Walmart just leveled with Americans: China won’t be paying for Trump’s tariffs, in all likelihood you will
Walmart just leveled with Americans: China won’t be paying for Trump’s tariffs, in all likelihood you will
Trump promised voters tariffs are a panacea for the economy, but Walmart finance chief John David Rainey warned they will be inflationary for customers.
thanks Walmart this is really good timing
They voted for nonsense looks like they are getting nonsense.
How will they call the new inflation and how are they going to pin this on not Trump. Curious how this is going to play out.
Is it just me, or is the article paywalled?
Gonna be real neat watching Republicans turn on corporate America and accusing them of price gouging when (for once) they're not.
They won't. Blame the last administration, rinse and repeat.
I feel like no one bothered to campaign against Trump.... until... AFTER he won
Oh, I thought he was fixing inflation!
Wow, what a shocker! Who could have predicted how that turned out?
So nice of them to say this after the orange fuck was elected. Heaven forbid they tell their customers that when their customers could actually do something about it.
What incentive do they have to tell people that ahead of time? Instead of propping up the prices by 10% to deal with the tariff they can increase it by 20% and pocket the extra, then blame it on China. Worked during the Covid inflation, why wouldn't it work now?
Oh I know they have none. I just love that they're saying it at all -- being silent on the matter until said tariffs come to pass would have at least given them the "duhhhh we're dumb too we didn't know that either, oh well" excuse.
Welp,time to trade my cheaply made Chinese shit to expensively made cheap american shit.
It's crazy how so many GOP supporters didn't know this...
They'll still find a way to blame Team Blue for the inflation.
It doesn't even matter:
https://www.axios.com/2024/11/18/consumer-confidence-trump-republicans-white-house
Turns out, a lot of consumer mood is literally just people's social media feeds. Even if prices go up and QoL goes down, on average, consumers might feel better simply because Trump being in office makes them feel good.
I am not going to point out how monumentally problematic this is... Nope. There's definitely no bad precedent for that.
Ah, nice to see Lemmy wholeheartedly embracing our friend and source of truth, Walmart.
Tomorrow's headline: "Amazon says worker conditions will be bad because of Trump"
I honestly don't understand what this comment is trying to say. Lemmy is embracing something? Walmart is lying? Compared to Trump?
"Walmart recorded $169.6 billion in total revenue during the third quarter of 2024, up 5.5% from the previous quarter. It recorded a 7.8% return on assets and had an operating income of $6.7 billion."
This sounds like a statement to pretend the increase of prices is Trump fault instead of an attempt to maintain their growth.
No, it's Walmart saying that any costs due to Trump's tariffs will be paid by the consumer because they're not going to take a pay cut to offset the costs.
In another news: Watch out for rain. From now on, it will be wet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Don't worry, at least Americans are, on average, in possession of endless piles of extra money after the last decade. Elon says it's time for all of us to tighten our belts. We're just so fat with all that money we've all been saving!
I'm so glad he and the other rich chucklefucks trickled so hard on us.
Nobody here is surprised.
I figured everyone already knew this. Tariffs just screw consumers.
China will pay for the tariffs in the same way Mexico paid for the wall.
Realistically it will shift more work to India, vietnam, mexico. I'm not in supply, but I'm pretty sure my company has started shifting out of china in prep for this.
Didn't part of the wall fall over into Mexico a while back?
Trump almost has it. If he can just be a slightly bigger ass on a slightly bigger stage, then he'll be happy.
Musn't give up too soon.
buys that external drive I've been putting off for a while
Meanwhile, in Canada, I've been meaning to build a raid 6 with 4TB drives. With any luck, as imports into your country drop, prices in my country will drop as well
I was planning my first build in 7 years for around 6 months from now. I just CANT right now.
I just upgraded my GPU even though I wanted to wait until the new stuff drops, but I can't risk getting boned by tariffs and/or scalpers.
100% guarantee price raises across the board, even for stuff not affected by tarrifs/mass deportation labor shortages.
