CINCINNATI — For small business owners, tariffs have been an additional challenge to work around this year. For one Italian market owned by Italian immigrants, these tariffs are not only impacting their store, but their home country.

They share how they aren’t willing to compromise their products despite the tariffs.

What You Need To Know

  • At VV The Italian Experience, nearly every product and ingredient is hand-picked from Italy 

  • When tariffs were announced earlier this year, the owners, who moved to the U.S from Italy in 2014, were hopeful they wouldn't be as bad as originally predicted 

  • While the tariffs are impacting some of their pricing, they are committed to keeping their Italian products on the shelves 

When you step inside VV The Italian Experience, it’s almost like being in Italy.

For owners Melissa De Giorgi and Andrea Stefano, that was the entire point.

“Obviously we moved so far away, it was a very difficult decision," De Giorgi said. "I needed something here to, you know, just to share our culture.”

Melissa De Giorgi is the face behind VV and is passionate about the Italian ingredients and products they use and sell. (Spectrum News 1/Katie Kapusta)

The couple moved to Cincinnati in 2014.

“We were born in this southern east part of Puglia called Salento," Stefano said.

A good cappuccino is key in Italy and at VV. (Spectrum News 1/Katie Kapusta)

And they saw an opportunity in the Queen City to create VV in 2023.

“There's something about the city that we really liked because it is an international feel," Stefano said. "But more important, there is need for, there is a desire for, Italian lifestyle.”

But when the tariffs on European goods were announced earlier this year, they knew it would impact nearly every part of their business: from pastries, to coffee to wine.

“Everybody was in Italy freaking out and they were like, you know, we're going to lose the piece of the business," Stefano said. "We can't sell the wines for 200% etc, etc. But I always thought, this is a game that politicians are playing.”

VV sells entirely Italian wine, including their own label Vigne Vecchie. (Spectrum News 1/Katie Kapusta)

While the tariffs on wine have decreased. It’s something Stefano says is much more manageable.

“Today it is going to be 10%, which is not a super huge increase because the wine is a decent price point," he said. "So increasing a bottle of wine by $1 is not going to put the wine at danger because people are not going to buy because of that.”

Andrea Stefano says the tariffs on Italian wines shouldnt impact them too much, but the unpredictability of it is difficult. (Spectrum News 1/Katie Kapusta)

But the mantra at VV is staying the same: Italian products will stay at the forefront.

“The purpose to have Italian products here. It's the most important thing," De Giorgi said. "So, I think we can adjust between the price that we decide to sell our product and the quality. I can't put on the side of quality, unfortunately. So I need to continue to be constant.”

While the worry remains, they say that is part of owning their own business and will continue to push through.

“We would like to stay on that task and not let all these other things bother us," Stefano said. "Because tariff is one of the things, but there are 1 million things when you run a business that you can be stressed about.”