Businesses brace for tariff déjà vu
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Olen Shannon Maldonado, käsintehtyjä artesaanituotteita myyvän Jaui lahjakaupan perustaja. Valitsin Shopify, koska alustoja testatessani totesin sen ehdottomasti yhdeksi helppokäyttöisimmistä alustoista. Minulla oli tärkeää pohtia kehittymistämme tulevaisuudessa. Kaikki myyntiin tarvittavat työkalut, kuten varaston suunnittelu, ovat kätevästi dashboardissa. Aloita ilmainen kokeilu shopify.com-sivustolla.
If you're keeping track, I think I've only said economic data like three times this week. From American Public Media, this is Marketplace.
In Los Angeles, I'm Colin Risdell. It is Thursday today, the 16th of July. Good as always to have you along, everybody. Retail sales are where we begin today. We are still buying stuff. Thank you, American consumer. But not as much as we had been buying. Thank you, inflation, underlying unease, and oh yeah, don't forget tariffs, which have fallen out of the headlines but are still very much a thing and might be becoming more of a thing recently. Real soon, the White House announced new 25% tariffs on Brazil today, and there are more coming to replace the president's tariff Palooza import taxes that the Supreme Court said were illegal. They're coming soon, a couple of months, maybe. So as we brace for tariffs, I guess it's 3.0 now.
Marketplace's Sabri Beneshour gets us going with how businesses are coping this time around.
Even in the flower business, tariffs will find you. Flowers for Dreams is headquartered in Chicago and does flower delivery and events across the Midwest. CEO Stephen Dime has been bracing for changes to the tariff situation.
Yeah, we're starting to work on our winter menu, our Valentine's preparation. We know we're going to be hit hard with tighter margins and some pricing pressure then. We're preparing for that because it happened last year.
Dime actually prefers to get his flowers from the Midwest. But you know, not everything grows there. So he's got to do some importing. And he's trying to place those orders early. But that is not really how flowers work.
Every person up and down the supply chain reserves that right to make changes due to the delicate nature, the fragile nature of flowers.
So prices are up, and so are substitutions, and people ordering flowers for, like, their weddings don't love that.
No client loves that.
A lot of businesses have tried, like they did last year, to front load their imports ahead of new batches of tariffs. The National Retail Federation estimates port volumes surged 19 percent year over year in June. Jonathan Gold is vice president of supply chain and customs policy there. You're seeing higher freight rates as a result of some of this. You've got higher costs for inventory because you can hold the inventory longer than you typically would. Active Style is a company that sells Scandinavian activewear. Nate Axvig is the CEO. He orders early when he can, but it means paying for everything early, too.
You're out money and a good chunk of it before you even get the product on your website or on the sales floor.
He's had to take out loans. Some businesses are armed with know-how from last year's tariffs, how to navigate and litigate the technicalities of tariff rules. Or they have sophisticated pricing plans, raise prices on one good to pay for the tariffs on the other. But more than anything, says Randall Sargent, partner at Oliver Wyman, they're just over it.
You know, there's so much uncertainty around it. And then it's like the war gaming. And, you know, I think a lot of retailers that I talk to are kind of like, are we really doing this again? Yep.
Yep, we are. In New York, I'm Sabri Beneshour for Marketplace.
Yes, we are. If you remember back to Monday, I said I thought I would say economic data 15 times this economic data heavy week. Not so, I suppose. Wall Street today, AI is bad again. It's bad, bad, bad. We'll have the details when we do the numbers.
How are U.S. businesses reacting to the White House's new forced-labor tariffs?
Even though it's just Thursday and one never knows what tomorrow is going to bring us in this economy of ours, this week so far has been pretty good.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:32
2
How are U.S. businesses reacting to the White House's new forced-labor tariffs?
4:32–7:58
3
How are florists and perishable-goods sellers planning around potential tariffs?
7:58–12:47
4
What costs do retailers face when front-loading imports to beat tariffs?
12:47–20:48
5
Could recent inflation and retail data convince the Fed to pause interest-rate changes?
20:48–26:32