It'll be covid all over again, an excuse to price gouge the fuck out of those who can least afford it.
Yes, but don't worry. Elon and Trump will be FINE. Stop worrying, everyone!
Wonder who they who are they gonna blame then?
What are you talking about? It'll all be Biden's fault.
The I voted for him for cheaper eggs crowd are about to call this fake news.
But the question is, will American manufacturing make up for the costs? Or, will American manufacturing just raise their prices to match the tariffs and lump the profits into their executive bonuses. They deserve it after all for being smart enough to raise prices.
American manufacturing CAN'T, it would take years, decades honestly, to get back the capacity to make all the crap we've outsourced to other countries.
More like generations IMO
And this is the absolute brain rot fantasy of tariffs that I keep explaining to these idiots, and keep getting blank stares or awkward silences.
Tariffs are 100% punitive, without a domestic/alternative sourcing strategy. They can work long term to reduce a foreign nation's competitive advantage in an industry while allowing a domestic industry space to exist, but that only works if there’s a domestic industry that already exists (at enough scale to meet demand) or a long term government program to nurture and build those industries - education/vocation training, regulatory concerns, infrastructure development, raw materials availability, etc
Tariffs Chinese steel/electronics/machine tools/etc into oblivion? Either buy the imported at a high price, or buy the domestic at a slightly less high price - but the cost is always carried by the consumer no matter what.
And beyond that, it will incentivize further automation rather than more blue collar jobs.
This is largely accurate unfortunately. A good example is Apple. They tried to make a high-end desktop computer manufactured in the US. To do this they needed a specific type of screw. In the area near their factory, they only found one machine shop that could make the screw and they could guarantee an output of 50 screws per day after a 3 week lead time to tool up. And that was the final offer.
When they finally moved to China, they submitted the same request. Multiple vendors appeared offering thousands of screws per day and if they wanted to place a bigger order the company would set up a new factory just to produce those screws and could output tens or hundreds of thousands per day depending on requirements.
Another example is the iPhone and Gorilla Glass. There were a few Chinese companies in the running to manufacture the glass panel that would go on top of the phone. The one that got the contract, in anticipation of getting the contract, had already purchased the machine to form the glass and had samples ready for inspection at the contract signing.
We have allowed our business climate to become so bogged down in red tape and liability and lawyers and insurance, that most American companies are simply unable to execute at the same speed as China when it comes to manufacturing.
I would absolutely love to get more manufacturing back in the US. But the process of outsourcing is not going to get unwound overnight. It took two decades to move everything to China, even if the whole country agreed that was a mistake it would take another two decades to bring it back. Because as the Apple screws demonstrate, it's not just about the factory that produces the widget. It's about everything that goes into that factory, the companies that make the parts and the screws and the plastic. When you deal with China, they are all right there and they are all ready to go. Same can't be said for the US.
During his first term Trump put a tariffs on Washing Machines. The price of imported washing machines went up. The price of domestically manufactured washing machines was also raised. Even the price of dryers — which didn’t have a tariff — went up on both imported and domestically manufactured appliances.
I have yet to see an economist that thinks Trumps tariff plans will benefit the working class.
If some other countries are any indication, not only will they raise the prices but they will raise it way more than the tariffs and just blame on tariffs and with time people will just think that is the way it is. "X cost 3 times as other countries? That is because the tariffs" no mind that the tariffs is like 50% and not 300%. Like they already do with gas prices. Gas go up immediately when oil prices rise but only goes down, if ever, for new stock.
That is exactly what US steel did in response to the steel tariffs back in Trump round one.
Uff the country that loves to buy temu crap is forced to buy american crap
Haha number go up again
Folks, listen closely, okay? Nobody understands tariffs better than me. Believe me, they’re tremendous, tremendous tariffs. And now Walmart – yes, Walmart, great company, big stores, huge – they’re telling you that YOU, the great American people, will be paying for these tariffs. And you know what? That’s fantastic news. Incredible. Let me tell you why.
