2d ago

Grocery Chains Are Passing Trump Tariff Costs on to US Consumers With Higher Prices: Report

www.commondreams.org Grocery Chains Are Passing Trump Tariff Costs on to US Consumers With Higher Prices: Report | Common Dreams

As 90% of Americans say grocery prices are a major source of stress, the nation's top grocery chains have said they're passing the cost of Trump's tariffs onto consumers, according to a new report.

United States | News & Politics @midwest.social

www.commondreams.org /news/tariffs-passed-onto-consumers

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A Boring Dystopia @lemmy.world

Grocery Chains Are Passing Trump Tariff Costs on to US Consumers With Higher Prices: Report

www.commondreams.org /news/tariffs-passed-onto-consumers

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78 comments

Yup, and when the tariffs go away, they'll keep the higher prices and pocket the difference.
- Here in Australia, most of the inflation we encountered in 2024 was due to large retailers simply increasing their prices because everyone expected everything to be more expensive.
  
  It's been the same in the US since covid.
- Another fun thing about tariffs. Those domestic producers that are being protected by tariffs will increase their prices as high as they can.
  For example, let’s say an American company can sell a widget for $5 and a Chinese company can sell it for $4.
  You slap a 100% tariff on the Chinese widget, now it costs the consumer $8.
  The American company can now sell you the widget for the initial $5 and leave $2.99 on the table, or they can jack their price up to $7.99, be cheaper than the Chinese widget, and increase their profits while gesturing around vaguely at “market conditions”
  End result, you pay more for the widget, more than it the foreign producer used to sell it for and more than the domestic producers used to sell it for.
  Now imagine you make something that has dozens of inputs and that happens to every input.
  Truly a golden age
  
  It's not just domestic companies being greedy (though they definitely are) they kinda have to raise prices to avoid shortages. Basic supply and demand pressures.
  In the long term they could expand their production and lower the prices, which is theoretically the point of the tariffs. But no one is going to make that long term investment because of the likelihood that the tariffs will be ruled illegal by the courts and general TACO stuff.

Wouldn't it be more news worthy if they were not?
- Unfortunately, a lot of people actually believe the Chomo-In-Chief's bullshit and truly thought that other countries were paying the tariffs.
  
  The very same rocket surgeons thought that Project 2025 was a "Democratic hoax" or a "blue maga conspiracy theory", too...not the sharpest bulbs, as Taco would say.
- Well honestly I kinda don't understand what's been happening since April. I know there's been a lot of chickening out but I had thought that a lot of tariffs were in place even if it's only 10%. Have grocery chains not been passing this on for the last several months?

Shocked Pikachu meme

why hasn't anyone told about this???
- Retailers wanted to put a line item on the receipts calling out the tariff costs and Trump threatened to sue them.
  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tariff-surcharge-prices/
  
  same story with Amazon too, initially there was a note detailing the extra cost of tariffs. needless to say Trump started hurling threats, flailing his arms, crying and shouting.

It's going to be super frustrating when a court suddenly decides in a couple of years that actually these tariffs were illegal all along and the federal government has to give the money back to the businesses and they just pocket all this money
- when a court suddenly decides in a couple of years
  Good start
  that actually these tariffs were illegal all along
  We hope
  and the federal government has to give the money back
  I don't think that can happen, but it would be nice down the line to-
  to the businesses and they just pocket all this money
  GOD DAMN IT
- Even more frustrating...some companies are putting out bonds that they will pay out when they recover the money they paid to the government for these tariffs. There are members of Trump's administration that have bought these bonds.
  So you're paying higher prices for everything and Trump's guys (and likely Trump himself too) are going to profit from it.
  
  Trump is 79 and apparently has some kind of medical issue (it must be serious considering that they're covering it up). Hopefully this orange ass-clown won't live long enough to enjoy it.
  
  not that i doubt this but do you have a source for the info? very curious to learn more about this, havent heard as much before

Who could ever have foreseen something like this happening? Certainly, not I.
- Is this not C/leopardatemyface?

Well yeah. Tariffs are taxes and I told people last year I need to save up for the trump tax and most people shrugged it off or gave me a hard time.
I work with international sales, tariffs are my job. But as we know, people don't like facts or reality.

I want to say "no shit" but then I remember the average American.

It is almost like that is how things work. MAGAts you are getting what you voted for.
- Sadly, you and I, too.

Wait what?

Now they should put up signs next to the prices showing how much of the raise is due to Trumps tariffs.
- Lol, you think the ruling class gives a fuck? Look up who the owners of Kroger, Publix, etc. supported. They are happy to just charge more and blame Democrats.
- Trump has already threatened to sue grocery stores and Amazon for listing the tariff, and they're cowards

But it's fine, because Cracker Barrel changed their logo back.
- That whole thing was so stupid. A bunch of folks hated it because they thought it was woke. A bunch more folks didn't give the slightest shit but thought it was a terrible rebrand. Even more folks said "Wait, they're still in business?"
  
  Living off tips at a Cracker Barrel must be rough. At least Waffle House isn’t slow.
  
  I was definitely in the last of those three categories.
  
  The whole thing is just a cost cutting measure. There's a reason why all fast food places look the same now.... it's the cheapest way to build a restaurant.
  But sure... let's pretend there must be a politcal reason for all restaurants having the same boring design so we can pretend anything we don't like is "woke".

And somehow, they're still making record profits!
- People still need to eat, and I wouldn't be surprised if the supermarkets have kept the same margins as a percentage with the higher price for essential products.

And let's not forget the "Look, the tariffs are adding 10% already... what's an extra 5% on top of that?" tax.

Gosh, I thought they were just going to eat the costs, because Taco hereby ordered it.

No shit

Yeah…my grocery bill has been reflecting this lately. Food is getting even more expensive.

