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.