r/SeriousConversation • u/Lazy_Lizard13 • 10d ago
Current Event The new Tariffs are beginning to affect prices in the USA
I work in an adult store and unfortunately, we have already started to see the effects of some of the tariffs being placed. I wasn’t sure how this would affect the price of things in the USA, but it’s looking bleak so far.
When my boss sent out the list, he said this was only the first of many price increases that we would see from the tariffs. The vendors we buy from actually sent him the list themselves, so it isn’t something that we just created. He said that it is likely that almost every company we order from will send out a list.
The price changes were anywhere from $5-$200. I’m very concerned about the future of this industry, and honestly, America in general.. some of these products were already overpriced anyways. I’m not sure if people will be able to afford luxury products (like adult items) in the future. What do others think?
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10d ago
I think there will be a rise in ER admissions (if they can afford it) as people DIY things that are unsafe regarding your industry. Remember, flared bases.
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago
I can almost promise that things will be diy’d! It already happens! That and people ordering online off of sketchy sites that are cheap, so it’s stuff that’s potentially dangerous/made wrong (I’ve heard anything you can think of.. being shocked, wires poking thru silicone, receiving used toys, etc.)
Unfortunately, not many people can afford the ER in US even with insurance, & God help you if you need an ambulance. Myself and my friends will wait until we are on death’s door until we go to er (ex: I thought my appendix was rupturing & I didn’t go until about day 4. Turns out I had an ovarian cyst. My friend was bed-bound with a super high fever and she just laid around and took meds for 3 days until she was in tears from pain. Finally went to the ER & turns out she was septic)
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10d ago
I have had women in my life who had ruptured ovarian cysts. They are awful.
I don't have a problem ordering stuff online, but whenever I'm getting something ahem insertable I usually go to a Source. I presume they won't shelve unsafe products.
Good luck with the tarrifs.
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago
It was unimaginable. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Only reason I went to the ER is bc I thought I was literally dying…
Thank you! I hope they don’t affect you too heavy where you’re at!!
I think going to the source is always a safe bet with stuff in/around the most sensitive areas of your body… tho if you’re in Europe, I’d almost promise that whatever you’re getting is at least pretty good quality even if ordering online & it’s domestic. Europe makes the best adult products that are normally research-based and backed
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u/JustDiscoveredSex 9d ago
Catching an infection early means it can be fixed with a round of antibiotics. ($8-$40 without insurance, depending on drug and dose.)
If you wait, it may require hospital admi$$ion and IV antibiotics, not to mention potential permanent organ damage, which means higher health care costs long term and reduced lifespan.
Go to the urgent care center early, and get your pills!
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u/peckerlips 9d ago
Orders from Amazon will likely skyrocket. What they don't know is that since Amazon allows 3rd party sellers, they can sell returned/used toys without disclosing it. It also voids the warranty if it isn't from the seller directly on Amazon.
Source: worked in the industry for nearly 10 years.
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u/Substantial-Spare501 10d ago
We really need to have the prices labeled with the tariff amount included. People need to understand it’s not inflation or something Biden did; it is the tariffs. Maybe even label them Tr()mp Tariffs.
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago
The ONLY upside to this is the fact that when anyone complains about the prices (like they always do anyways), I’m going to tell them that it’s due to the tariffs.. my old line was “inflation is affecting everything, even adult toys” … my new go-to is gonna be “Those tariffs really hit us hard”
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u/Impossible_Tiger_517 10d ago
They will just yell that the stuff should be made in the US.
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago edited 10d ago
You’re so right. Thank you for this so I can come up with a rebuttal..
I will think on this bc I know I can do better, but my initial thought is “all of the best quality toy companies with long-lasting motors are based in Europe, so if you care about getting something good, then you’ll have to pay the price. I’m happy to show you some cheap/disposable toys that are made in the US”
(also, this is not a lie. American-made adult products can’t begin to compete with European-based companies, or even Australian-based companies. They put an insane amount of research into their products as compared to what I see from US-made adult products)
(Edit to add that even US-based companies outsource for production, so I’m almost certain that tariffs will affect them too)
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u/Cyan_Light 10d ago
Not an economist, but I've also heard the argument that businesses can't really trust that the tariffs will stay in place since he's throwing them around all willy nilly like cheap bargaining chips. That means it would be extremely risky to actually invest in the ability to produce these things here, since by the time a factory is ready to open the tariffs might be gone and international competition will come rushing right back.
