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So, if retailers are resisting raising prices, who will pay the increased costs? Domestically sourced goods can be no more than 55% more expensive (otherwise th

So, if retailers are resisting raising prices, who will pay the increased costs? Domestically sourced goods can be no more than 55% more expensive (otherwise the imported goods would be cheaper), but we can be sure that locally sourced goods will be priced as close to the full 55% as possible (and as the article points out, some locally manufactured items are probably never going to be less than the overseas cost, even including the tariff tax.) Now take a look at Walmart's margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WMT/walmart/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WMT/walmart/profit.... Their gross margin is ~25%, with a net around 2%. Even if Walmart decides to eat the tariff cost out of patriotic duty, anywhere near a ~50% hit to supply chain costs would put them out of business. Heck, even a few percent would require a huge business restructuring, if it were even possible. So prices are going to be higher - it's a given. In the short-medium term, the tariff tax is simply a large regressive transfer of tax obligation onto consumers.

1970-01-01 1y ago
I think Walmart is too big to fail at this point. If the gold standard for brick and mortar 'low prices' needs some restructuring, then it's time for the house of straw economy to finally see the big bad wolf and go running for the hills.
- toomuchtodo 1y ago
  Walmart will just raise prices and their customers will eat the increased prices through reduced purchasing power or going without, while complaining but doing nothing else (because they have no leverage to do otherwise). https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-price-increases-items-tariffs-target-reddit-2025-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-price-increases-item... | https://archive.today/4Kcqf https://archive.today/4Kcqf
  - macartain 1y ago
    or those same customers may elect the next, even-more-extreme, ill-informed idiotic wingnut that comes along with a pat theory about bringing industry back on-shore in 4 years by tossing out foreigners/applying ludicrous tariffs/whatever... increased prices affect politics - which affects everything.
    - toomuchtodo 1y ago
      Probably, not much you can do with people who have a vote but nothing else. All you can do is migrate to more functional governance systems. Let them eat vibes, the evidence is robust that mental models are rigid and even in the face of overwhelming evidence, people can be bought into belief systems that cannot be updated based on facts, data, and evidence.
      - macartain 1y ago
        fair!
ToucanLoucan 1y ago
[flagged]
- rluhar 1y ago
  Great post - I recommend reading "Apple in China" to get a great insight into the how the Chinese manufacturing industry (and economy) has developed over the last 30 years.
  - ToucanLoucan 1y ago
    I have! It's a great book. I don't work in that field at all but I find industrial infrastructure and manufacturing business endlessly fascinating. I wish I worked in it tbh because then I'd have an excuse to visit Shenzhen. It's on my bucket list.
- lumost 1y ago
  At some point Americans became convinced that the process of organizing hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure and millions of people on the task of manufacturing products was “easy.” 50 years on, and fthe generation that knew how to manufacture is gone - their children never built up the same skills at the same scale. Their children’s children didn't bother to learn the STEM and Craft skills required to work at scale. Restoring manufacture will be a generation away outside of “dark factories”
  - tempodox 1y ago
    Nah, the following generation will have all of that, and more, done by “AI”. No need to learn anything anymore, except giving voice commands to a computer. /s
  - toomuchtodo 1y ago
    I liken this to hanging off a cliff by multiple ropes/leads. Certainly, you can cut a few of them and still not fall, but eventually you'll cut enough rope that you'll plummet to your death. Americans need to feel the pain of poor policy, otherwise nothing will change, and there's almost no rope left to cut.

1970-01-01 1y ago

I think Walmart is too big to fail at this point. If the gold standard for brick and mortar 'low prices' needs some restructuring, then it's time for the house of straw economy to finally see the big bad wolf and go running for the hills.

toomuchtodo 1y ago
Walmart will just raise prices and their customers will eat the increased prices through reduced purchasing power or going without, while complaining but doing nothing else (because they have no leverage to do otherwise). https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-price-increases-items-tariffs-target-reddit-2025-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-price-increases-item... | https://archive.today/4Kcqf https://archive.today/4Kcqf
- macartain 1y ago
  or those same customers may elect the next, even-more-extreme, ill-informed idiotic wingnut that comes along with a pat theory about bringing industry back on-shore in 4 years by tossing out foreigners/applying ludicrous tariffs/whatever... increased prices affect politics - which affects everything.
  - toomuchtodo 1y ago
    Probably, not much you can do with people who have a vote but nothing else. All you can do is migrate to more functional governance systems. Let them eat vibes, the evidence is robust that mental models are rigid and even in the face of overwhelming evidence, people can be bought into belief systems that cannot be updated based on facts, data, and evidence.
    - macartain 1y ago
      fair!

ToucanLoucan 1y ago

[flagged]

rluhar 1y ago
Great post - I recommend reading "Apple in China" to get a great insight into the how the Chinese manufacturing industry (and economy) has developed over the last 30 years.
- ToucanLoucan 1y ago
  I have! It's a great book. I don't work in that field at all but I find industrial infrastructure and manufacturing business endlessly fascinating. I wish I worked in it tbh because then I'd have an excuse to visit Shenzhen. It's on my bucket list.
lumost 1y ago
At some point Americans became convinced that the process of organizing hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure and millions of people on the task of manufacturing products was “easy.” 50 years on, and fthe generation that knew how to manufacture is gone - their children never built up the same skills at the same scale. Their children’s children didn't bother to learn the STEM and Craft skills required to work at scale. Restoring manufacture will be a generation away outside of “dark factories”
- tempodox 1y ago
  Nah, the following generation will have all of that, and more, done by “AI”. No need to learn anything anymore, except giving voice commands to a computer. /s
- toomuchtodo 1y ago
  I liken this to hanging off a cliff by multiple ropes/leads. Certainly, you can cut a few of them and still not fall, but eventually you'll cut enough rope that you'll plummet to your death. Americans need to feel the pain of poor policy, otherwise nothing will change, and there's almost no rope left to cut.