‘We really hope for it to stop’

Aaron Brown stopped ordering guitars from his Quebec supplier when tariffs became a looming threat in the United States.

Then he watched as US$12,000 worth of instruments didn’t make it to Town Center Music, his store in Suwanee, Ga., in time for back-to-school shopping. It was August, there was a slew of new U.S.-based tariffs and shipping companies were confused.

As such, the beginner guitars — bought offshore for decades — sat in their home countries.

Now Brown is eyeing an “existential threat” to U.S. music instrument retailers as tariffs drive up prices and cool customer spending. He clocked a 24 per cent year-over-year sales drop in October.

“It’s a really uncertain time,” Brown said. “Lots of us in the U.S. are just not behind any of this.

“We look at this with the same skeptic