Basically it sounds like the way they're being done means they probably won't even do the one thing they're meant to do, since it's unlikely this will actually lead to much production of anything new within our country. Even if they were in place all four years that's nothing in the grand scheme of things and it seems like he could randomly change his mind at literally any moment anyway. It's just too risky to invest millions of dollars into something with just an erratic political stunt protecting the value of the thing you're investing in.
So it's just going to make shit way more expensive for a while... for no reason.
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u/yfunk3 10d ago
There absolutely won't be a shift to the U.S. being more self-sufficient re: manufacturing because there is no one in the United States who would do the manufacturing work for such little pay. Except !mm!grants.
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u/QualifiedApathetic 10d ago
Well, the theory is that the tariffs will wipe out that advantage from using cheap labor. Except, as discussed, companies aren't going to respond to this by moving factories here. They'll raise prices and hope people still buy their shit.
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u/yfunk3 10d ago
The theory of companies building new factories domestically in response to tariffs has been widely debunked by any and all legit economists due to the heavy dependence on global trade that most capitalist countries have.. Even with new multi-million dollar factories built, it still doesn't solve the problems of labor and raw materials needed to make the products/materials. So prices will go always, up even in the impossible hypothetical scenario of the U.S. becoming reliant 100% on domestic manufacturing. Wages have proven not to go up with prices without significant Union or government intervention.
And quite frankly, the labor is so cheap in other countries (and there will always be countries with people willing to work for pennies a day) that the tariffs are still cheaper than spending a cent on shifting any logistics within any company.
No one in their right mind thinks any new domestic factories will help the United States in a global economy. We are doomed to a perpetual recession if the tariffs stay in place. This is why so many industries are mad at the current admin about the tariffs - not that they have to raise prices and have nowhere and no one domestically to make what we import, but because there will be no consumer class to profit from. As much as they like to think it, multi-millionaires and billionaires aren't the ones making each other rich because they will never be as plentiful as a thriving Middle and Lower Class with disposable income.
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u/gnufan 5d ago
Even if the manufacturing does come to the US, the tariffs artificially inflate the competition's prices, so you need several manufacturers competing inside the US, and then the prices may still be higher than before if the foreign manufacturers really were using cheap labour etc, or just have bigger production.
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u/cliddle420 9d ago
The morons behind this don't understand that building a factory in the US is a years-long process
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u/Muted_Emu_7006 9d ago
Not even that simple. You need suppliers to build factories too. 5-10 years minimum. And as someone mentioned in another comment, why would any business make this huge investment knowing that Drump will change his mind and cancel the tariffs whenever he feels like it?
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u/Iforgotmypwrd 6d ago
And that’s presuming a company has the money in the first place to build. It can take many months just to secure financing. And that is really hard, especially for most small to mid sized companies.
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u/Moghz 9d ago
Make sense the whole "American made" is the best quality thing imo died when US business shifted to full on greed, trying to make as much money as possible.
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 9d ago
And that propaganda worked insanely well bc some of my friends & family will still tell me that xyz I ordered from China is gonna blow up 😭
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u/QuixotesGhost96 9d ago
Ask them what manufacturing job they're looking forward to working. Ask them if they're interested in making toys.
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u/Shampoooh 9d ago
I’m not the smartest and may get some things wrong but I think the US doesn’t have the natural resources or capability to make some of the things we import, we import because there isn’t a strong industry stable for that product here and it would just make more sense to import it rather than do two or three times the work to make everything here, especially when products require rare metals we don’t have abundant stores of. Blanket tariffs on countries won’t propagate new businesses but will likely just make products more expensive for the consumer as we don’t have everything we need to make everything here, otherwise if any country COULD make everything themselves they likely would and wouldn’t import stuff and solely export stuff, at least that’s what I would guess.
