LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — As the holiday season approaches, shoppers are experiencing rising prices not only online but also at local toy stores. This time of year is understandably busy for toy shop owner Johnny Jimenez, who runs the longest running family-owned toy store in Las Vegas.
I spoke with Jimenez on how rising costs are affecting his business
"We go back a full century, so we have pressed steel trucks, tin toys, Hot Wheels from the 60s. We have a lot of modern stuff like Pokémon anime, you name it," Jimenez said.
Toy Shack has been open during the holiday season for many years, but this will be the first holiday season facing toy tariffs.
"Everybody realized after COVID how dependent we are on China and a lot of these other countries for our goods, so. And that is scary in its own," Jimenez said.
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Financial experts say about 80% of toys are made in China, and as of November, those imports face about a 20% tariff.
"I would say across the board we've noticed at least a 20-25% increase on new product that we order," Jimenez said.
Experts also say about three quarters of this year's shoppers expect tariffs to impact their gift shopping, like Richard Ramirez. He's shopping around for classic cars and noticed prices have gone up.
"If the car is anywhere between $10 to $20 shipping will be around $8.99-9.99. Supposedly to cover the tariffs," Ramirez said. "It's gotten expensive. Right? And it's all about finding the deals. I mean, that's part of the excitement."
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Jimenez says they're one of the lucky ones. They have a warehouse full of inventory, so they're digging deep to keep shelves stocked this season.
"We're a little bit more fortunate than other businesses, we're able to buy on the secondary market, so I've been aggressively going out there buying, traveling to pick up big doll collections, big Lego collections, big figure collections from the consumer," Jimenez said.
But when the inventory starts to run low, they hope customers remember to shop local.