First, it’s about sacrifice. The greatest country in the world doesn’t rise without its amazing, hardworking patriots chipping in a little bit more. And trust me, when you pay a little extra at Walmart for your cheap, uh, Made-in-China toasters, you’re not just buying a toaster. You’re buying FREEDOM, folks. You’re sticking it to the Chinese economy. No one else could get that deal done, okay? Only me.
Second, we’re BUILDING here, okay? When American families dig a little deeper into their pockets, that’s money going back into our economy. It’s like… MAGA economics, so smart you wouldn’t believe it. All of a sudden, Americans will say, "Hey, why am I buying Chinese stuff? Let’s buy American!" And BOOM – jobs. Factories humming. Steel, coal, maybe even wood, I don’t know. Beautiful stuff.
Third, let’s talk winning. When we pay these tariffs – our tariffs – we’re showing the world who’s boss. China thinks they’re so smart. So clever. Well, joke’s on them. We’re so good at tariffs, we’re making YOU pay them instead of them. Genius move, right? They won’t even know what hit them. Tremendous strategy. They’re probably shaking in Beijing.
And look, folks, I hear you. “But sir, sir, what about the prices?” And I say this: are you willing to pay a little more at Walmart to make America the GREATEST it’s ever been? I think you are. And if you’re not, then maybe you like China too much. Sad!
So remember, every time you spend a little extra at Walmart – and it’s a GREAT store, by the way, I love it, fantastic – just think of it as making a donation to America. To freedom. To ME – your favorite president – who is bringing the best tariffs, the best deals, and the best America you’ve ever seen.
God bless tariffs. God bless Walmart. And God bless the United States of America. MAGA!
Long long maaaaan
Good thing I can't read
votes Republican
AI is getting better.
Yeah, I mean I knew that, you knew that, Americans are so uneducated that the majority had no idea how basic economics work.
Well FAFO, we're all going to learn the hard way I guess.
And fuck those of us who already knew the lesson. Its like school but without getting to go home at the end of the day. And just like school, the kids who need it probably wont pay attention
First of all walmart doesnt have to do this, they are choosing to.
Second, last time trump did tariffs prices went up in the following months, and then returned back to baseline following that.
There will be a reactionary period once they are placed. Walmart will either shift to buying more locally to maintain the most profit they can, or a competitor will undercut them.
Shifting to buying more locally can work when there are local businesses that can ramp up production easily to meet demand, it doesn't work when there is no local production that can be easily expanded, or when there aren't enough local resources to supply local manufacturing (for example lithium for battery production)
Also, trade has been our leverage keeping China in check, we need their stuff, and they need our money, so we get along. If suddenly we say "we don't want your stuff anymore, and we're not giving you our money" they're gonna turn around and sell more to India, Russia, and Europe. They'll be fine, but we'll both lose our leverage and toilet our economy for at least a decade while we try to recover from shooting ourselves in the leg.
Hearing more and more stories about companies cutting bonuses this year so they can buy more supplies now at cheaper prices. They know the prices will go up and they'll have to pass the increase to the consumers. But how much you wanna bet these companies will still raise prices even before they have to pay their tariff increases? They're gonna get extra money on the supplies they paid the lower prices on.
I saw it explained best like this
Current imported price: $30
Current locally made price: $35
New imported price: $70
New locally made price: $69.99
Locally made still won't happen.
Say you're an businessman who's been manufacturing in China. Excel shows that you can make the same product in America for less than the post-tariff cost. Sound good?
But you're not stupid. You know the tariffs will end up wildly unpopular and fuck up the economy. A) Why keep producing when people won't be able to afford your goods? And more importantly, you want to be left holding the bag with your shiny new American factory when the tariffs are repealed?
...This is just normal basic business economics.
Your retail price is not predicated on what you paid to produce or obtain the product, it's based on what you expect to have to pay to produce or procure the next one.
Agreed, but some people don't understand or realize this. We're not going to see this huge manufacturing influx back to the US.
