KING COUNTY, Wash. — One Western Washington grocery store finds itself more susceptible to the broad-based tariffs announced this week by President Donald Trump. Closing in on 100 years in business, the grocery store Uwajimaya has imported culinary goods from Japan and other Asian nations for generations of Washingtonians. CEO & President of the grocer, Denise Moriguchi, says she had been planning for tariffs but was surprised by how high and how broad the actual proposal from the Trump Administration has been.
“We’re sharpening our pencils and trying to figure out what this means for the partners that we work with and for our customers,” Moriguchi said.
Moriguchi, who now runs the company started by her father in Tacoma in 1928, says their company began by bringing Japanese staples into the U.S, namely for the Japanese people who lived in the area at the time. The grocer has grown to five stores across the Pacific Northwest, bringing in shoppers of all backgrounds.
“Food is not just something you eat, right? It brings people together.” Moriguchi said, “We connect people to maybe their home country or their roots. We also bring that discovery of new cultures.”
Countries like Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand were some of the nations she didn’t expect to see subjected to tariffs. Now, she’s crunching the numbers to see what increases she can absorb.
“It doesn’t leave a lot of tools when it’s on everything. If it’s select items, you can lower some margins, and then maybe you could absorb some of it. But, when it is on everything, it’s just really hard to figure out how to not pass on a lot of it to the customer, which is not something we want to do at all.” Moriguchi said, “Prices have already been increasing a lot over these past few years. We know that it’s going to be tough for everybody.”
White House Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent posted on social media, pointing to the reasoning behind the President’s tariff decision.
“The trade status quo has allowed countries to leverage tariffs and unfair trade practices to get ahead at the expense of hardworking Americans. The President’s historic actions will level the playing field for American workers and usher in a new age of economic strength.” Bessent posted.
White House officials have also pointed to restarting the production of more goods in the United States as a reason for the tariffs.
“A lot of our items, we don’t have an easy alternative that we could just source domestically. So, it will be a challenge for us as we look at our assortment and bring in products.”
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