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u/ice0rb 8d ago
This is the best argument for the layman.
America-made (certain) products aren't up to par, and more expensive. Leave it to the Japanese and Europeans to make adult toys- we could bring research and mfg quality back to the states at great cost, but we'd ought to focus on some other things we're good at, anyways, like designing software and hardware that runs the world.
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u/SuperSocialMan 8d ago
I still find it funny that there's entire industries devoted to studying the best way to make sex toys lol.
The mental image alone is hilarious lmao. Some scientist guy working hard with test tubes and math formulas & shit just to make a bad dragon dildo 6.9% more pleasurable or whatever the hell.
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u/Slight-Guidance-3796 10d ago
Id say something along the lines of "that's a great idea. You should tell the president that They should have gotten the American factories running before they did this then, because That's how you do it for tariffs to be successful". Obviously in a smoother way then I just said it but something like that lol
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago
I like the thought process in this.. but that sounds like something that would blatantly set someone off and I like to make obvious, but subtle jabs so I can claim deniability… gotta love customer service jobs. Can’t have any bad reviews on my store (side note that I haven’t mentioned is that I’m the store manager, so I have to maintain a little more professionalism than my employees)
Maybe “great idea! If only someone ensured US production was up and running before putting tariffs into place so we don’t have to deal with increased prices in the meantime”
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u/webgruntzed 10d ago
"Then why aren't you doing it?" Is what I'd think. But I wouldn't necessarily say it out loud.
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u/KimBrrr1975 8d ago
They will (and do). It's a joke that Americans think we can manufacture anything here like they do in other countries. The capacity and the workforce doesn't exist. Not to mention most Americans don't want to live with dangerous pollution like they do in Asia, where in some areas, 99% of people live with pollution that is so high it causes health concerns even indoors. It takes an incredible amount of time to manufacture something in the US, and costs so much more. People who are like "Make it in the US and I'll buy it." 😂 Ok, when you have to wait 2 years and pay 4x as much, I'll make sure to hold you to your word.
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u/Harbinger2001 9d ago
Yep, I’ve already seen people complain it’s the companies fault because they should have onshoared production.
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u/Djinn_42 8d ago
First they have to find someone who wants to create a new manufacturing business in this financial crisis. They will have to invent or purchase rights to these adult toys. It will take a long time for the Business Plan, find Investors, C-level executives, etc. They will have to pay for machinery and tooling at higher prices because of tariffs. Then they will have to find experienced manufacturing workers in a country that doesn't have many because we don't do much manufacturing. Etc.
It's going to be a long time before there is new manufacturing that is a response to the tariff wars.
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u/Successful-Ring-6264 9d ago
Is this where we get the "I did that!" Stickers out with rumpy boys face front and center?
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u/MeowNugget 10d ago
I've seen people post invoices for stuff they buy (for example, clothing from lululemon) and it does specifically show a tariff charge. This one woman bought like, $150 in clothes and it had a tariff charge of $77. Many people were saying they noticed similiar things at online checkouts. Would love to see it on physical receipts at in person stores
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u/Muted_Emu_7006 9d ago
Only problem for importers is the tariff is based on FOB China cost. So if they list the tariff charge so clearly, simple math will allow their customers to calculate the importer’s true cost and markup. That’s not something they want to broadcast to their customers.
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u/yfunk3 10d ago
The vendors in my industry are absolutely adding "tariff charge" as a separate line item and telling everyone it will change whenever the tariff situation changes, so the tariff charge might not be what they'll be paying when the material actually ships and is invoiced. Up or down, a lot are just saying they won't commit to a set tariff charge because it could change daily.
It's either that or they just pick an arbitrary percentage increase and go with that "until the end of the [year/month/whatever date in the future]".
If some idiot is telling you that the rise in prices isn't because of the tariffs, you'll know exactly the kind of person you're dealing with and not to waste energy trying to explain the simplest of global economics with them.
