Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: Fantom Comics, tariffs
Jacob Shapiro Of Fantom Comics On National News To Talk Trump Tariffs
Jacob Shapiro of Fantom Comics in Washington DC, goes on national TV news to talk about the impact of the new Trump tariffs
Article Summary
- Fantom Comics' Jacob Shapiro discusses the impact of Trump tariffs on CBS News.
- Shapiro highlights that nearly all store products, from comics to manga, are imported.
- Concerns raised about higher costs leading customers to cut back on non-essentials.
- Shapiro questions the current strategy for shifting manufacturing back to the USA.
Comic book store Fantom Comics of Washington, DC, is located very close indeed to the White House, just a mile away. This is why it may have been picked by CBS News to return to through the day yesterday, interviewing store manager and co-owner Jacob Shapiro about the impact he is expecting from the new US tariffs on much of the rest of the world, as he stated, "almost everything in the store from the comics and graphic novels to the manga to the Hello Kitty plushies board games almost all of it comes from overseas." When asked if there was any production in the USA, he stated, "There's a little bit, there's a couple printers in the US, but there's not a lot."
The show stated that Shapiro "worries that customers will cut back on little luxuries if essentials get more expensive and said, "There's a non-zero chance that we're not going to survive the next couple years." When told that the President says he's doing this to help small businesses, Shapiro replied, "I don't know what he's thinking. I get the idea of wanting to bring manufacturing back to the US, but we need a plan, and it's going to be something that takes years to do. You can't just flip a switch and change distribution models."
Bleeding Cool looked at the origins of the figures as well as the possible impact of the new US government tariff structure that was launched this week and the impact it is having, but a first-hand account of something like this from someone directly affected is always going to hit harder. Fantom Comics was established in 2005, Jacob Shapiro joined in 2014, they are celebrating its twentieth year in business and are part of the Bleeding Cool Weekly Bestseller List chart. Whether the store will have a twenty-first may be a whole different story.
