CLEVELAND — La Plaza Supermarket is never short on spice, providing a range of Mexican, Central American and South American products to northeast Ohioans.

Cristina Gonzales helps track their inventory that comes in from across the globe as the manager of store purchasing.

What You Need To Know

  • The United States is now in a trade war with if Northern American neighbors, Canada and Mexico, as both countries respond to President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on goods coming across their borders

  • Mexico said it will implement its own retaliatory tariffs on specific U.S. goods that will later be announced; and Canada will place more than $100 billion of tariffs on American imports over the next three weeks

  • The impact of these tariffs could soon impact consumers prices, from groceries to technology and gasoline

 

“The majority of the products that we have here at La Plaza, they come from Mexico,” Gonzales said. “We have another ones from different countries, like for example, Colombian and Peruvian and Venezuelan, but the majority of them, they come from Mexico.”

La Plaza Supermarket in Cleveland. (Spectrum News 1/Tanya Velazquez)

Born in Tijuana, Baja California Mexico, Gonzales said, she moved to the United States 15 years ago and has been working at La Plaza for nearly a decade.

In recent years, Gonzales said the supermarket – like other grocery stores around the country – has struggled with inflated grocery prices. These prices could soon take another hit.

Mexico is the largest source of fresh produce for the country, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 2023, the United States imported around 60% of its vegetables and nearly 50% of its fruits and nuts from Mexico. Now, businesses that want to bring those products into the U.S. will have to pay 25% to do so, under President Donald Trump’s new tariffs.

“Part of my job is to, to find those prices, to try to find deals in order for those customers to feel comfortable and shop for good prices, but it’s not promised that they won't go more up,” Gonzalez said.

President Donald Trump is also placing a 25% tariff on Canadian goods and increasing the tariff on Chinese imports to 20%.

La Plaza said it uses Mexican avocados to make in-house guacamole for its store shelves and its taqueria. (Spectrum News/Tanya Velazquez)

The White House wrote in a statement on Monday that the tariffs are part of Trump’s promise to “combat the extraordinary threat to national security” by stopping “the flood of illegal aliens and drugs.”

Mark Schweitzer is an associate professor of economics for the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. 

The newly-impose tariffs could have a direct effect on the price of groceries, he said, including Mexican avocados.

“Avocados are a nice example. Some of what we're paying for in the U.S. is the, the cost of the avocado in Mexico. That's where the tariff is going to be levied. That's where the sort of additional costs are going to be,” Schweitzer said. 

But the impact of these tariffs extends far beyond produce.

The Unites States imported around $108 billion of oil and petroleum products from Canada and almost $120 billion of electronics from China last year, which could mean higher consumer prices for gas and technology moving forward.

Canada’s, China’s and Mexico’s response to U.S. tariffs may create additional hurdles for the U.S. economy, Schweitzer said.

Economic experts say US tariffs could lead to spikes in popular Mexican products like avocados and tequila. (Spectrum News/Tanya Velazquez)

“We've got retaliatory tariffs that causes consumers in China and Canada and Mexico to buy less, [and] that is lower demand for U.S. products.That reduces our rate of growth in our economy,” he said. 

And as business remains uncertain for grocery stores around the nation, Gonzales said, they’re going to do their best to continue meeting the community’s needs.

“We feel so fortunate that to receive the help from all the community,” Gonzales said. “Even though we are raising those prices, customers [are] still coming in, and they shop and they are supporting us.”