Yes, this is not news. News is supposed to be new information, this is entirely well known information, which stupid people just didn't care about
Everything he will do contributes to anger, division and the collapse of the United States.
People will be angry but angry at the wrong people. No, let's not be angry at the guy for actively destroying everyone's lives. Let's be angry at blacks. Or gay people. Or transgenders. Or police. Or scientists.
Fucking dumb Americans.
idk why anybody is surprised, republicans are still going to lie about it, they will never admit how tariffs work, they are simply incapable.
Realistically though, that's how tariffs just work. With products costing more, theoretically that should drive demand down and eventually lead to fewer imports. Of course, if there's still no competing product or the product is a basic necessity, then it'll likely just result in people paying more.
We tried this in 2017. Trump put tariffs on dishwashers, and American companies just raised their prices to match, pocketing the difference.
Yah, I mean realistically, I can only really see tariffs working if a nation is trying to enter an industry. That's not the case here, but even so, these tariffs differ from the ones you mentioned because they would be against Chinese imports rather than a specific product, so I can't imagine there's as much risk of that sort of market manipulation from happening again... but then again, I've got no idea.
Working tariffs make importing goods so expensive that manufacturing them nationally is viable. There are definitely areas where tariffs make sense, e.g. you have or want to build an industry that's competing against a subsidized industry from another country. Tariffs are one way to help with that.
But we all know that's way too much thought for him, which probably boiled down to "China bad"... which I'm not necessarily disagreeing with fully... but for reasons that tariffs aren't necessarily an answer to.
No shit.
This is literally in the first paragraph of every economics textbook when they talk about tariffs.
Donald Trump didn't win the Presidency by reading textbooks.
He won it by taking bribes from billionaires, like a true politician
My friend just got into a fight with some MAGATs on facebook about why we need things like civics education so we know what we’re voting for.
You’ll be shocked to learn the MAGATs called him a communist for daring to want to educate them. They don’t even want to open the textbook let alone read it.
Nobody who voted for Trump read that book homie.
Nobody who voted for Trump read[s]
that book homie.Fixed that for ya
No, the first page is how it introduces inefficiencies into a supply/demand equilibrium, resulting in a lower quantity supplied and at a higher price.
No one who every studies economics, even in passing, would even consider another country paying a tarrif for something you buy. The concept is just.... what?
Yeah, the, misguided, idea is that the increase in price from imports will drive domestic production, of those things, as the high prices reduce demand, and cut into profit margins. This used to be something that was a sensible assumption of what would happen. However the contemporary world has far too much infrastructure for tariffs to truly work like that any longer. It will, usually, be cheaper to increase the costs for the tariffs, than to restructure back to domestic production.
Clearly we need to add those to the banned books list
Mango Mussolini's tariff plans will increase prices across the board. The corporations earned record profits during the so-called inflation and the US consumers that voted for Cheeto are fucking clueless about the inbound out of control freight train.
Oh well don't worry the out of control freight trains mostly poison trump voters in ohio and the water supply of all the red states.
+1 Indeed.
It's a certainty, not a fucking "likelihood'. That's how they work.
You mean there's no chance that Wal-Mart might choose to absorb the increased prices out of the goodness of their hearts? :o
Well, the far-right courts made that illegal for publicly-traded companies, so, no.
I was promised cheaper eggs.
Pretty sure everyone was told this before the election.
Problem:
"Harris outperformed Biden’s 2020 numbers among white voters with college degrees. Meanwhile, exit polling from NBC News gave Republicans a 9-point gain with voters who never attended college."
Thing is, basic economics is a high school subject, except:
"Sir, when am I going to have to know how tariffs work in the real world?"
'I love the poorly educated', donald j trump, feb 2016.
I bet a big portion of that 9% shops at Walmart.
Would been smart for Wally’s bottom line to maybe tell their customers about this before the fucking election.
They don’t care. The owners of Walmart are some of the richest people in the world. So like all rich people they just figure they’ll hike prices and people will still pay (and they’ll have to, because Walmart tends to drive all its competitors out of town).
