WTVD: “Rodriguez said businesses and consumers are absorbing much of the added cost, with little room to adjust.”
New reporting from WTVD is spotlighting the devastating impact of DC insider Michael Whatley’s tariffs on North Carolina small businesses and families. One small business owner said that “prices…have climbed sharply,” while another warned that Whatley’s tariffs are “going to take a lot of small businesses out.”
Michael Whatley has called the trade war “record setting in terms of […] effectiveness” and said he supports them “wholeheartedly.”
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WTVD: One year later, tariffs ‘whipping’ some Fayetteville small businesses
Penelope Lopez | February 4, 2026
- One year after President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports, small business owners in the Sandhills say the trade dispute continues to take a toll on their bottom lines, forcing some to dip into savings just to survive.
- Business owners in Fayetteville say the effect has been significant.
- “The tariffs are whipping us,” said Ralph Rodriguez, owner of Fort Liberty Pawn and Gun Shop off Fort Bragg Road.
- “I had to go get money out of a savings account, money that I had saved from six or seven years ago. You know, it was retirement fund money that I’m just trying to hold on,” he said.
- Rodriguez said businesses and consumers are absorbing much of the added cost, with little room to adjust.
- “This one amplifier, just the tariff on this is $345, just the tariff. And then you got the little things like customs and where they search the product, and all that gets tallied up. we were we weren’t aware of none of this. So in this particular case, we lost money. I got to survive, and I got to feed my family.”
- Hishim Bedwan, owner of Dirty South Customs on Skibo Road, said his auto parts and customization shop has also been hit hard.
- According to Bedwan, prices across his inventory have climbed sharply.
- “Well, we’ve seen an increase in costs of approximately about 25% across the board,” he said.
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