Since buying the Village Roaster in 2018, owners Eric Bakken and Eva Pump have grown the Lakewood business, added a kitchen (“so we could bake our own food”) and survived the first year of Trump administration tariffs.
Coffee, which is largely produced outside the U.S., was particularly hurt by tariffs, like the 50% tax on Brazilian imports in August. The Trump administration rolled back some coffee tariffs in November to address the higher consumer prices. Village Roaster passed on a 3% tariff fee to customers, who were understanding, Bakken said. They removed the fee after Trump did. But often, policy decisions have unintended consequences, especially for small businesses.
“Coffee is a global commodity,” said Bakken, who hosted a discussion with other small businesses and public officials last week at his shop. “Little changes like a 50% tariff on Brazil shifts the whole market. Nobody buys Brazilian coffee so that money goes somewhere else and it changes the whole base price of coffee and can spike up by 10, 15% in a day.”
Using tariffs as a negotiation tool for political reasons doesn’t appear to be going away. A new 10% tariff goes into effect Feb. 1 will impact Village Roaster’s cost of a blended tea from Germany, one of the eight European allies socked with new import fees. The rate will increase to 25% in June unless the U.S. can buy Greenland, Trump said in a social post Saturday.
Aggressive fees on imports have helped reduce the size of the nation’s trade deficit, a key reason why the Trump administration said it slapped high tariffs on countries that send more goods to the U.S. than they purchased from American companies. The trade deficit fell to $29.4 billion in October, the lowest month since June 2009, according to federal data.
But it’s the uncertainty caused by sudden policy changes that makes it tough for small businesses, Bakken said.
“The tariffs are less of a major financial hit to us,” he said. “(But) to run a successful business anywhere in the world, you benefit from consistency and stability. You have enough challenges with marketing and getting great employees and keeping them and making sure your customers are happy. This is just yet one more uncertainty that is added to the mix.”
In Colorado, the value of exports grew 4.8% to $9.3 billion in the first 10 months of 2025 compared with the prior year. Imports fell 2.3% to $13.9 billion. All trade with the state’s top three trading partners also fell, most notably with China, with imports down 24.9%, while exports fell 13.5%.
Mexican imports fell 10% to $840.2 million, while exports fell 1.4% to $1.4 billion. Canadian imports also fell 0.3% to $4.5 billion, while exports dropped 11.7% to $1.3 billion.
Another big challenge for small companies is finding suppliers that make the materials in the United States. Austin Adamson, head distiller at Ballmer Peak Distillery in Lakewood, said his company doesn’t have the space to store bottles so he uses brokers to help get bottles as needed.
“Buying random small things has just become challenging,” Adamson said. “Either people don’t want to carry them because they don’t want to pass on the tariffs or there’s tariffs. FedEx is sending us invoices now because we got some stuff from Canada delivered. That was surprising and weird.”
Bakken, with Village Roaster, said he had been in touch with a Chinese manufacturer of plastic bags multiple times last year.
“I still haven’t ordered them,” he said. “Everything comes to a standstill. I don’t make decisions. Could I source them here? Yes, they’re more expensive. But aspiring to have a big plastic bag manufacturer, this is not growing the American economy. We should be comfortable sourcing some things from other places and making something of more value here.”
Tariffs have made little sense to many Democratic lawmakers and American businesses. Bloomberg News reported earlier this month that more than 1,000 companies, including Costco, Revlon Consumer Products, Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing, have sued the Trump administration for imposing tariffs without approval from Congress.
Several state attorney general offices have followed suit, including Colorado’s AG. Decisions on the lawsuits are pending and could come this week.
“In America, we are dependent on a respect for the balance of power. We balance the executive power with congressional power with judicial power. They all check each other,” said U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat. “Well, when one branch or another gets outsized ambitions in terms of power, it’s very hard to bring that back in. So you use the courts.”