They do not care, and the Waltons probably like Trump. They've got their money already. Waltons don't care about America; they've been in bed with China since Sam died & they've been gobbling up the excessive profits for years. Cheap Chinese goods for low-ish American prices.
A simple google search would have many credible sources giving the answer to what tarrifs are.
But to the magats, only fox news has the truth.
There are two bright sides to this (and dark sides as well):
-This will decrease demand of Chinese goods in the U.S., hurting a country that is ... problematic to say the least. (Anyone remember the Uyghurs? The O.G. Gazens?) It probably won't shift demand back to the U.S. factories, but maybe it is time for another country to become the slave-labor-ish manufacturing capital of the world.
-When the prices skyrocket, along with food from all the missing immigrant farm hands, Trump will get blamed. I just hope this wasn't the plan all along and those "fake" inflation hikes back after covid weren't to cover for the real ones down the road.
Trump will get blamed
Ha, ha, ha, he will blame Biden, or immigrants, and his moron supporters will believe him just like they have when he lied the other thousands of times.
Trump will get blamed
Oh honey...
Trump will get blamed
Like they blamed him for his COVID-19 response?
If that didn't get through... honestly, I have no idea what would. Americans are just stuck in their feeds and divorced from reality now.
When the prices skyrocket, along with food from all the missing immigrant farm hands, Trump will get blamed.
i really hope you’re right, but i think that will most likely get blamed on biden “ruining the economy” in his last term, or something in that vein. a lot of trump voters get their news from fox news or directly from donald trump, and i can’t imagine either of those sources criticizing trumps economic policies.
When the prices skyrocket, along with food from all the missing immigrant farm hands, Trump will get blamed.
In all likelihood, only a small percentage of his voters will actually blame him for the predictable consequences of his tariffs. The rest of them will believe Trump when he blames it on Biden's economic policies that were put in place before Trump's second term. Our egos have a funny way of making us do mental gymnastics to avoid having to accept the idea of oneself being wrong.
The OG Gazans
Oh my you must be in your early 20s...
They're planning on 10-20% tariffs on all imports. China is 60%.
just like mexico paid for his 'wall'
That wall probably bought him a lot of renovations at Mara Lago.
Cool. Places like Aldis will continue not-fucking their customers while walmart will continue doing the same shit it always has, fucking over poor people and small business owners.
Dont shop at walmart if you can help it. Or kroger. Or any other shitty american company thats profit driven.
Cool trick y'all can do: if profit is the clear main goal, that company is garbage no matter what they do.
Can you provide a list of companies that are not profit driven?
Here is my list:
Duuuh. Did they really think the company would just eat the additional costs? What a bunch of maroons.
They thought the exporting country/company would pay for it.
and without raising the price they sell it at. which is just many millions of sad examples of how 'effective' the republicants war on public education has been.
The good thing about Trump is that other countries will try to get more independent from the US.
I have a trick to get others to pay it for me:
Yes. We will pay for the tariffs.
American companies will pay for the tariffs, and then we the consumers who buy their products will pay for the tariffs via price increases.
This is money that we will invest. It is a tax. It is the government causing us to spend more money.
It is not a usual tax in the sense of money paid to the IRS. But it is an economic cost that we will pay in order to support a government policy.
The cost is paid to enact a certain outcome. The outcome is less importing of goods, and more of those goods being provided by sources within our borders. It will cost money to make this change. That cost will be paid by us.
We are being forced to pay money to enact a policy. That’s how it’s essentially a tax.
Except this policy is basically:
- More stuff that American consumers consume, will come from American companies
- There will be more manufacturing capability to meet this demand
- There will be more demand for American labor, improving the lives of American workers
- We will be more militarily capable due to being able to build more things in-house
That is a set of changes being targeted by this policy. We will pay for this policy by paying higher prices. The intention, the hope, is that the policy will pay for itself in terms of the third bullet point: more manufacturing in America means more jobs for Americans. More demand for American stuff means better bargaining position for American workers, means more income.
