The New York business stockpiling imported cheese and winepublished at 18:56 British Summer Time
Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter
Behind the counter at Di Palo’s Fine Foods in New York City last week, proprietor Luigi Di Palo shook his head, brushing off a request from a customer hoping to lock in a price for six months’ worth of parmesan wheels from Italy.
“I can’t give you any long-term deal!” he said, reminding his customer of tariffs that could be about to raise the cost of nearly everything in the store.
“I know it’s going to be painful for us, very painful,” said Di Palo, whose family has sold Italian food in New York City for more than 100 years.
As soon as Trump was elected, Di Palo started to stock up on supplies, remembering the fallout from trade fights in Trump’s first term, which led to tariffs on billions of dollars of imports, including European wine and cheese.
He is now leasing about 20% more storage space to house the extra wine and hard cheese he has brought in. But a business that prides itself on having the finest and freshest ingredients can only stockpile so much, Di Palo said.
The business weathered Trump’s first term by raising prices, and Di Palo said he had confidence in Trump as a businessman and negotiator.
But he admitted: “The uncertainty weighs heavily on our minds.”
