BONITA, Calif. (KGTV) — President Trump's tariffs on electronics are hitting close to home. A local computer parts store manager said he's anticipating a big impact.
"Done. I need to get you one screw and we're ready." Nathan Hourani is helping out a customer at Elite Computers who's purchasing some equipment for recreational gaming.
"I want to have low prices, both myself, and I want to buy things at a low cost," said Hourani.
That kind of business model will be more challenging with Trump's tariffs. That's why Hourani proactively purchased electronic parts 15 days after the election.
"To be honest, we've actually started stocking up," said Hourani. "So I'm heavy right now on motherboards, rams, hard drives and even graphics cards. We've pushed an increase probably 20 to 30%, just because I don't know what's going to happen."
Trump's tariffs will increase the prices of some of Hourani's items, including consumer electronics, graphics cards and memory cards.
Hourani said he's trying to make prices feasible for his clients.
"Obviously looking for deals," said Hourani. "Holding in inventory. Obviously, yeah, it's a burden from a capital standpoint, but I don't want to be, I need to be able to say yes to customers."
Not only that, Hourani works closely with businesses on the other side of the border, too.
"We have a fair amount of customers that live in Mexico," said Hourani. "I also support some Mexican businesses - manufacturing, that are actually based in the U.S. but manufactured in Tijuana, so we'll get a lot of equipment that is brought up here to be serviced that goes back down there."
Hourani is anticipating a strain. Just how bad remains to be seen.
