese restaurant, described how tariffs on imported goods have severely strained his business. Long reliant on specific imported ingredients central to his restaurant’s 30-year-old recipes, he found it impossible to substitute or raise prices without compromising quality. The sudden doubling of costs for staples like soy sauce, combined with thin profit margins and an unstable labor market, left him facing tough choices about restructuring or selling the business.