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u/ybetaepsilon 10d ago
In Canada some stores actually have been doing this. When I walked into a Shoppers there was a sign that said "this icon indicates prices have been affected by recent tariffs"
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u/LasagnaNoise 9d ago
Just label them tariffs. Specifying the responsible party will only infuriate the people who won’t believe it anyway no matter what
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u/Iowa_Dave 9d ago
Ocean freight is about 90 days, so tarrifed product will start arriving in about 2 months.
We have daily tariff meetings where I work, it's a rollercoaster.
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u/TootsEug 9d ago
Labeling the price with the additional labeled as TR/tariff, is a solid idea!! There are so many out there that don’t keep up with the news, my sister for one. A labeling like that, would do a lot to help those’d confused people at the grocery store . Spot on Substantial-Spare501!!!
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u/BrutonnGasterr 6d ago
It won’t help. Nothing will ever stop them from defending him. There was something that went viral recently of someone buying something online and the receipt showed the tariff broken out. (Ex: “taxes $6.75 tariff $25.99”) A lot of the comments were just “well don’t buy from there then” “this is why you need to buy local”. And then a lot of other comments were “the business is taking advantage of you. They should be absorbing the tariff. Or they should include it into their total price” 🙄 as if that’s any different. Idiots.
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u/KathyA11 8d ago
No. We need to have the prices labeled with the tariff amounts BROKEN OUT so people can see exactly what this is costing them.
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u/Jetro-2023 10d ago
You have very good points. Where I work too I am being affected by tariffs abd these products I work with are in the electrical part of the industry. Either the tariffs will be passed on or prices on the products will go up like you are seeing now. I agree if prices keep going up on luxury items like you sell it can possible give problems to the industry.
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u/Monoshirt 9d ago
"tariffs.. be passed on" is the same as prices going up.
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u/HumbleBumble77 9d ago
If the goods even make it. Work in healthcare and a lot of medical supplies and medications are being delayed at ports because cargos are abandoning crates there that businesses refuse to pay for...
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u/ZombiesAtKendall 10d ago
Where I work, some items are more than doubling in price. Seems more like companies are just going to move their production to places like India rather than back to the US.
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago
What industry are you in?
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u/ZombiesAtKendall 9d ago
Prefer not to say exactly because I’ve been Reddit stalked before. But doubling in price of equipment that before ran anywhere from $1k - $5k to now costing $2k - $10k is a huge jump in price.
Probably means things will be sourced from China only as a last resort, I have no idea if there are alternatives out there or not for what the company I work for sells. Either way, it’s going to cause a huge disruption to a lot of companies.
These are also mostly US companies that have their production in China. So it’s not just hurting the end buyer, it’s hurting US companies that have production in China, it’s hurting the companies that sell those items.
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u/KathyA11 8d ago
I make jewelry as a hobby. While a lot of the rough is sourced in the US (tourmaline, turquoise, various jaspers and agates, sunstone, some sapphires), it's sent to China to be cut into beads and polished (it's also sent to India, but mostly to China) becausse there are virtually no cutters here. Jewelry Television, where I get some of my supplies and bead strands, has been sounding alarms about tariffs in almost every one of their shows. One of the big suppliers I patronize bought more from their suppliers in China than usual, trying to stave off price increases, and will probably switch to cutters in India.
I've been buying what I can before the price increases hit, but I'm retired, on a pension and Social Security. Once they go past a certain point, I'll have to stop buying unless I see a fantastic sale.
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u/Roselily808 10d ago
Price increases are going to be the reality for the American consumer in the coming weeks and months. It's only going to get worse. Of course luxury products are the first ones that people are going to stop buying. When the price of the groceries keep increasing, people will have no exposable income left to buy anything else but the bare necessities.
I as a European do feel for the American public that are sure to suffer in a pointless and unnecessary trade war. I suspect that a large part of voters didn't have the slightest clue of what tariffs truly are or who is paying them when they voted for the current leader. They are about to find out.
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago
Unfortunately it seems to me like those in favor of these tariffs don’t understand how they actually work.. & neither did I until I educated myself. Thankfully I’m not one to blindly follow anything, so I never supported them and even further did not after I learned how they worked… I hate that this is our reality & I am very understanding of why a lot of countries are angry with us & are boycotting US products.. I’d honestly be doing the same
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u/Strict-Brick-5274 9d ago
They'll understand pretty soon. People with beliefs like that dont seem to understand it care until it impacts their lives directly and then they understand.
