A Fairfax County, Virginia, mother launched her company more than a decade ago because she saw a need for products for breastfeeding moms.
Recognizing the difficulty of toting breast pumping equipment between home and work, Sarah Wells launched Sarah Wells Bags, an online seller of designer breast pump bags and backpacks.
Stream NBC4 newscasts for free right here, right now.
WATCH HEREOn Capitol Hill on Thursday, she told Democratic lawmakers that President Donald Trump’s tariff policies are endangering her business.
“I’m asking for relief from a trade policy that could very well end my business and others like it,” Wells said.
We have the news you need to know to start your day. Sign up for the First & 4Most morning newsletter — delivered to your inbox daily.
SIGN UP Wells’ warehouse for her products is in Madison, Virginia. Her five employees, plus contract workers, are all American. But her product comes from China. She said between existing and new tariffs, she can no longer afford to bring her bags into the port of Baltimore.
“Could I pay $86,000 to get that $43,000 container of goods out of the port? Absolutely not. That exceeds multiple salaries on our team. We’d have to cut people to release our goods,” she said.
Wells placed her last order from China earlier this year and expects she may run out of inventory by summer. She’s hoping to pivot and traveled to Cambodia recently to find a manufacturer there would be subject to lower tariffs.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
Wells said she’s searched six times for an American maker but hasn’t found a company that can handle the volume of her business.
“I would love to manufacture here,” she said. “I would love that, but it doesn’t exist at scale.”
She said she’s unsure her company will survive.
“I thought in this country, if you had a solution that the market wanted, that that was how you could scale to success, and I had gotten there. And now to see that a singular policy can overnight take away the whole American dream is really, really sad to me,” she said.
Her greatest hope is that more Republican voices will join those of Democrats in urging Trump to lift the tariffs.
She said she also worries about the new moms she serves. With tariffs pushing prices up, they’ll have to make difficult choices about the supplies they buy to care for their babies.
