'We're just holding our breath.' Toy shop owner faces tariff cost pressure in the holidays

Caption

Shop owner Florence Allen poses in her Macon toy store, William's Fun Smart Toys, on Dec. 11, 2025. The year's tariffs have dramatically affected her business.

Credit: Grant Blankenship / GPB News

President Donald Trump's tariffs have, as predicted, caused the cost of some consumer products to rise. Earlier this year, we spoke with Florence Allen, the owner of William's Fun Smart Toys in Macon, about what she was doing to prepare her business for the cost hike. Recently she spoke with GPB's Peter Biello again to ask her about the impact of those tariffs have had since they last spoke in May. 

Peter Biello: It's been several months. The tariff situation has changed a variety of times, but let's start broadly. How has it been for you knowing that a lot of your products come from overseas, come from China, and the tariff situation has been so volatile this year? 

Florence Allen: Well, it's about the same as it was back the last time we talked. ... I'm just carefully picking and choosing what I'm reordering and the quantities and stuff. I tried to bulk up my inventory before a lot of the tariffs hit. And since that time, my average tariff hit is running about 15%. And, you know, we're making price adjustments where we can. A few people have commented, "Well, your prices are not going up as high as the other stuff," and I'm like, "Well, we're trying to keep a handle on it."

Peter Biello: Because you're not increasing prices as quickly as perhaps your competitors, are you eating some of the lost profit? 

Florence Allen: Yes. It really is coming down to each individual item as — in how the tariff is impacting my cost on that particular item. You know, if I paid $2.25 For an impulse item and with the tariff it goes up to $2.50, I already had a little built-in room in there to absorb some of that. But it's when it gets outside of where I feel comfortable trying to absorb that, we're going up. But we're also trying to like keep it to the minimum. I wouldn't say I'm knocking it out of the park this year, but I'm hitting the numbers that I thought I was going to hit this year, considering the economic environment we're in right now. So we're just, y'know, holding our breath and seeing how it looks on Christmas Eve when we close the door. 

Peter Biello: Compared to last year, how was this year's post-Thanksgiving shopping blitz during the Black Friday events and whatnot? 

Florence Allen: We were about the same. We hit all our numbers that we hit last year. We were about the same. We didn't get much of a big bump. It looked like we might were headed towards that towards the end of October, early November, but then it kind of leveled out. More people are shopping local. We are picking up more local customers than, it seems like, last year. And I think part of that is just where I am in Middle Georgia, is there's a customer base that values and wants to keep the small businesses in their communities going. 

Peter Biello: You say you're making your numbers and that's great news. Are you making your numbers while selling fewer products that are more expensive? 

Florence Allen: You know, I really won't know that until I go back at the end of the season and — and look at things. We've got more people that are coming in on average, probably 10% more that are telling us, "Hey, this first time I've been in here. I didn't know you were here. I've lived here all my life." So, you know, that's a factor. 

Peter Biello: It sounds like you've made a variety of adjustments over the course of the year to make sure that your fourth quarter, the strong quarter in your calendar, is what it should be. But things are gonna change in January, as you mentioned. Do you think next year you're gonna be able to make similar adjustments to have a similar positive result, or is it just gonna be unavoidable, in your view, that that just prices are gonna have to go way up to make ends meet? 

Florence Allen: Right now, I will say prices are gonna have to go up. I may be able to delay that a little bit. It kinda depends on where my inventory levels are in January. This year, I don't know. It seems like we're going through our inventory a little bit faster than we usually do in — in November and December. The question will be how much of this inventory that's left come Jan. 1? Is it sellable inventory to take me into the first quarter, which would be good? Or am I gonna have to start reordering in mid to late January so I can have a good spring and Easter? I'm gonna hold off as long as I can to see what happens.