Groceries, they have a term ‘grocery.’ It’s an old term, but it means basically what you’re buying foods. It’s pretty accurate term, but it’s an old fashioned sound.
- Groceries are what you buy from a grocer at a grocery store
  
  Grocer is one of those terms where it gets increasingly evident that English is Germanic Hill with a French castle built on top.
- I was about to correct you on that but I looked it up and you're more correct than me.
  I thought groceries were more like packaged goods and not necessarily edible.
  Like here in Australia if I went to a super market and bought steak and veggies I wouldn't say "I'm just out buying some groceries".
  Another example, "I buy my veggies from the veggie shop, steak from the butcher, and then other groceries from the super market".
  I guess it is a somewhat old term. becoming less popular I suppose.
- Because you bought food in "gross" -- or, large quantities.

This is why you don't fuck around and abstain from voting or shit on your vote and throw it in the trash with a non-viable 3rd party.
Because then conservatives gain control and trash our economy (again) and, oh yeah, bring fascism to America.
- Or maybe we should blame the Republicans for electing republicans? You know, the ones who caused this?
  
  Why not both? Republicans lock the fuck in when it comes to voting in just enough locations to flip seats. They turn out to vote in the necessary areas, where democrats don't.
  I might not be able to change any republican's mind by telling them they are stupid as hell for voting the way they do (or give them facts that they would just ignore), but I can show up and encourage all my friends and family to vote against a fascist in our red district.
  
  Yeah. Sure. Blame them. They're felon rapist pedo supporters. I guarantee they don't care. They're lost causes. They're traitors to our nation. They have no shame, so blaming them doesn't do anything. You're literally just shouting into the wind.
  So I'm going to speak to the people who aren't lost causes.
  NO 3rd PARTY IS VIABLE AND NO 3rd PARTY IS TRYING TO BE
  Our nation just got a crystal clear lesson in what happens when you don't vote or vote for a non-viable 3rd party.
  Fascism. Fascism happens.
  None of this crazy ass wild shit was happening when Dems were in control before January.
  If you want to vote 3rd party, do it in local elections, not federal elections. It makes literally no sense to do so in federal elections. No 3rd party is putting in the work to become viable. The most popular 3rd party candidate shows up right before every election, loses, then disappears again. And she only got half of a single percent of the total votes cast.
  A 3rd party president is not happening anytime soon, and probably not in our lifetimes.
  So if you don't particularly like Dems either, how about you just vote AGAINST fascism?
  I don't care about your feelings. I don't care about your ideals. Those don't mean anything when fascists take control. Do the intelligent thing and vote for a party that isn't bringing fascism to America and then reform it by voting out the members of that party that won't get onboard with progressive policies. Conservatives just reformed their party (into a fascist party) over the last decade or so. It's proof that parties can be reformed. And it's not the first time in American history.
- You've learned nothing since the election. Fuck your grocery bill, you deserve it for being okay with the other non viable genocidal candidate.
  It's those principled citizens who don't deserve it, and they're the ones that will be on the front lines when it comes down to it, you'll just continue barking at them and when you experience the effects of civil war for the first time, you'll respond the same way: you'll blame those who actually resisted and fought back for starting a war, instead of voting for Newsom or whoever the fuck Democrat you think will save this collapsing empire.
  Read some books. Start with Manufacturing Consent and the Orientalism, but you'll need some capacity for empathy towards people outside your country first.
  
  Don’t worry guys, things under Kamala would be just as bad! Someone on the internet told me so!
  No, you’re letting “perfect” get in the way of “not letting shit continue to backslide.” You sound like a college sophomore who just got their hands on Chomsky for the first time and thinks they’ve figured out how to fix the world for real this time, we just need people to stop being shitty towards one another in order for my new socioeconomic system to work, come on guys stop laughing I know it hasn’t worked in the past but that’s because they didn’t do it right.
  We have a sinking ship. One side is eagerly and vigorously drilling more holes in the hull. The other side is trying to bale water and patch holes with the minimal tools that they have access to. And then there’s you, screeching that since the balers didn’t keep your pant hems from getting soggy, we need to hand more drills to the drillers.
  There’s an old joke: Jill Stein is trapped in a room. She has a gun with three bullets loaded. Beside her stands a democrat, a fascist, an anarchist, and Karl Marx. What does she do? She hands the gun to the fascist.
  
  Exactly right. Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris are directly responsible for Donald Fucking Trump.

I’m pretty sure we are in hell

Since my last grocery trip: beef is at record highs, worse than the pandemic. Egg beaters (100% inflation in 11 months) and Hot Pockets (50% inflation, same time period) are at record prices BJ's bottled water went up from $3.50 to $4, first increase I've seen Soda products are are almost record highs, around $8.75 ish. Record high was when diesel was super high, and was $9.50. now, 15 years ago, same store, it was regularly $2. an average loaf of bread is almost at $4.- 15 years ago it was breaking $1.
- Bottled water went up? Surely that's just opportunistic
- In the US, Bread has been almost completely monopolized by BIMBO, which slashed all the low priced items on their buyouts with the expensive brands. Now the prices are higher, even though they promised in their merger records that they wouldn't increase prices or remove Lowe brands.
  Seems nobody wants to enforce the laws anymore.

But he said he'd lower grocery prices le shock.

Yep that’s tariffs 101

So exactly like they did during the pandemic... And continued to after the pandemic.

In other news, bears shit in the woods!

And do amerikkklansmen care? Nope!! Paying higher prices is good now because dicktator trump!
- Dicktater.
  As in tater-tot dick.

I just buy whatever is on sale. That has been my solution.

Now it's time to lower the federal interest rate. We need a lot of inflation stat or we're stuck with fascists until we break out in a civil war again.

78 comments