When Monesha Phillips started her retail store, Pandora’s Box, in Federal Hill 25 years ago, she was among the first small businesses to open up alongside Cross Street Market and a few other bars.

While Phillips, raised in South Baltimore, said it has been amazing to watch the neighborhood transform, it has been filled with “ups and downs,” including the many economic challenges she has faced alongside other small businesses this year. Higher business costs, fewers customers, and tariffs on goods she sells have made the milestone year a bit more difficult for her shop.

She said she “had to pivot a lot this year,” adding that she has dealt very little with tariffs in her over two decades of business ownership. “Things that I would normally sell I can no longer sell,” including some items that have tripled in price, she said.

Phillips is not alone in navigating the new economic landscape under President Donald Trump’s trade policies and what some Baltimore small business owners have described as a slow start to the holiday season after the recent government shutdown.

This Small Business Saturday, an annual event following Black Friday meant to bring customers to local businesses, brought in less foot traffic than usual for Jinji Fraser’s Jinji Chocolate in Waverly.

Fraser, who moved her Belvedere Square Market chocolate stall to a store in Waverly in 2023, said it is clear that customers have had to make more “intentional” spending decisions this year.

“We’ve been doing it long enough to ride the tide to an extent,” Fraser said. “But it still is unsettling.”

The chocolate company’s main product, cacao, has become increasingly hard to source, as most of it is imported from other countries.

Trump introduced a general tariff against a list of countries in April and has changed rates for each country as he has negotiated with their leaders. But some small business owners have suffered from the increased prices and volatile shifts in the supply chain, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Fraser said the business is relying on some leftover stock from before the new tariff policies, but “it’s not going to last forever.” She said there may be some hard decisions regarding the store’s prices and how they’ll source their ingredients in the new year.

In Fells Point, Darron Waller said he has also noticed fewer people in his store, Mahogany Makers, where he sells locally designed clothes, art and beauty products. He said last holiday season, the most profitable months for retailers, was busier than this year’s.

Waller, the longtime designer of the Alkebu-Lan clothing line, opened his first brick-and-mortar store last year on Thames Street. He will celebrate Mahogany Makers’ first anniversary on Dec. 6 in the store with an event called Makers Mixer.

“You can definitely see a change in people’s willingness to shop and just browse,” Waller said.

He’s concerned that many people no longer have the resources to take care of themselves let alone the disposable income to spend at stores.

Marylanders have been through a lot this year: Federal worker layoffs hit thousands of residents, and the government shutdown delayed pay for many more. Plus, inflation and unemployment rates continue to rise across the country, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Urban Reads Bookstore owner Tia Hamilton said it has always been difficult to make money as a small business owner, but she is hopeful the holiday season will keep her busy.

“We need more help. ... Without small businesses, [the community] is not going to thrive,” Hamilton said.

Urban Reads Bookstore, a 6-year-old staple in Waverly that mostly sells literature by Black authors, employs young people and formerly incarcerated individuals in the community. Hamilton started the store to uplift her community through literacy and education.

Earlier this year, Hamilton was the victim of racist harassment, including one person who said her store should be destroyed. She still receives hate messages from time to time, but she said, “They can’t shut me down.”

This article has been updated to correct the location of Jinji Chocolate in a photo caption.