NORFOLK, Neb. -- In the wake of President Trump's tariff announcements on foreign imports, Paul’s Cigar Lounge in Downtown Norfolk and Hastings opened its doors to reveal the real-world impact on local businesses dealing in tobacco. 

Paul’s Cigar lounge imports all of their products because cigars are not mass produced in the United States. Unfortunately, tobacco products have already been tariffed once at 10%, but with the president looking to hike that number up to 18%, that would cause every single product in the store to only keep rising price. 

"The 18% tariff is coming in from Nicaragua where the majority of them come from, and the other 10% is from other countries," said Norfolk & Hastings Paul’s Cigar Lounge Owner Paul Hamelink. "Right now, the 18% is paused, so it's currently at 10%. So that means a 10% wholesale price increase, and It gets passed on to us for all the products we sell."

Most cigar prices vary, but a 10% increase on the wholesale price depends on how the cigar company sells, because in Nebraska they are taxed 20% on the cigars wholesale price that have been brought in. 

"If a cigar company simply increases their wholesale price to incorporate that 10% increase, I have to pay another 20% on that. So, it's an effective 12% increase to the consumer. Then we put a 7% sales tax on every sale, and so a consumer would expect to pay somewhere about 13% more. So, on the price of a cigar, that's going to be anywhere from a dollar to a few dollars."

Hamelink said. At this point, we have not raised our prices because we have existing inventory, but as of May 1st., Cigars stores will increase their prices to include the cost tariffs will have on the business, but more importantly there are other consumers he is also concerned for.

"We are an agriculture based economy and farmers who are concerned about selling their soybeans to China, I do see some consumer pulling back because they don't know how this is all going to play out good, bad or otherwise."

Through it all Hamelink is choosing to stay optimistic, and hopes other businesses will do the same.

"If it's an improvement in the world market and the United States, it could be a good thing. We don't know yet because It's too soon," said Hamelink. "So, I would stay the course, and I wouldn't be afraid to do it. This all depends on how business decides to go."

"A 12% to 13% increase can affect pricing of the consumers activities, but you know what. For a lot of people, they're going to be able to absorb that, and we and we will have to wait and see how it plays out. If it works out in the long run, great. If not, we will need to go back and fix it."