Holiday attractions across the Chattanooga region said they’ve secured enough Christmas lights to run shows this year, even as federal tariffs disrupted supply chains for businesses that depend on imported electronics from China.
But one local lighting company, NoogaLights, canceled a planned show for Fort Oglethorpe’s Barnhardt Circle. NoogaLights’ owner, John Haustein, said the show would have been the first of its kind at the site and was designed to run alongside the city’s ice-skating venue.
“The tariffs that have been going on has affected our industry greatly,” he said by phone.
The company had every intention of following through with the show, he said, but decided not to pass off price hikes for the lights to visitors. The costs were stable from the manufacturer, but once the lights landed in the country, prices became unknown and were projected to be high.
“For us, we’re looking at a half-a-million to a million light bulbs per show, and when that price doubles,” Haustein said, “that is just not something that we can absorb.”