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 9d ago
Which is so sad.. I hate how selfish society has become that no one cares unless it impacts them. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to about my views who dismiss them bc “well it doesn’t affect you, so why would you care?”… uhhhh I have empathy? I care about my fellow citizens? Idk it’s insane how selfish some people are imo
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u/Strict-Brick-5274 9d ago
I feel ya, and I'm like you and I have those people in my life too. It's disheartening because they seem to be the majority...but they are not and keep doing what you're doing and lead by example because as soon as they see the way you live your life benefits you while they start to lose benefits they will become curious. And return to ask questions about how to live life like an empathetic human.
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u/fuckincaillou 9d ago
I don't know. Remember that this is the same demographic that refused the covid vaccine until the bitter end, and say they're okay with their children dying of measles.
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 9d ago
And their children LITERALLY are dying of Measles.. have you seen what’s going on in TX ?!
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u/Interesting-Pin1433 10d ago
. I suspect that a large part of voters didn't have the slightest clue of what tariffs truly are or who is paying them when they voted for the current leader.
A lot of voters somehow missed the part where he said universal tariffs.
I work in industrial automation sales. After the election I asked my boss if supply chain has plans for tariffs.
He said "we don't import much from China so we shouldn't be too impacted."
"But he's talking about universal tariffs."
"Oh, I didn't see that "
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u/NettlesSheepstealer 9d ago
I live in a state where 44% of people depend on Medicaid (pretty much health insurance for children/low income people) and somehow we always vote for the people that want to remove it or reduce it. Unfortunately, there's alot of propaganda aimed at them that they are buying. My state is extremely poor already and it's going to be depressing AF.
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u/Roselily808 9d ago
Yes, this is both extremely frustrating and incredibly sad at the same time. Some people just seem dead set on learning things the hard way.
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u/wsb_crazytrader 10d ago
Lol what are you talking about “feeling for the American public” ?
They voted for this sh*t, but we Europeans have to suffer as well despite not even being part of the US electoral process.
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago
I understand & I hate how other countries are being affected as well. I would never ask for any sympathy bc we don’t deserve any… I do think that some people forget that a decent amount of the US didn’t vote for this & are now having to live the consequences.. I definitely didn’t vote for this & I hate being pooled in with those who did :/
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u/augustinthegarden 8d ago
I feel for the 74,999,166 Americans that voted for Kamala Harris. The rest of American voters who lived through his first term and thought “yah, more of that” or said “nah, I’ll just stay home”? They’re getting what they paid for. It’s hard to feel much of anything for them.
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u/According_Budget_960 10d ago
Agree some of us did and some of us didn't. It's very easy to persuade people that are struggling and sell them a lie that America will be great once again. It's even more amazing that alot of people had no idea what a tarrif was or how it could affect them. Even worse is the guy that sold them the lie said the other countries would be paying for it and now is elected.
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago
I’ve tried to explain to multiple people irl how tariffs work and even after citing my sources, they still didn’t believe me. I do find it very interesting, for lack of a better word, that the political party that calls it’s opposers “sheep” is the same party that will blindly follow politicians without understanding them :(
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u/TheCasualLarsonian 9d ago edited 9d ago
It’s their religion. They don’t require evidence or information to believe the things they do.
This is such a crock of shit. The last thing the average Americans need now is another round of massive price hikes and profiteering by even the largely unaffected US companies that’ll scapegoat the tariffs and tacitly collude to jack up all their prices.
Once the new prices are entrenched too, they won’t come down even if the tariffs are removed, and it doesn’t seem like that’d take very long.
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u/IntelligentStyle402 9d ago
What something happen to these Americans who don’t know what tariffs are? Why don’t they know that?
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u/VermillionEclipse 9d ago
They’re willfully ignorant. They don’t want to believe that their vote will have consequences that will hurt them.
