After years of building up her business, including buying her own warehouse and getting her product into big retailers, Beth Benike was poised to have her highest sales yet in 2025. Busy Baby, which makes high-chair mats for babies to use at mealtimes, had just secured contracts at Target and Walmart, big-box stores that could scale the business up big time.
“We were on track to have our best year ever, and now it’s quite the opposite,” Benike said.
President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports, which reached 145% this year, made it prohibitively expensive to ship Busy Baby products into the U.S. from its factory in China. Busy Baby went out of stock for its most important products, leading to a devastating loss of revenue.
“We still are hanging by a thread,” Benike said. “We still don’t know if we’re going to make it much longer.”
Marketplace’s Kristin Schwab talked to Benike about the next steps for her business.
To listen to their full conversation, use the audio player above.
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