
(Photo: Uncle Jerry's Pretzels)
“Any price increase in a product, whether it’s due to a tariff, a supply chain issue, or extreme weather, it impacts you,” said Misty Skolnick, co-owner of Uncle Jerry’s Pretzels in Lancaster County.
Growing up, Misty Skolnick remembers sitting alongside her father, Jerry, as he delivered his handmade, sourdough pretzels to customers.
She remembers loading and unloading boxes, attending food shows, and, of course, eating them, “especially the chocolate ones.”
So went the humble beginnings of Uncle Jerry’s Pretzels, which Skolnick’s father founded in 1989.
“He is a Philadelphia native and he was approached with this idea of a hard, handmade sourdough pretzel,” Skolnick said. “He realized there wasn’t too much like it on the shelves in Philly at the time. So he got some bags of pretzels, went door-to-door, and just started selling his product and it took off from there.”
That was almost 40 years ago. Today, Uncle Jerry’s Pretzels are distributed nationally to large chain stores such as Whole Foods, as well as independent retailers. The pretzels are made in a rural Lancaster County bakery by 25 women from different Amish and Mennonite sects who hand bake the pretzels every day. They are one of many beloved pretzel and potato chip manufacturers located in Pennsylvania’s snack belt.
Skolnick joined her father in the family business 16 years ago.
“I am so proud of my dad for everything that he’s done,” she said. “I want this to succeed. I want this to last. I want to see another 40 years.”

Jerry Skolnick, owner and founder of Uncle Jerry’s Pretzels. (Photo courtesy of Uncle Jerry’s Pretzels)
But, as a small business owner, Skolnick said, she is always concerned about the future and viability of her company. Recently, she’s had cause for even more concern: how the tariffs President-elect Donald Trump has promised to levy on foreign goods will impact her family’s business.
Throughout his campaign and even after winning the election, Trump has said he would impose tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada, and China as soon as he takes office, according to the Associated Press.
Trump asserts that tariffs — basically import taxes — will create more factory jobs, shrink the federal deficit, lower food prices, and allow the government to subsidize childcare.
Economists, on the other hand, are generally skeptical, considering tariffs to be a mostly inefficient way for governments to raise money.
What is a tariff?
Tariffs are a tax on imports. They are typically charged as a percentage of the price a buyer pays a foreign seller. Tariffs are collected by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at all ports of entry across the country.
The tariff rates range from passenger cars (2.5%) to golf shoes (6%). Tariffs can be lower for countries with which the U.S. has trade agreements.
Trump insists that tariffs are paid for by foreign countries. It is actually importers, or American companies, that pay tariffs. Those companies, in turn, typically pass their higher costs on to their customers in the form of higher prices. That’s why economists say consumers usually end up footing the bill for tariffs.
What does a tariff mean to small businesses?
Small businesses like Uncle Jerry’s stand to feel the ‘trickle down’ effect of tariffs, which could result in price increases
“We don’t import anything directly,” Skolnick said. “However, our suppliers do. So the people that we work with, and we try to work with all Pennsylvania businesses, most of them have global partners. If the tariffs hit that industry, for example cardboard or the plastic film we use for the bags, then that might trickle down to us via our suppliers.”

Misty Skolnick, co-owner of Uncle Jerry’s Pretzels.
Skolnick said the company recently had to increase the price of its chocolate-covered pretzels because the price of chocolate increased dramatically due to supply chain issues and overall global demand.
The company’s chocolate provider experienced a 40% increase in price, which was passed along to Uncle Jerry’s.
“Any price increase in a product, whether it’s due to a tariff, a supply chain issue, or extreme weather, it impacts you,” Skolnick said.
Skolnick and her father grappled with how much of that increase they wanted to pass on to the customer and how much the company itself would eat. In the end, the company was forced to raise the price of its chocolate-covered pretzels around 15-20%, Skolnick said.
“My dad and I are always concerned about any type of pricing volatility,” Skolnick said. “Ultimately, what we try to do is balance our need to stay in business with our desire to continue supplying our pretzels at a fair price to our customers.”
Tariffs on packaging materials or ingredients could mean that Skolnick and her father will have to raise their prices again, or take the loss in profits — financial scenarios that could prove tough to weather for a company the size of Uncle Jerry’s.
“I am always worried about the viability of small family businesses,” Skolnick said. “I think that is notwithstanding tariffs. I think it’s a changing landscape of businesses. And I think tariffs, or potential tariffs, are really adding another layer to that. What will it mean to be a small business in 20 years?”
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