10 ms·
Best Buy and Target CEOs say prices are about to go up because of tariffs
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Sabinus 2y agoAny bets on how this will be justified by Trump voters? I'm thinking at first it'll be 'playing hardball negotiating tactic' and when it looks like the tariffs are here to stay 'paying more is patriotic'.
- jurenbert 2y ago[dead]
- SSchick 2y agoPlenty of videos around, default rethoric is to 'give them time, they said it would hurt at first' which sounds awfully close what people in abusive relationships would say now that I think about it.
- smrtinsert 2y ago"Tariffs will save the free market!" or some other typical contradictory blather.
- cmrdporcupine 2y agoThere's already talk about the tariffs being curtailed tomorrow. Which got the stock market all hopeful at end of day. Which I'm sure if this happens, will be accompanied by some bullshit claims of some concessions he supposedly obtained. And a lot of people in-the-know who made easy coin on the stock market today. And his followers will eat it up. Last month there was all sorts of blather on social media about how "Trudeau caved" because "Trump strong" etc. despite Canada simply re-iterating the same position it had had since December.
- plagiarist 2y agoClassic Elon Musk securities fraud to publicly declare things, whether true or false, which move the market.
- throwaway48476 2y ago[flagged]
- slavik81 2y agoIt's hard to overstate how pissed off Canadians are about Trump's threats to annex Canada through economic bullying. People I know who have never boycotted anything are now boycotting US goods and services. There will be long-term consequences even if it's walked back tomorrow.
- cmrdporcupine 2y agoYeah I am generally not a nationalist by conviction or intellect but this stuff has me tearing up to the national anthem and putting stuff back on the shelf at the grocery store.
- throwaway48476 2y agoIts a brand equity bonfire.
- klipt 2y ago100 years of friendship thrown away by a demented Russian asset president.
- move-on-by 2y agoNo, it will be Biden’s fault for ruining the economy and causing inflation. Trump didn’t have a choice, just trying to save the economy really. Doing what’s best for the people.
- dalyons 2y agoImagine actually believing this. Contrary to every economist and qualified takes.
- move-on-by 2y agoI’m answering a question: > Any bets on how this will be justified by Trump voters? This is not what I believe
- watwut 2y agoTrump promised to lower inflation and eggs prices. Are those lowering?
- move-on-by 2y agoI’m answering a question: > Any bets on how this will be justified by Trump voters? This is not what I believe
- throwaway657656 2y ago"These are external taxes paid by the exporting countries. Beautiful tariffs will allow the US to eliminate the IRS and replace it with an ERS". Basically no point in even having a conversation about it. The same way you don't discuss evolution with someone who thinks the universe is 6000 years old.
- throwaway48476 2y agoWho pays the tariff depends on the relative elasticity of supply and demand.
- mitthrowaway2 2y agoIs your reasoning that the supplier has the option of eating the tariff by cutting prices, such that the price paid by the purchaser remains the same? If they had that much margin headroom available to cut prices by 20% and remain profitable, wouldn't that basically prove that they weren't dumping product in the first place?
- throwaway48476 2y agoWhat I stated is the textbook definition. For suppliers with fixed costs there are strong incentives to lower prices to stimulate demand sufficient to maintain utilization where possible. The commodity NAND market is an example of this. The fabs are extremely sensitive to utilization which leads to wild profit and loss swings.
- crazygringo 2y agoIt is extremely rare for manufacturers to absorb the tariffs. Profit margins in most industries simply aren't high enough to cover it. A business can't absorb 20-25% tariffs if its profit margin is only 5%. And manufacturing is particularly known for its low profit margins. So no. I mean, in theory you are technically correct. But the way elasticity works in practice is that the buyer is who pays the tariffs in virtually all circumstances.
- jmyeet 2y agoOh, we've already seen it. I believe Fox News has already come out and said it's "patriotic" to pay higher egg prices. We live in a post-fact world. There are no principles in play. The key organizing principle of this society is cruelty. Truth is simply what powerful people say it is. And there's no opposition to any of it. Our supposed political opposition is way more interested in crushing progressive sentiment and voices within their party. They are completely complicit in what's now going on.
