BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Paul Palutikof opened up his store, Toy Madness, just over a year ago. Recently, the store has faced a speed bump as Donald Trump still stands behind a 145% tariff on China imports.
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BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Paul Palutikof, the owner of Toy Madness in Bakersfield, opened up shop a little more than a year ago selling action figures, plushies, and other items.
While he says business has been going well since opening, there’s been a recent speedbump.
“The orders that we’ve put in with different toy distributors, they’ve added the tariffs after we placed the purchase. So that’s kind of strange and… it’s a bummer,” said Palutikof.
In an interview with ABC News, President Donald Trump stood behind the 145% tariff on China imports.
These imports include many of the toys around the store.
“Products have become a little bit more difficult to acquire as well. And for stores like this, that can be a problem,” said Palutikof.
He adds that this doesn’t just impact Toy Madness. He says that the store does a lot of consignment.
“... And so a lot of the people in our community sell their things here. And, you know, often they buy it from toy stores or other big box stores and they pay full retail for it… those prices are going up and then they have to mark them up in order to sell them to a third party. And so that just makes things even more complicated and expensive,” said Palutikof.
But he reassures customers that it’s not ‘game over’ for Toy Madness.
“Tariffs or not, we’re still here and we’re open seven days a week from noon to seven,” said Palutikof.
Toy Madness is hosting their next event on the 18th where visitors can meet one of the voice actors from Dragon Ball Z.
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