Most don’t even directly pass the cost to the consumer, they pass them down the line to retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, etc.
Then those companies add the additional cost to the product as the sell them … So only the importer is getting the refund, and only a handful of very large resellers are actually importers. Most small businesses buy from importers or wholesalers, and they won’t get anything back either.
But those small businesses have the option to pass those losses onto the consumer, and with blanket effects like tariffs it happens across the board. I own a small construction business, this is what happens when inflation goes crazy for my pricing anyway and it has never made my business not competitive for pricing before.
I own a software company, but we sell computer hardware to about half of our clients as well. We passed the increase in hardware to our clients as our suppliers passed it down to us.
But I’m not an importer, and my main supplier imports about 50% of what we buy from them. The rest they buy from manufacturers that import their own product, or importers (or possibly even wholesalers that buy from importers), and we buy some stuff at retail, since we just don’t need.
We absolutely struggle to be competitive, and more so now than before. We don’t have VC money, or credit card processor backing that many of our competitors do, so can’t give hardware away at below cost, or for free. At the end of the day, we decreased our markup to help keep prices down, knowing that we’ll ultimately make it up on software licensing over the next few years.
Even then, our customers are all businesses that paid the increased tariff at the end of the day, so how do they get their taxes back, since most people are suggesting returning taxes to individuals.
The whole thing is a freaking mess, without any real good answer that will actually make everyone happy.
Most don’t even directly pass the cost to the consumer, they pass them down the line to retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, etc.
Then those companies add the additional cost to the product as the sell them … So only the importer is getting the refund, and only a handful of very large resellers are actually importers. Most small businesses buy from importers or wholesalers, and they won’t get anything back either.
But those small businesses have the option to pass those losses onto the consumer, and with blanket effects like tariffs it happens across the board. I own a small construction business, this is what happens when inflation goes crazy for my pricing anyway and it has never made my business not competitive for pricing before.
Absolutely. …
I own a software company, but we sell computer hardware to about half of our clients as well. We passed the increase in hardware to our clients as our suppliers passed it down to us.
But I’m not an importer, and my main supplier imports about 50% of what we buy from them. The rest they buy from manufacturers that import their own product, or importers (or possibly even wholesalers that buy from importers), and we buy some stuff at retail, since we just don’t need.
We absolutely struggle to be competitive, and more so now than before. We don’t have VC money, or credit card processor backing that many of our competitors do, so can’t give hardware away at below cost, or for free. At the end of the day, we decreased our markup to help keep prices down, knowing that we’ll ultimately make it up on software licensing over the next few years.
Even then, our customers are all businesses that paid the increased tariff at the end of the day, so how do they get their taxes back, since most people are suggesting returning taxes to individuals.
The whole thing is a freaking mess, without any real good answer that will actually make everyone happy.