Show notes
There's a story we often tell ourselves about the American economy, particularly when we talk about trade, manufacturing, and small business.
It is often simplified in political debates – one focused on bringing jobs back, on buying American, on protecting local industries through measures like tariffs.
But the reality, as lived by the people actually making things, sourcing ingredients, and meeting payroll, is often far more complex, tangled in global supply chains and buffeted by forces far beyond their control.
Homes, families, and livelihoods are at stake while people up top seem to be posting through it.
What does it really mean when tariffs are threatened, implemented, and changed creating uncertainty? How does a third-generation bakery navigate sourcing ingredients like chocolate, which simply isn't grown commercially in the US, or finding replacement parts for specialized European machinery?
What happens to prices, to cash flow, to the viability of a beloved local business when costs for everything from healthcare to shipping surge, and it feels like the people in elected office only care about the biggest, billionaire businesses?
My guest today, Joe Hakim, is the General Manager of Ackroyd's Scottish Bakery, a long-standing institution in the Detroit area.
And he's been doing something relatively unusual: using social media to be remarkably transparent about the granular, often frustrating, day-to-day realities of running his business while dealing with these pressures.
This isn't abstract economic theory for Joe. This is real life.
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