- TheOtherHobbes 2y agoFox - remarkably - were explaining that it would in fact make most things much, much more expensive. I think support is ambivalent, at best. A few people are going to short hard and make out like bandits. But all-party social unrest on a huge scale is going to kick off long before they can fulfil their dream of buying up the entire country for pennies. Cooler heads understand this.
- tayo42 2y agoR/conservative on reddit has some real time spin on everything My irl interactions make it seem like they're not even aware of what's been happening
- MrMcCall 2y ago[flagged]
- throwaway48476 2y agoIts very very stupid. Tariffs can work but not like this. A good tariff policy would be targeted at a strategic industry, have a long phase in period, and have a guarantee that it won't be removed quickly. Businesses don't like risk, especially if you want them to commit to building a new factory in the US with a decade long payback period.
- dehrmann 2y agoI did start wondering what Trump (or any leader with loyal supporters) would have to do, or what outcomes supporters would have to see, to lose support.
- speed_spread 2y agoThe leader can do no wrong. All its decisions are justified and without nuance. The idea of questioning the logic doesn't even exist. It's a cult.
- johnnyanmac 2y agowell, going to r/conservative, top answer in a tarriff thread: >To influence companies to produce their goods domestically instead of internationally. What is so hard to understand about this? So they are stuck in Just World Land. another top comment linked this: https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-imposes-tariffs-on-imports-from-canada-mexico-and-china/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-pr... So they more or less buy into "The extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl" P.S. more than happy to take suggestions of a better forum representing conservative opinion
- bluGill 2y agoWhat ever happened to the free market consevatives? The ones who were proud to work with Clinton to pass NAFTA in the first place.
- klipt 2y agoHeck Trump himself negotiated USMCA his last term and is now apparently reneging on his own agreement? "A Trump never keeps his word" "A Trump never pays his debts" I don't know if it's dementia or if Putin has compromising info on him, but he seems intent on speed running the tearing apart of the west.
- balls187 2y agoThey got tired of nonsensical progressive social policies and threw in their hat with a politician that wins, a lot. Pre-Trump the 2nd, it seemed to me that conservative view-points were being “shouted down.” Anecdotally I recall even on HN conservative views weren’t looked too kindly. Remember that Google engineer who had an odd-take about less qualified Googlers, and getting ostracized for it?
- johnnyanmac 2y agoI never particularly thought of "free trade" as a conservative policy. I thought it was fairly bipartisan that large corporations want to get the cheapest prices for stuff (which often is not within the US).
- codazoda 2y agoI haven’t paid attention to the politics here much, but isn’t driving up the price the point? If you charge Canada a 25% tariff then products sold in the U.S. and shipped from Canada should cost U.S. consumers about 25% more. That, in turn, makes U.S. products look more attractive. A U.S. business pays taxes at the federal and state levels. A U.S. business also hires U.S. employees, who pay taxes as well and spend into the economy. I’m sure I’m way over simplifying this, to the point of stupidity, but tariffs raise prices on foreign goods to encourage the sale and/or development of local goods, don’t they?
- warkdarrior 2y agoThat is the theory. But there is no incentive for US manufacturers to compete on price. If the product from China costs $100 (including the tariff), the same product from US will be $99.99. Selling it any cheaper would be stupid.
- throwaway48476 2y agoThis isn't 'wrong' but only accounts for a two party market.
- KajMagnus 2y agoThat's interesting, so, prices might not drop to pre-tariff levels, until not just one, but many, manufacturers appear in the US, and start competing on price (well, obviously, I guess some would say)
- throwaway48476 2y agoThe economic answer is 'it depends'.
- WillPostForFood 2y agoThat would only be conceivable if there was a single domestic manufacturer. You don't need a foreign product to keep prices honest in a competitive domestic market.
- inverted_flag 2y agoNot sure about the higher prices, but the coming recession is being talked about in MAGA circles as a correction and a fault of the Fed.
- wnc3141 2y agoWhen your'e deified, "god works in mysterious ways" sort of thing...
- wnc3141 2y agoFascism is not and never was about ideological coherence.
- deepfriedchokes 2y agoI read an article, can’t find it now, that the Christian right believes Trump is basically a biblical messiah like Cyrus the Great from Isaiah 45. Basically a nonbeliever who God controls to help his people. People believe what they want to believe.
- vachina 2y agoReminder to decouple from the US, because they’re gonna export this tariff (ie pass the cost) to the rest of the world.
