Truth in the Barrel Small Batch Episode : Tariffs Hit Home Our own Denver Riggleman tells Amy McGrath what his own distillery has been going through since President Donald Trump’s tariff stunt. Amy points out that according to her own pocket constitution, Trump’s tariffs may not have been legal in the first place. *This episode was recorded on April 18, 2025, and aired on April 21, 2025. About Truth in the Barrel: Amy and Denver are both military veterans, political junkies, and whiskey lovers who sit on opposite sides of the aisle but have one thing in common: they love the United States of America. Truth in the Barrel was born of Amy & Denver’s commitment to country, the Constitution, and a well-curated collection of the world’s finest bourbon. Join them weekly for deep dives into timely topics, interviews with recognizable guests, and a dose of call-in fun. Silverback Distillery: https://www.sbdistillery.com/ Visit Our Website: www.TruthintheBarrel.com Subscribe to Truth in the Barrel: https://www.youtube.com/@TruthIntheBarrel Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0JQcSj5mwVyGDJ8DcXwlu9?si=5f2bd1d1b0c64e6f Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/truth-in-the-barrel/id1804092329 Instagram, BlueSky, Facebook, TikTok: @TruthintheBarrel
Chapter 1: What are the effects of tariffs on small businesses?
Das hat uns fast während Covid-19 beendet. Ja, genau. So anyhow, I get a call from my wife about three days ago. Now we're still paying on many of our, I know, Amy, this is going to shock you. We're actually still paying COVID surcharges from 2021 and 2020 today. So she calls me and she's beside herself. And we had just gotten two pallets delivered to us of bottles.
Chapter 2: How did COVID-19 impact Denver's distillery?
She goes, honey, I got to tell you something. I'm like, oh, because we just got a retroactive tariff charge. What? Yeah. Yeah, our bottle prices went from $1.01 a bottle to $1.55 a bottle.
So they're preemptively jacking up the prices on you. Is it because of the uncertainty?
I think when you see instability... Ja, genau. So that's interesting, right? And we're really angry about it. The issue is, you can't accept, they won't let you accept the bottles unless you pay. It's not like we can just say, oh no, we want the original price. It doesn't work that way. And you're like, well, why is that so bad?
When you're working on small margins, there's a cascading effect to employees. You got a budget. So there's a couple things I can do. Number one, Right. We try to. There's three things. We just we try to go with existing inventory until we think things are going to go better. It's really hard, really hard. Maybe we can make it through. The second thing is you decrease labor. Right.
You fire people. Yeah. Right. Good job. Third thing is, you pass the cost on the consumer. Now, we're not even to tariffs yet, but people are like, oh, wait a minute, tariffs haven't happened, retail Denver and Christine. How dare you? We're already getting charged on supply chains, just not bottles. It's corks. It's shrink wrap. People have no idea, right?
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Chapter 3: What are retroactive tariff charges?
Corks, shrink wrap are specialty bottles. Wax.
I think what a lot of people maybe don't realize, and I didn't even realize it until now, is we read about tariffs and oh, when they go in effect and this is who they're going to impact. But the reality is, it's already impacting. Because it's the uncertainty of this man in the White House who doesn't know what he's doing, who's just throwing everything into upheaval.
And that has cascading effects. Even if tomorrow he waved his wand and said, I'm just kidding, I'm not going to do these tariffs. It's already having a damaging effect.
What's he going to do the next day though, Amy? He's going to change his mind again? This is a guy who doesn't pay his vendors. A guy who I don't actually think understands supply chains. You know, people think car building, oh God, complex. You know, you think about Ford.
Ford, the day that he came out with the tariffs, they had their stupid thing where they came out and said, oh, you could buy our vehicles at employee prices. Guess what Ford just announced yesterday? We're going to have to up our prices. We knew that was coming. We're building stuff like the, oh, come on, right? The reason they could do that at that second is they were hoping to dump inventory.
Yeah. Yeah, they're working alright. I actually saw, I think it was ABC Morning News, Amy, talk about Ford doing that because of the terrorist look. But are they reporting as heavy and as propagandity, you know, as ridiculously, you know, why did I just think, I don't know why I just thought of Zoolander. But anyway, so I just, I don't understand, you know, the ridiculously good looking.
But I don't understand, you know, now the news isn't blaring out the negative news from all this as hard as it was like, oh, look what happened there. So it's just interesting to me, but Personally, Christy and I had to talk about who to cut if this continues. And people we love, they don't get it.
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Chapter 4: How do tariffs affect supply chain costs?
And if I told Christy, okay, to make up 54 cents on a bottle and the small pennies, maybe it's 90 cents to a dollar five more we're paying on wholesale gross for a bottle, corks, wraps, all that. Do you know how much I have to charge more for a bottle in order to make just that money back? $4. Und jetzt startest du, das über deinen ganzen Inventarschedule zu multiplizieren.
Und ich denke, das ist, was die Leute verstehen müssen, dass es kleine Unternehmen sind. Und unsere Unternehmen sind wahrscheinlich wertvoll, ich will es nicht sagen, aber ich meine, es sind in den wenigen Millionen, right? Kleinere Unternehmen, die für uns zwischen 20 und 25 vollzeitige und part-zeitige Mitarbeiter sind, die in der Produktion mit der Supply Chain Line arbeiten.
Chapter 5: What instability do businesses face under current tariffs?
Absolutely devastating. And it's because of economic uncertainty. And when the tariffs hit, we're going to get more charges. And then the cascading effect is an absolute nuke.
This policy is so dumb. But here's something that we could actually drink on, okay? That I think is a positive. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. The other night, because I was thinking the same thing, because, you know, I taught the Constitution. I thought to myself, gee, nowhere do I ever remember the president in Article 2 having any of these powers. So I looked up Article 1, Section 8 in the U.S.
Constitution. It actually says that Congress has the power to, quote, lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises and grants Congress the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, And also that all relates to tariffs. In addition, Congress, Article 1, Section 9, that clause prohibits states from imposing tariffs on imports and exports without the consent of Congress.
So here's the thing. Nowhere does it say the president has this power. All of the powers reside within Congress. So in my mind, all of these lawsuits are going in the right direction. It's just a matter of one. Will the courts read the Constitution? And then two, will our president follow it?
Well, maybe the Tickle Me Elmo Congress shouldn't roll over and show their belly to Trump and give away all of their article on responsibilities to somebody who doesn't know what he's doing. And I think that's where we're at. And Amy, I want to say one thing. Thank you for caring.
for doing this small batch for me to show people how tariffs affect real businesses and real people and how it can affect people's lives in a way that people cannot understand unless they're running a business with a supply chain issue and tariffs that affect it. And for that, ma'am, cheers to you. Amazing. Thank you.
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Chapter 6: Why is the uncertainty of tariffs problematic?
And I tell you what, if people aren't actually subscribing to this show on YouTube or they're not downloading us on their favorite pod, they don't get to drink with us anymore.
We got a lot more coming.
We got a lot more coming. Amy, it's good to see you. Thanks. Cheers.
70% der Anleger verlieren Geld.
Ich bin Charissa und meine Empfehlung an alle Entrepreneure, startet mit Shopify erfolgreich durch. Ich verwende Shopify schon seit dem ersten Tag und die Plattform macht mir nie Probleme. Ich habe viele Probleme, aber die Plattform ist nie eins davon. Ich habe das Gefühl, dass Shopify ihre Plattform kontinuierlich optimiert. Alles ist super einfach, integrier- und verlinkbar.
Und die Zeit und das Geld, das ich dadurch spare, kann ich anderweitig investieren. Vor allem in Wachstum.
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