Some local businesses, from wine importers to furniture stores, were tense in anticipation of the strike.

“It’s costing us money and it’s costing us our international competitiveness,” said David Shipps-Kelly, director of transportation and logistics at International Forest Products in Foxborough, a global dealer of recycled paper and wood products owned by the owner’s family. New England Patriots. Robert Kraft. Shipps-Kelly said even a short strike will drive up shipping costs, which will be passed on to consumers. And the longer the work stoppage lasts, the worse it gets.

In the lead-up to the strike, companies were trying to find ways to get their merchandise on shore before the upcoming holidays. Jennifer Mehigan, spokeswoman for Massport, which operates the Port of Boston, said traffic at the port picked up earlier this year as companies stocked up on imported goods. “We saw the increase months ago; our spring and early summer volumes were strong,” says Mehigan. “Importers have known this for some time.”

But others waited until it was too late. Al Brari, owner of AJB Transportation, a trucking company in Beverly, said Monday that he regularly received calls from desperate importers asking him to pick up their cargo at the port before Tuesday’s strike deadline. “They started on Friday,” Brari said. “Now they bother me every minute.” But Brari said he only has 12 of the trailers needed to transport shipping containers, and that they had all been discussed by his regular customers.

Robert Hurley, president of Cynthia Hurley French Wines in Newton, said it would have cost too much to buy additional supplies of imported wines and pay to have them stored in a warehouse. “It’s not that drastic,” Hurley said. “We have a lot of inventory.”

Still, he said the strike would hurt. “This is the busiest time of year,” Hurley said. “Absolutely, we are going to lose sales and money.”

The Port of Boston pales in comparison to other American ports. The Conley Container Terminal handled 145,000 shipping containers in the 2024 fiscal year ended June 30. In contrast, the combined Port of New York and New Jersey handled just under 4 million containers in 2023.

In 2022, Massport completed an $850 million expansion of the port, including the installation of three massive cranes for loading and unloading cargo, and dredging the port to accept larger ships.

The Port of Boston is important to local businesses who find it an easy way to obtain imported goods. William George, research director at shipping research company Import Genius, uses U.S. Customs data to track the seaports used by major companies.

According to George, online home goods retailer Wayfair relies on East Coast ports for about 65 percent of all its imported goods. But George said only a handful of these products are shipped to Boston.

It’s a different matter for Marlborough-based BJ’s Wholesale Club. Import Genius data shows that BJ’s receives a quarter of its imports through the Port of Boston and about half through New York-New Jersey.

As for Taunton-based Jordan’s Furniture, Import Genius estimates that the company gets about 90 percent of its imported items through the Port of Boston.

Wayfair and Jordan’s Furniture declined to comment. BJ’s Warehouse Club did not respond to a request for comment.

Shipps-Kelly of International Forest Products said his company moved 50,000 containers last year, but only about 2,500 through the Port of Boston. With all East Coast ports shut down, his company will be forced to ship more products through West Coast ports. And even if the strike ends, he predicted it will take weeks to clear the backlog of ships waiting to be offloaded. In addition, the strike is preventing the return of empty containers to shippers around the world, causing further delays.

“It doesn’t just start and stop,” says Shipps-Kelly. “There are currently ships anchored off the coast awaiting a solution.”

The world’s shipping companies will respond to pent-up demand by charging higher rates. Some may even attempt to collect ‘demurrage charges’ from customers; a fee that ship owners can charge if they are unable to land a cargo and move on to do more business. The Federal Maritime Commission last week warned ship operators not to charge demurrage fees for delays caused by a strike.

Still, a strike of any duration could lead to higher prices and shortages of popular consumer goods — just in time for the holidays and presidential elections.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @GlobeTechLab.