- davidw 2y agoHow would you actually go about doing that? Like if the US economy implodes because enough of this malarkey breaks it, what/where is safe? In terms of your personal wealth/residence, I mean. The only thing I can kind of think of is maybe some land or housing in Europe or New Zealand or somewhere kind of out of the way; perhaps something that you can rent out. Might not make you a ton of money, but it would hopefully hold its value over time?
- throwaway48476 2y agoBullets have been a good investment.
- toomuchtodo 2y agoWe own a modest flat in Spain. I’ve moved a year’s worth of living expenses to EUR. I can have my family out of the country in 72 hours. Total cost was under $300k USD. The best time to have a plan is before you need it. If you wait until you need it, you’re too late. (n=1, ymmv)
- a2tech 2y agoWho did you use to make the international purchase? I have a friend that used the lady from house hunters international but she’s French focused and that’s not for us
- toomuchtodo 2y agoI traveled to Spain and made the purchase in person. Drop a disposable email in your profile, I’ll reach out and provide whatever value I can.
- darig 2y ago[dead]
- ourmandave 2y agoBut they're already talking about walking it back or lowering them tomorrow (Wed). All these stupid sky-is-falling headlines that become forgotten in a couple days when it's on to the next outrage moment. Like the whole Zelensky/Trump white house blow up is like sitting in on couples therapy. The deal is off! No, it's back on! It's tiresome. Edit: I'm not pro Trump or trying to defend the fuckery. I'm just sick of Trump headlines every day. But pls, do continue the down votes.
- cmrdporcupine 2y agoNote that the "might walk it back" thing hasn't come out of Trump, but out of one of his stooges. So more than likely it was either an attempt to pump the stock market back up (so some people can make more coin on trades), or a way to float a trial balloon to gauge reactions from Trump's base etc. Or both.
- bamboozled 2y ago"It's the art of the deal" "He's just trolling" etc
- ToucanLoucan 2y ago> The deal is off! No, it's back on! It's tiresome. On that much, we agree. Perhaps he should stop attempting to govern like the tragic parody of a business man he is and just be a normal fucking president then, with the added benefit of not being a worldwide embarrassment every.. what, 4 hours?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- afavour 2y agoIt isn't sustainable though. People are making consequential business decisions based on the tariff announcements, even if they get walked back last minute those choices have still been made. > All these stupid sky-is-falling headlines I mean, what can be done here really? They're reporting on things Trump is doing. They can't not do that.
- captainkrtek 2y agoSure miss the days where there wasn’t headline generating chaos from the White House resulting in market volatility. Make Government Boring Again.
- throwaway48476 2y agoVolatility is profit for insiders.
- MrMcCall 2y ago"It used to be simple: vote for the guy you liked the most. Then it became vote against the guy you disliked the most. Now it's vote for who you dislike the least." --A Whitney Brown I remember seeing that on SNL in the 80s; it has always stuck with me.
- wnmurphy 2y agoI heard he used to be _The_ Whitney Brown.
- leptons 2y ago> Now it's vote for who you dislike the least. For 1/3 of eligible voters, it's "I don't care about voting".
- ToucanLoucan 2y agoFor a substantial portion of those third: 1) They can't vote, either because of local politicians meddling in their election process/with their polling places, being convicted of bullshit non-crimes, or simply being unable to get to a polling place. Shock of shocks, majority of political fuckery involved in taking away people's right to vote is brought about by conservatives. Even more shocking, the groups that tend to be disenfranchised trend progressive in their voting habits, wow, such a weird coincidence. 2) They have no desire to vote, because as much as I understand voting for the lesser of two evils (and doing it with regularity) that just isn't motivating, and neither is choosing which party you want to join that's going to leave you for dead the second the election is over. To be clear: this is not "both sides are bad." Both sides are bad, but one is just useless bad, and the other is actively tearing down the state to sow chaos that it can use to consolidate power and bring about a theocracy. And while both of those are bad, they are not even remotely comparable.
- aninteger 2y agoI guess it's time to print out those "I did this!" stickers of Trump and put them next to the price tags.
- zoklet-enjoyer 2y agoHaha yep, I designed one when he announced the tariffs the first time but never got around to printing them.