In the short term it’ll suck. Just like any other heavy tax can suck in the short term, before the benefits can manifest and make it worth it.
This was tried under Trump the first time and it was an abject failure.
Trump’s tariffs raised the price of foreign made dishwashers by 20%. American manufacturers also jacked up the cost of their appliances, in order to match that price that customers were paying. As a result there was no incentive to change consumer behavior and there was no boost in “buying American.”
Wow, it's almost like companies will take any excuse they can to raise prices and make more profit.
Lol
What will the incentive be for these supposed new manufacturers, who just spent a whole lot of money building factories, to offer significantly lower prices than what Americans will have already gotten used to paying by the time said manufacturers have been able to build out their production facilities?
Better yet; Why would these manufacturers even invest in building out these supply lines when they can't be sure that the next administration won't remove the tariffs? Seems like a risky investment.
Don't worry. Trump branded everything will be made by US
prisonslave labor and thus be a good 10% cheaper than the goods under tariff.Fuck Walmart.
How about "fuck the idiot who thinks tariffs are paid for by anyone except the consumer." Your money is going to be worth a lot less over the next 4 years because a moron doesn't understand how tariffs work.
I’m very glad I live in Canada.
I'm not sure, USA is way too close for comfort
Over 51% of men are voting for Poilivre in the next election. That's across all age groups. We're where we usually are: 5-10 years behind something the US is doing.
I hate to say it but the NDP need to replace Singh with someone more charismatic.
There’s too much Trudeau hate for the Liberals to have a chance. Too many people will be voting “anything but liberal” this election because they blame Trudeau.
Right now conservatives feel like the only other option because there’s also enough racists to not to vote for Singh.
We need another NDP leader like Jack Layton that people will see as a symbol of change or we’ll be following in the Americans footsteps.
I've heard that y'all have your own far-right, MCGA bullshit to deal with. Do everything you can to stop it. Get involved with as many organizations as you can and get as many people involved as you can. "It'll never happen here" is complete and utter bullshit. Good luck, Northern brethren.
I live in Alberta. Our premier is basically Marjorie Taylor Greene.
We've already lost that battle sadly. Alberta has Smith (think Marjorie Taylor Greene), the Cons, while refusing to admit climate change is real, and with a leader who spent his entire political career trying to repeal abortion rights/gay rights, have locked away the vote of men with 51%+.
In 2022, 41% of Con voters supported Trump. In 2024, it's increased to 44% (higher than Biden or Harris in both, though.)
In addition, the Canadian Right-Wing's favourite Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, heads up a global 'get Right-Wing governments elected' organization.
So I wish you the best of luck as well, though I fear we are on similar Germany-in-the-1930's path).
Help the women and LGBT people in your life, they're going to need it.
The USA screwing up trade never leaves Canada in a good spot. Our prices will go up too. And we're about to suffer the same effect of mass ignorance after the next federal election when the voters elect a populist bigot with no idea how to run a country. We're already suffering it in the provincial governments. Plus the bigots in Canada feel empowered to get loud and violent when the Americans are all doing it. I'm glad not to be living in the USA but we're not looking forward to fun times.
Unless something happens, so far people are voting for PP because of the carbon tax stuff. people don't want to understand it and want to see the prices at the store cheaper not the refunds at tax time.
that's not a country it's a border
Hahaha
Holy shit. That’s amazing.
Holy shit, lol And here we all thought dumb funny movies didn't have anything of substance in them
Surrounded by Trump voters there, I see
Cry more. Americans chose Trump with eyes wide open and deserve everything that's coming to them.
If only his actions didn’t also hurt the half of the country that voted against him and organized to keep him out of office. He won by a sliver.
And potentially many other nations depending upon what happens with environmental regulations. And anything involving the military.
I hope you die in a painful way
Maybe bleeding out because you can't get medical care because a bunch of men said you can't get it cause Jesus
Muy caliente
And Walmart will but only by a tinsy tiny bit. That’s why they’re coming out and saying this.
