Summary

Best Buy warned that Trump’s proposed tariffs on imports from China, Mexico, and Canada could raise prices on consumer electronics, as 60% of Best Buy’s inventory comes from China.

Trump plans to impose a baseline 10% tariff on all imports and a 60% tariff on Chinese goods to boost domestic manufacturing.

Retailers like Best Buy and industry groups like the Consumer Technology Association are preparing for supply chain disruptions by importing goods early or sourcing alternatives to avoid higher consumer prices.

  • @pivot_root@lemmy.world
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    747 months ago
    1. Prices go up.
    2. People stop spending money.
    3. Revenue loss for companies.
    4. Mass layoffs.
    5. Job security concerns.
    6. People stop spending money.
    7. Go to (3)

    Which part of that cycle was supposed to fix the cost of living problems again? Last I checked, those tariffs aren’t going towards universal basic income or social services.

    • @Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      327 months ago

      The part where the monopolies buy up even more of the economy and we all get issued life subscription plans because they can cover everything from our housing to our groceries to our jobs. Don’t worry, your WaLife Plan^tm is tailored to be affordable for your Cashier position.

      • @pivot_root@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Don’t worry, your WaLife Plan™ is tailored to be affordable for your Cashier position.

        I can’t be arsed to actually make the meme, so here’s a transcript:

        [Drake meme]

        Top-left panel: Drake looking away in disgust.
        Top-right panel: Cyberpunk 2077

        Bottom-left panel: Drake looking pleased.
        Bottom-right panel: America 2025

    • @Joeffect@lemmy.world
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      147 months ago

      Everything he’s planning is going to have negative effects on the economy…

      Deport every? No one to work the jobs most refuse to do… Means food, housing, and other shortages which makes prices go up.

      Tariffs? Make everything cost more and force companies to charge consumers.

      Reduce education standards? Keep everyone dumb so they vote for us!!!

      • @ZigZagZebra@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Tariffs can also backfire like with China and their retaliatory tariffs . Some US companies rely on exports for a large part of their business.

        • @Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works
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          77 months ago

          It happened the last time Trump tried it. China slapped a tariff on an ag product, soy (iirc), China stopped buying, the government bailed out the farmers. Everyone lost except China.

      • @jj4211@lemmy.world
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        37 months ago

        Deport every? No one to work the jobs most refuse to do… Means food, housing, and other shortages which makes prices go up.

        This one kind of makes me a bit sad about the two prevailing sentiments:

        • Heartless separation of families and forcing immigrants back into dangerous situations, frankly in the name of pursuing an ethnic purity/superiority.

        • Maintain an illegal labor class of folks constantly under threat of deportation so they have fewer rights and higher fear to exercise the rights they do have, so they can be cheap and abused labor.

        The “grant these people legal standing” seems to never be a persistent stance. Closest we got was DACA, and even that was pretty limited. No one dares threaten giving the cheap labor any leverage.

    • @Cheems@lemmy.world
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      47 months ago
      1. Democrats get elected next major election
      2. Start fixing the problem
      3. People get frustrated with how long it takes
      4. Things start getting better as Republicans get voted in again
      5. Republicans take credit
      6. Republicans start ruining things again
      7. Republicans blame socialism
      8. Go back to 1
    • @Cort@lemmy.world
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      37 months ago

      Could be even worse than that. If consumers stop spending in anticipation of the tariffs, starting the cycle even sooner

  • Encephalotrocity
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    697 months ago

    Amazing how they didn’t say shit until after the election. Almost like they want to have their cake and eat it too.

  • Nusm
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    7 months ago

    Read all about it in this month’s issue of Duh.

    • @hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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      247 months ago

      They absolutely will.

      Either directly, because those goods are now more expensive to Best Buy and they’re not about to eat that, so it’ll get pissed directly on to the consumer (with a mark-up)…

      …or indirectly, when any one or more of the corporate entities involved in the domestic supply chain sees that domestic goods are now cheaper than imports for the consumer, which means that they now have an opportunity to simply raise their prices to match and pocket the difference.

      Nevermind that domestic supply chains often have roots in China anyway, so it’s not like the domestic electronics are going to be able to hold price either, since their imported components will still be getting hit with the tariff.

      My favorite part of this aspect of it in particular is that while electronics are no doubt ubiquitous, most electronics purchases are more discretionary. It’s not like a car where if yours dies you are definitely buying another one. Most times, people are getting a phone because a new model came out, or they decided theirs was too slow. They’re getting a new TV because they want to upgrade or found a good deal.

      So when these tariffs hit and prices lurch up, expect sales to plummet as people decide they can keep going with their current electronics just a bit longer.

      So congratulations, domestic beneficiaries of an electronics tariff, any profit increase you might have gained will now be more than gutted by the nosedive in overall sales!

  • @hark@lemmy.world
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    377 months ago

    It WILL raise prices and it will raise prices by more than whatever percentage the tariffs are set at because as we all saw from the recent greedflation, businesses will use any excuse to raise prices as much as possible, particularly in industries dominated by an oligopoly (which is most of them).

    • @Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world
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      57 months ago

      Greedflation worked because the consumer could absorb price increases to a certain extent after Covid.