- defrost 2y agoThere's always John Walker's OG The One, The Original, The Prophetic (July 1990), The Authentic “Evil Empires: One down, one to go…” bumper sticker, anticipating the obsolescence of railroad era continental-scale empires in the information age. https://www.fourmilab.ch/evilempire/ https://www.fourmilab.ch/evilempire/ Too soon?
- declan_roberts 2y agoI don't know if tariffs are the right answer but I want so much less Chinese junk in this country. We are absolutely overflowing with low quality junk.
- warkdarrior 2y agoGiven the current MBA approaches to business, I doubt that bringing all manufacturing back to US would improve the quality of products.
- scarface_74 2y agoYou mean like every piece of electronics that is manufactured in China?
- Entuaka 2y agoA solution to that would be the exclusion of China from Universal Postal Union as a developing country.
- johnnyanmac 2y agoBest of luck. Companies want lower costs to make stuff, customers want lower costs. We did indeed fall from being a superpower when we outsourced all out labor overseas.
- lawn 2y agoSoon you'll be overflowing with expensive low quality junk instead.
- s3p 2y agoConsumers in the US constantly complain of inflation and things becoming unaffordable, so much that it's become both a GOP and dem talking point. They definitely want to encourage US-made goods, but that would mean prices go up. and realistically consumers buy the cheap stuff from china en masse, knowing it's low quality, just because they want to save money. Or at least that's my 0.02 on the situation. I don't know how we solve it either.
- 2y ago
- trhway 2y agoother thing which may happen is that businesses would start to behave like the ones in say Russia and the likes - utilizing long opaque subsidiaries and shell corp chains, some being just a paperwork, to "manage" the tariffs . The double Dutch would look like a child play. Once such [quasi]corruption starts it would be pretty hard to wean companies off it if/when things get back normal.
- mlinhares 2y agoNah, you just pay the powers that be to exclude you from the tariffs, Apple has been excluded from the current ones. So only those that are not friends with the kleptocracy are really at risk. As for the rest of the population, it's the usual FAFO, not much to do.
- aussieguy1234 2y agoWhat's the impact here on inflation, by extension interest rates and funding available to startups?
- msy 2y agoNear term inflation but more broadly increasing paralysis of business investment of all stripes in the fact of a wildly unpredictable political landscape.
- rogerrogerr 2y agoThe general path of the country is fairly clear at this point - business that manufacture closer to consumers will have fewer issues with the government. Even Biden kept a bunch of Trump1 anti-China policies in place. If I was directing investment at a large business, onshoring manufacturing would be a no brainer in many businesses. Mexico might be the happy medium, but I’d really push for US manufacturing facilities with high automation levels to hedge against labor cost.
- throwaway48476 2y agoMost of the post 2016 China exit investment was to other cheaper southeast Asia countries. My phone was made in Vietnam.
- doctorpangloss 2y agoYour phone was made in the US. They’re all black rectangles. The reason you picked the phone you use is because of the software, written here. All the LTV is tied up in software and services. Almost all made by Americans. To me, the status quo is very good - there can be unlimited valuable software written but people only need one phone. A policy of pro manufacturing doesn’t necessarily make sense in each specific.
- throwaway48476 2y ago
- quelup 2y agoHonest question - can you not get these products from other stores or do all of them source products from Mexico and China? If so, it does seem like DOGE and other price saving initiatives will be closer to a net 0.
- scarface_74 2y agoThe entire supply chain is global.
- verdverm 2y agoOr could be net negative if there are a bunch of wrongly termination suits and settlements, or it actually costs the govt more because they now have to outsource work to private companies be wise they fired too many people who were in fact doing useful work You cannot go into a large org and understand what is and is not working in a few weeks. DOGE has been sloppy and largely more political theater this far
- acdha 2y agoThe supply chain has been global for decades, especially with the countries he targeted. It’s really messy with the North American free trade area since parts are shipped around a lot as they get made and assembled and all of those supply chains break in odd ways if there are customs delays. People are predicting that will add something like $3-10k to the price of a new car: https://apnews.com/article/tariffs-cars-automakers-trump-canada-mexico-7d34c3ba8b96864ea77c6b16780cf349 https://apnews.com/article/tariffs-cars-automakers-trump-can... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/04/business/economy/car-tariffs.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/04/business/econ... In many cases, the U.S. no longer has manufacturing capacity in certain markets so the most likely outcome is simply that prices go up or manufacturing shifts to other countries like Vietnam, especially in an uncertain economic climate where companies aren’t jumping to take on debt chasing demand which could disappear at any time. One other area where we don’t have alternatives: Mexican agriculture - their growing season is longer and that means American consumers either aren’t getting things out of season or are paying more for things like greenhouse crops.
