Many American small-business owners have been riding a rollercoaster of tariff-related feelings: worry, confusion, anxiety, frustration.
This week, there are new emotions.
"I feel a lot of relief and hope," says Sarah Wells, whose Virginia company sells breast-pump backpacks and other maternity accessories. In March, she had to find an extra $15,000 to receive her shipment from China 鈥� the last for now 鈥� which .
Now that two federal courts have ruled that President Trump in ordering the tariffs, Wells ponders the same question most of her peers are asking: Will they get that money back?
But also, as the White House vows to appeal, there's the perennial other thought: Is this simply the latest curve on the tariff rollercoaster?
Stockpiling pet life jackets in the bathroom
Barton O'Brien prepared for tariffs by stockpiling every space he had with leashes, harnesses and other pet supplies that he sells at hundreds of stores.
"We had dog life jackets in the bathroom," says O'Brien, a former Marine who now runs BAYDOG from Kent Island in Maryland. "Our warehouse was bursting. We had to rent a container and put it out back."
Now, he's been watching several businesses sue the Trump administration over tariffs after canceling some of his own orders for doggie sweaters.
He'd prepared for double-digit tariffs on China, but not on his shipments from suppliers in India and Vietnam. A threatened 26% tax on imports from India would have more than eclipsed his profit margin, so O'Brien canceled orders for much of what he planned to sell this fall. And for items he will sell next year? He's gambling the tariffs will be lower in the months to come 鈥� maybe thanks to the Supreme Court taking up the tariff case.
"The production cycle is very long. So you need to plan things six months, eight months out," O'Brien says. "We don't know what the tariff regime is going to be, but we have to at least get them made and then hopefully we get a favorable decision."
Court decisions paused for now
Late Wednesday, the U.S. Court of International Trade , ruling in favor of 12 states and five businesses. The following day, a U.S. appeals court temporarily put that judgment on hold until the legal proceedings play out.
Also on Thursday, a second federal court blocked Trump's authority to