Paulina Gamino runs Misfit Toys, a small retail toy store. She told NPR this week that toys her shop used to sell at $25 are now priced at up to $45 because of import tariffs, and that she’s cutting back orders because customers won’t pay the new prices.

The story is small-scale and entirely legible. Tariffs raise the cost of imported goods. Retailers pass some of that cost to consumers. Consumers buy less. Small retailers — who don’t have the negotiating leverage of major chains to absorb costs or renegotiate supplier terms — feel it first and hardest.

Most tariff coverage focuses on the geopolitics. Here is the part that affects you directly.

When the US imposes a 25% tariff on imported goods, the foreign country does not absorb the cost. The importer does. And the importer passes it to the retailer. And the retailer passes it to you. Tariffs are, in practical terms, a consumption tax paid by domestic buyers — not a penalty paid by foreign exporters.