- tombert 2y agoWho would have thought that increasing the price of goods will lead to higher prices? I'm not necessarily against tariffs, but I think it's idiotic to think that raising the price is going to somehow lower grocery prices.
- Aloha 2y agoI'm pro tariff - but 25% tariffs are absurd, at most you need 10%-12% in narrowly targeted categories to ensure re-onshoring of production.
- emodendroket 2y agoThey're clearly thinking much bigger, like returning to a model where tariffs are the primary mode of funding the government, and nuking whole sectors/devaluing the dollar to make US exports more competitive with a desperate potential workforce. Not a particularly compelling plan in my view but it has its own internal logic.
- chii 2y agowhy would tariffs make US exports more competitive? It would make other countries under tariff to retaliate, which makes US exports less valuable. Unless, of course, the US has some sort of monopoly on an export that others have no choice but to take. I dont think the US has such a resource.
- disgruntledphd2 2y agoThe US does have such a monopoly, in tech. But because that's services rather than goods, it seems to be ignored.
- toxicunderGroov 2y agoI propose ASML raised prices for US customers by 30%, and maybe give China some freebies to thank them for the panda's.
- anthuswilliams 2y agoI'm no fan of tariffs, but oh please. Last time their prices went up because of COVID and because of supply chain disruptions. Now they are going up because of tariffs. All of their earnings calls are filled with analyses of their "pricing power" i.e. the degree to which they can pass on these costs to customers. But when the costs decline, they are happy to keep the prices inflated and pocket the profits.
- benced 2y agoCostly events occurred… so costs went up. Best Buy’s profit margin hovers around 3% and Target’s around 4%, they’re not raking in money.
- rsanek 2y agolow net profits margins are simply how retail works, it's not news that retail requires scale. and in fact both target and best buy did see record profits shortly after the pandemic started.
- Workaccount2 2y agoConsumer spending was shattering records during the pandemic. If consumer spending was dropping as prices were going up, then sure, greed. But prices were rising and consumers were relentless. Which is totally logical. Even more logical when the "spending class" was getting massive raises/offers and rock bottom credit.
- johnnyanmac 2y agoYeah, that's the trap many people don't realize. price almost never come down after inflation. If you want that, you need deflation. And I'm not sure at this point if that's a better move than what's going on now.
- beefnugs 2y agoI wish humans were better at coordination, or instead of "social media" people got addicted to social bargaining: because this would be the perfect time for a united consumer front, demanding that that big companies take more of a hit from their profit margin than from employee wages or raised prices. Threatening to starve out a company if it doesn't implement these tariff increases in a more reasonable way than the entirety of capitalism history would be the only way to turn around the avalanche it has been
- slavik81 2y agoIf the citizens of the United States were capable of coordinating to threaten anyone, it should be their government into recinding these new taxes.
- rsynnott 2y ago> Threatening to starve out a company if it doesn't implement these tariff increases in a more reasonable way than the entirety of capitalism history would be the only way to turn around the avalanche it has been I mean, depends on the industry, but for instance take Target. Its profit margin is 3-4%, and that was in 2024, which was, really, pretty good times, all things considered. It doesn't have much room to absorb source price increases. Few industries dependent on imports do.
- misterjensen 2y agoRight, like they are not going to take the opportunity to raise margins. I recall seeing the exact same windshield mounted phone holder for 25 USD at Best Buy and 1 USD at the dollar store. Prices are not only set based on percentual margins, they are also set based on what the consumer is ready to pay for perceived value.
- aaronbaugher 2y agoYep. "Translation: CEOs see opportunity to raise prices and blame it on someone else, figuring consumers don't understand how prices work." And they're mostly right.
- monetus 2y agoThe tariffs will raise prices, and more than on imports alone since they will up margins elsewhere else to compensate for the destroyed ones. Price gouging COVID style is going to happen as well. The White House has screwed us.