Local wine shop discusses tariff impact with most sales from imported wine
Apr 04, 2025
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - Recent tariffs have created a lot of economic uncertainty, and that also goes for some here at home. A local wine shop owner told KFOR Friday that they’re experiencing a lot of unknown at the moment, with a large majority of their sales coming from imported items.
"We're
a little unsure as to what's coming,” 31-year-old owner of Monopole Wine Co. Tony Rivera said.
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Rivera’s company joins a common theme for others that import products amid the recent tariffs out of Washington. Rivera said 90 percent of their sales are imported European wine.
"When you put this much financial stress on distributors, margins are already difficult because people aren't drinking wine,” he said.
The small business near Western Avenue and 63rd Street opened back in December. They mainly specialize in fine wines while also partnering with a U.S.-based company to build and install wine racks. Past threats of tariffs and the recent 20 percent across the board for the European Union have shown early effects.
"One of my champagne producers that is a rather sought-after wine, they're just not importing anymore,” Rivera said.
That’s not even mentioning potential price hikes in the future.
"French oak is going to go up, corks are going to go up, bottles are going to go up, labels, ink,” he said. "A $10 wine is going to be $14 to $15 by the time we have the margins all the way through."
It’s all a waiting game, though. Rivera said he doesn’t expect major impacts until June or July. Anything past that could cause issues.
"We're going to see some serious implications and a lot of it's going to be selection,” he said. “There's going be less and less wine available to us just because the producers are pulling out."
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With enough products already stateside, Rivera said that they’re going to do what they can for some time. However, it can’t be forever.
"We're going to do our best to mitigate, but there's only so much we can do before it's just too difficult, costs are too high,” he said.
Rivera has been in the alcohol service industry for 10 years, from restaurants to liquor stores to his own business now. He said that it’s been a whirlwind of learning in recent weeks while talking with importers about future effects. He said they also sell domestic wine, but a lot of their clients come there to try something different, and he said domestic wines could see an increase at some point as well. ...read more read less