Your inbox over the past month has probably been filled with emails like the one Jacob Sendowski sent to his customers on April 17.

Sendowski is the co-founder of Souper Cubes, a California-based business that makes silicone trays and other accessories for freezing leftovers. The email subject line: “An update on our pricing.” Followed by a heart emoji.

“We wanted to just explain to our customers what the tariffs mean for us, practically,” said Sendowski, who launched Souper Cubes with his wife about eight years ago. “Why we're here in this situation, which also means like, why did we make our products in China to start with, and why have we been making them there?”

The 875-word email explains in careful, very nonpartisan terms that China has a well-established factory ecosystem that the U.S. simply does not. While Souper Cubes will explore alternative manufacturing locations, including the U.S., they will have to raise prices at some point this year because of massive new import duties.

Sendowski said positive responses to the announcement far outnumbered mean ones. But there were mean ones.

“You should quit making your products in China,” one response read. “Don’t whine about tariffs when it’s your fault about making your crap in China. It’s disgusting and I will never buy your product ever. Losers.”

“We’re not a political organization,” said Sendowski. “I think the tariffs end up becoming a political thing, because people have their opinions about the administration.”

Businesses across the country are walking a tariff communications tightrope: how to message they’ll have to raise prices because of new import taxes without losing customers for political, economic or other reasons.

Souper Cube sales were four times higher the day the company’s email went out compared to the day before. And that was without any “tariffs are coming — buy now!” subject line or “tariff2025” discount codes.

Sendowksi said he didn’t really think about imploring customers to buy his non-tariffed inventory as soon as possible.

“I don't know, it just kind of felt icky to me,” said Sendowski. “You know, our goal is to ride it out and see, maybe the tariffs are gonna go down.”

The high tariff levels announced by the Trump administration on April 2 have dropped for most of the products Corinne Tomlinson sells — at least temporarily.

She’s the founder of the The Woolly Thistle, an online yarn shop based in New Hampshire that specializes in imported wool, mostly from Europe.

But in the immediate aftermath of so-called “Liberation Day”, Tomlinson recorded a video for her 50,000-plus newsletter subscribers, telling them her company and suppliers and distributors would eat as much of the tariff costs as they can.

In the video, Tomlinson appears very reassuring and calm. Inside, she wasn’t feeling that way.

“I was feeling all the feels,” said Tomlinson. “I mean, you know, it’s been hard, it’s just been hard.”

Tomlinson’s didn’t want her tariff video to be the source of any new stress for her customers. And going forward, she intends to be sparing in what tariff related announcement she puts out — it’s not good for her brand.

“Knitting, and you know, being in, being with your friends from knitting, you know, you don't necessarily want to be talking about politics there all the time, or the price of yarn, or anything,” said Tomlinson. “You want to go and take a break from real life.”

Thanks to the 90-day pause, Tomlinson hasn’t had to increase prices because of tariffs for the vast majority of her products. But for some yarns that are still being tariffed at higher rates, she’s had to raise prices 6-7%.

Matt Hassett at the sleep tech company Loftie had to increase his prices by considerably more.

“So we just raised the price on our Loftie lamp from $275 to $450,” said Hassett. “It's a big jump.”

The Loftie Lamp is made in China. It emits customizable colors and sounds that are supposed to help your circadian rhythm.

Aside from telling customers they probably should buy before the tariffs kick in, he’s given up on trying to make the price hike palatable.

“I’m just resigned to not selling a lot of lamps during this time,” Hassett said.

He’s planning on adding a sign-up option for customers to be notified if and when the tariffs are reduced and he can bring down the price of the lamp.

Although he feels like that news will travel pretty quickly anyway.