      While greedflation will be a factor this time around. I don’t think it will be as prominent as it was post covid. The consumer is tapped out and is just not buying anymore. People are not going to buy electronics at 60% or higher prices. They will go cheap or just do without.

      Trump is either using the threat of tariffs as a negotiating tactic to get something out of our trade partners or Trump will repeat history and be like Hoover. We’ll have a stock market drop, rampant stagflation and a Recession / Depression on his watch.

      • @jj4211@lemmy.world
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        37 months ago

        At least in some circles, it was ok that the customers were tapped out and not buying anymore, at least not at the same volumes.

        A fair number of businesses figured out that the math works better if most people couldn’t afford their product but at least some could at the higher prices. In one extreme example I recall a leaked presentation for a company that determined they could raise prices by 10 fold and still retain 10% of their customers, and that was a win because it’s cheaper to deal with a smaller customer base in their case.

        I know before the pandemic in my company, there was a long standing argument about whether it was better to be high volume low margin or high margin low volume. COVID forced the company to go with the high margin strategy and they decided the high margin people were right for a while. Then competitive pressures came in and proved the high volume people right, that someone in a competitive industry will make the high volume play and they will win if you don’t also do high volume.

        So if tariffs reduce the likelihood of one of the high-volume strategy companies participating, the remaining may gleefully go to high-margin and say forget about the masses, that’s not where the money is.

      • Flying Squid
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        107 months ago

        You have points with the others, but why would you not trust a phone bought on Amazon? People are constantly buying phones from them. I’ve never heard any major “don’t buy a phone from Amazon” warning before.

        • @xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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          187 months ago

          Amazon silently resells used and returned products that are sometimes resold without any inspection. If you’re buying something expensive it’s better to go to the original manufacturer.

          • Flying Squid
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            17 months ago

            I have never bought a phone from them, but every time I have had an issue with a product I have bought from Amazon, I either can return it for a refund or they refund me and I don’t even have to return it.

            I mean fuck Amazon for any number of reasons, but this is just not an issue I have heard about a lot of people having with phones bought from Amazon.

        • @dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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          27 months ago

          I mean, I’ve been boycotting Amazon since 1999, so it isn’t like I’m buying anything from them. But I really wouldn’t trust any complicated/expensive electronic component from them outside of the Kindle, since that is their own product. It is too easy for Chinese companies to dupe these days.

    • @empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      287 months ago

      It’s unironically a really good place to buy consumer electronics, both online and in person. They’re still holding on, they’ve crawled out of the hole they put themselves in a decade ago.

      • @adarza@lemmy.ca
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        27 months ago

        my last cheap unlocked phone came from there.

        a neighbor just bought one of their laptop specials this week. she hadn’t bought anything from bestbuy since her last one, though… in 2015.

        • @Montagge@lemmy.zip
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          17 months ago

          That’s probably when I bought my laptop there lol I picked up my TV there last year as they carried an Insignia “dumb” TV.

    • @dan@upvote.au
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      7 months ago

      Their open box products are good value. Sometimes the product is still in perfect condition in its original packaging, and you still get the original manufacturer warranty with it, but because a customer returned it you can get it for 10% or 15% cheaper.

    • kn0wmad1c
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      47 months ago

      It’s my go-to since I’ve stopped supporting Amazon

    • Cornpop
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      27 months ago

      It functions as a good showroom to try the shit you can buy cheaper online

      • @dan@upvote.au
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        27 months ago

        In my experience, their prices are the same as online stores, and in the case where their prices are higher, they price match.

    • 🇨🇦 tunetardis
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      257 months ago

      Oh it’ll be a shit show, don’t worry. Imagine a car sold in the US that’s assembled in Mexico using parts manufactured in the US from metals mined in Canada, along with electronics from China. And that’s all within a single company’s supply chain. There will be tariffs on top of tariffs in the auto sector.

  • @juice702@lemmy.world
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    207 months ago

    Honestly, bring on the bullshit. I’m so sick of these maga idiots so I can’t wait to see how this will affect them and what they voted for.

      • @Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world
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        127 months ago

        No, they will learn nothing because Fox News, X and right wing propaganda they listen to is very effective at shifting blame or brushing problems under the rug.

        If we want to change their minds we need to pierce their information bubble that insulates them from their decisions.

  • @Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    197 months ago

    Basically every shop will have to raise prices then. Even a farm shop selling only their own produce, as their own production costs will definitely rise.

  • sp3ctr4l
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    187 months ago

    I can only hope this also kills the ‘i am a youtuber/influencer, buy my astoundingly overpriced merch’ business.

  • @JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world
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    147 months ago

    Thank you bestbuy for making this statement after the election.

    Not that it would’ve made any difference. I’m disgusted with my country.

    • @rumba@lemmy.zip
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      107 months ago

      Trump said himself that prices were going to go way up. There’s not anybody else out there that would have made a difference. When these idiots can’t afford to go to McDonald’s anymore, and they find they can’t get on disability they’re going to change their tune far too late.

        • @JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world
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          27 months ago

          Yeah Trump could litterally be holding a knife to their neck and they’d continue making excuses for him. If they were gonna learn, they would have by now.

          The only policy these people have is taking down their perceived enemies.