Tarun Karmaker faces a tough choice: raise prices and lose sales, or leave them the same and make less. Karmaker owns Little Italy Gifts Center on Mulberry Street, and nearly all of his wholesale suppliers have already jacked up prices between 10 and 25%.
Even imported Trump bobblehead dolls have gone up 50 cents, to $4.50. And he fears more hikes could be on the horizon.
“You can ask me which one didn’t go up,” Karmaker said, striding through the aisles of novelty shot glasses, keychains, snow globes and Empire State Building figurines that cost him more now than they did before the president declared his “Liberation Day” on April 2. After some consideration, Karmaker points to a shelf of mugs. That supplier has yet to raise prices, he said.
Little Italy Gifts Center owner Tarun Karmaker talks about the impact of tariffs on his business, May 7, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
Most of the souvenir shops that peddle I ❤️ NY paraphernalia to the millions of tourists who visit the Big Apple each year rely heavily on goods imported from China, which are now subject to Trump administration tariffs starting at 145%.
For now, Karmaker, who has been in the souvenir industry for 17 years, said he would keep his prices the same and make due with lower profits. He voted for Trump in 2024, and although the tariffs are hurting his bottom line, he still thinks they might help the country overall.
“The tariffs should increase the revenue for the country,” said Karmaker, an immigrant from Bangladesh who lives in Elmhurst, Queens. “That will be bad for us but our country’s income will be better.”
Donald Trump bobblehead dolls sit in a Little Italy gift shop, May 7, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
But not every seller who spoke with THE CITY saw the greater good. Syed Zaidi runs a gift shop on Broadway in Lower Manhattan near the Charging Bull. He said he plans to increase prices in the coming days, even as he remains worried that will lead to a dip in sales.
Trump “should be decreasing the tariffs so the prices can go down and it will help the business community. That’s what I expected. But it’s going the other way around,” said Zaidi, who immigrated from Pakistan two decades ago.
Zaidi said he also voted for Trump last year, drawn to the president as a fellow entrepreneur.
“I think he’s a businessman and you know, he will help the business community,” Zaidi said. “What he’s up to? I don’t know. I hope he has a plan because so far I don’t see any plan. This is not the plan he should be following.”
Zaidi said he didn’t regret his vote yet and is giving Trump a few more months rather than rushing to judgment.
Some dark clouds loom on the horizon, with the tourism industry on edge about what could come next from a mercurial president who has rattled the stock markets and whose Make America Great Agenda is generally hostile to the world beyond the nation’s borders and walls. Horror stories are circulating of tourists being detained by ICE for days or weeks.
In New York City, tourism still hasn’t quite recovered to its post-pandemic peak and last week the city’s tourism agency downgraded its tourism forecast, projecting 3 million fewer visitors this year.
I Love New York & Italian Gifts owner Emran Raja speaks about the impact of tariffs on his business, May 7, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
For now at least, several shop owners told THE CITY they hadn’t seen any change in sales or foot traffic.
Back on Mulberry Street in Little Italy, Emran Raja, the Bangladesh-born owner of I ❤️ New York & Italian Gifts, said he is dealing with suppliers who had jacked up prices over the past two weeks but couldn’t raise his own at all on a block where every other storefront sells similar wares.
“If we increase our existing price, we cannot compete with other shops,” he said. “We are trying to survive. That’s it.”
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