A number of distributors and car audio suppliers say that their businesses have taken a double digit hit to sales due to immigrants staying home and halting spending.
Some distributors and suppliers have seen a 10 to 15 percent decline in areas with large illegal immigrant populations. Some individual dealers have seen a steeper decline. Others are not impacted by the issue at all.
Pockets of the country that appear hardest hit include Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Chicago. Some have also cited other regions in California and New Jersey and cities including Atlanta and Charlotte, NC, New York and Denver.
Most industry members chose to speak off the record. We interviewed more than a dozen industry members who said their businesses have been impacted. Many noted that other businesses including restaurants are also affected.
One distributor said immigrant populations account for 50 percent or more of its customer base. “They are not coming out, they are not spending money, it’s affecting all business here—restaurants, cellphone shops, gas stations.” He said his car audio sales are down 10 percent.
Another large distributor said “Everyone is feeling a little impact.” And he said, its not so much a matter of one state being more affected than another, but key metropolitan areas across the US are feeling a pinch.
A supplier said, “We believe 20 to 25 percent of our business is from immigrants—guys doing construction. They are hiding right now, not working and not buying. Guys who used to go out and buy trucks and fix them up and show them off are not doing that right now. “
Another distributor said, “Everybody’s feeling it a little bit. They see what’s happening on TV and it affects them. People aren’t shopping as much.”
Some dealers in the Southeast said the bigger impact to their business has been the cold weather. For example, parts of North Carolina received a foot of snow in January.
One distributor with a large US footprint said of the impact from illegal immigration enforcement, “Yes, 100 percent. There’s no doubt that in Southern California, Texas, Southern Florida, Chicago, Metro New York and even Denver, anywhere there is a large Hispanic population, there’s an impact. We’ve been trying to track it but there are so many other impacts right now—tariffs, weather, economic changes.”
He said currently, many distributors are forecasting for Christmas sales next year. But, “there’s just so much uncertainty in general, it’s just played havoc with forecasting. We’ll see what tax time brings.”
Note: No political comments, please. We are a business journal, reporting on business issues.
source: https://www.ceoutlook.com/2026/02/24/immigration-issue-impacts-car-audio/
