Some small businesses raise prices due to tariffs, Colorado liquor store reducing them

Many small businesses in Colorado have taken a significant hit due to tariffs. While some of those businesses are passing along the increased costs to customers, a local liquor store is doing the opposite and reducing its prices for wines and spirits.

At Mr. B's Wine & Spirits, they're in the spirit of helping customers.

"We're just trying to think put ourselves in the shoes of the consumer, and if they continue to see prices go up, they're going to not shop with us," said General Manager Ryan Corey.

They bring in products from all over the world, including Europe, Canada and Mexico, all hit with tariffs.

Corey said around 65% of their wine selection has been impacted by tariffs, and more than half of their products have increased in cost in the past year.

"They've all been affected some way, somehow, by tariff increases upwards of 20% at some points. These prices have been absorbed by either us or the importers," said Corey.

Instead of bottling up the tariff costs and passing them along to customers, they're reducing prices instead.

"We've taken a different approach and taken a look at basically every single product in the store, bottle by bottle, and looked at it, looked at our margins, strategize how we could get those prices lower, and still be able to be a sustainable and successful business," said Corey, who added some bottles of wine have gone down $1 up to $10.

Meanwhile, at Blue Spruce Chocolates in Kittredge, owner Mark Joyce imports the beans from Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. What is not so sweet, he says, are soaring cocoa prices and tariff impacts.

"When I buy a bag of beans now from our distributor, there's a line item on the invoice for the tariff that's been applied to the beans. A bag of beans is now 15% more than what it was in January," said Joyce.

Joyce added that the ingredients to make the chocolates have also been impacted by tariffs. He said they import their cocoa butter, vanilla, and even the packaging, all of which have been affected. Joyce said due to the increased costs, the chocolate shop had no choice but to raise its prices.

"We just can't absorb that, 15% is just too much for a small business to try to absorb. So, we've had to pass on the cost of the tariffs to our customers," said Joyce. "We're quite transparent with our customers too that the prices have increased."

While the liquor store is looking at its margins and losing a little bit of profit with its price reductions, it's gaining support and hopes to bring in more customers with the change.

"We can survive the pressures and competitions with the grocery stores and the big box stores, so small stores like us can find consumers to come shop with us over and over again," said Corey. "We're going to lower our prices and hopefully make you feel more comfortable with what we have on the shelves."

Corey said they began rolling out the price reductions in early November, right before the holidays, and will continue the price reductions indefinitely. He added that in December 2025, the store did better than it did the year before.