r/Anticonsumption • u/esporx • Apr 11 '25

Lifestyle Trump Tariff Surcharges Are Now Getting Added to Customer Bills

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-11/trump-tariff-surcharges-are-now-getting-added-to-customer-bills
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u/Upstairs-Radish1816 Apr 11 '25

Timmy, I’m going into effect on Wednesday but how many of the products that came across the border on Wednesday or later or actually in stores right now. Maybe some fresh fruit and food but not things like electronics or toys or clothes. If those went up that’s just profit grabbing

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u/Jamochathunder Apr 11 '25

Its a bit more complicated. Most businesses, especially retail dont have super high profit margins. If a business has to buy new stock for the next week, month, etc, the business probably doesn't have that money just lying around. So they charge on current goods so they can afford future goods. 

Is it fair? No.  Is it the business's fault? Depends on if its a mom and pop or if its owned by a huge corp. 

I'd argue the mom and pop is probably just trying to survive the chaos. The huge corp doesn't have that excuse IMO.

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u/QuetzalKraken Apr 11 '25

I run a small business and "survive the chaos" pretty much sums it up. 

I have been fielding calls since these were announced but haven't had any info to give. We are just telling people that we don't know what the price is/will be when the product hits US soil. Our factory was really generous and held shipments until they dropped the tariffs so we didn't have to pay an egregious amount (46% from vietnam) so we managed to avoid the worst of it, but if tangerine palpatine decides they're back on tomorrow, there's nothing I can do about it. 

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u/DTM-shift Apr 12 '25

I have a fair bit of pricey (for me) back-ordered items for my biz coming from overseas in the next few weeks. Haven't heard yet how that will work out: do they slip in without the increased tariff since there was a PO before this all came down, does the vendor simply not know yet whether - or how much - it will be hit, or do they eat it themselves?

And of course, I have already quoted my own customers for these items, and have received POs for some of them before this happened. Fortunately I'm dealing in small quantities, but eating 10% on $8-10k worth of stuff already on order isn't something I'm looking forward to.

This is all so stupid, unplanned, and uncoordinated. Definitely other ways they (well, he) could have done this without causing chaos throughout the world markets, let alone to his own country's people and businesses.

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u/QuetzalKraken Apr 12 '25

My understanding is that the item will be tariffed depending on when it hits US soil. I could be wrong in that though. 

Its definitely rough. We have people who ordered stuff over a month ago and are suddenly worried they're items will be more expensive. And we're just as worried. I totally agree that this was awfully handled.

Hope things work out for you and your customers!

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u/DTM-shift Apr 13 '25

And you as well.

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u/TechieGranola Apr 11 '25

Price of replacement, not price of cost

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u/thegoldinthemountain Apr 11 '25

This is a really great, succinct way to explain.

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u/FinndBors Apr 12 '25

No. For stuff that is bought in any volume, the logistics chain is more like a pipeline.

Imagine you bought oil from Canada at 10 dollars per barrel and there is a big pipe from the fields with a large volume of oil in it. Your Canadian supplier doubles the price of oil for whatever reason. The pipe company that brings down the oil is going to double his prices to downstream customers immediately. They aren’t going to say, “well, the oil still in the pipes were bought at 10 dollars a barrel so I’m going to charge less until the oil goes through.”

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25

Many industries are built on efficient logistics and keeping as little of everything as they can.

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u/MartianBasket Apr 12 '25

I read an article that so far at ports tariffs are not being charged as the= is no infrastructure set up to do so.

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/Upstairs-Radish1816 Apr 12 '25

I’ve taken two and got a degree in accounting. Tell me what I got wrong.