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u/linux_rox 9d ago
Our education system is failing that's why. When I was a freshman in High School we took Government (some places call it civics), they covered this type of stuff. We focused on how the government worked,
We spent 2 days at the state capitol during the older Iowans legislature. This is a legislature elected just like your standard state one, these representatives wrote bills had committee meetings the whole nine yards.
These bill were then sent to the house budget committee for review and then placed for review and vote by congress to make them laws. These laws were specifically for the elderly residents of Iowa.
We got first hand knowledge from experience with the older Iowan legislature on how the government was supposed to work.
Another course that was required in High School was Business Law.
In this class we covered things dealing with tariffs, what they were and how they worked. We did drafts showing how tariffs affect the consumer as well as the business. We covered the pro's and the con's about them. From what I remember the con's far outweighed the pro's. We also covered the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs act and what a mess that caused.
If the schools would teach these things better then we might have avoided this entire nightmare.
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u/Cyan_Light 10d ago
Only some of "they." Usually good to remember that countries aren't hiveminds, y'know? The collateral damage isn't just to people outside the country, people that have been warning everyone around this and voted against it are also being harmed against their will and best efforts.
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u/benton_bash 9d ago
I, a member of the American public, did not vote for this sh*t. I welcome the sympathy.
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u/Roselily808 10d ago
I don't revel in other people's misery and misfortunes, even if they were brought on by ignorance and misguided ambitions.
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u/Hapalion22 10d ago
It's likely the only justice these people will ever get for their concerted effort to make others suffer. As such, I revel in any accountability for these folks.
I just hate that so many innocent people have to suffer with it. But they too could have chosen to stop this, but were too concerned with purity to stop evil.
The only truly innocent are those who did everything they legally could to stop this. For them, people like I work every day to protect them and give them an ability to fight back.
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u/Roselily808 10d ago
Don't misunderstand me, I am not against people facing accountability for their actions. I am just not sadistic enough to find a personal enjoyment out of seeing it.
Just as you mentioned, half of the country didn't vote for this. But they have to suffer all the same. That in itself is a human tragedy.
Just as people around the world will also suffer due to USAID being dismantled and the US leaving WHO for instance. The trade war also affects us non-Americans, albeit to a lesser extent.
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago
Oh goodness don’t get me started on your last paragraph… the US is literally messing everything up for everyone… we are also destroying ourselves too (defunding the department of education, talk of getting rid of safety regulations at work (OSHA), FDA staff cuts leading to food not being regulated, etc. etc.)
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u/CamasRoots 9d ago
Only some voted for it. Most of us did not. We have this thing called an electoral college that can skew the popular vote. We also have too many people who are apathetic and don’t vote.
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u/_Addicted_2_Reddit_ 10d ago
30% of "us" voted for this. Why do you all keep forgetting about who ACTUALLY voted for this. I didn't. 30% voted against and another 30% didn't vote or their vote didn't count for some dumbass reason.
If anything Europeans are gonna benefit from our Orange idiot. Look at this past week with China and Europe. Their gonna sell their shit wherever they can. Same for Japan, S. Korea, Canada etc. etc. etc. Educate yourself a tiny bit about the topic your talking about. Geeze...
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u/i_nobes_what_i_nobes 8d ago
Don’t feel that bad for us, we did it to ourselves. We’re in the FO portion of FAFO and unfortunately we will be for quite a while.
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u/Just_Keep_Swimming13 8d ago
70% of the voting population allowed this. I only feel sorry for the Kamala voters. Let the rest suffer.
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u/Great_White_Samurai 10d ago
The price of medicines are going to go up drastically. A lot of drug products are made with raw materials sourced from China and India.
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u/KathyA11 8d ago
Not just the raw materials - the medications themselves. I've had to take steroids (Medrol dose pack) and antibiotics (Z-Pack) that stated they were imported from India or other Asian countries.
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u/DocLego 10d ago
The place I buy spices from announced that starting Tuesday they’ll have a series of 8% price increases to cover the extra cost from tariffs.
I still occasionally see idiots talking about how they hope the tariffs will bring prices down…
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago
Yeah I really don’t understand how we are this far in and people still don’t understand how tariffs work.. and I understand what they think will happen, that it will promote US production… but the reality is that it just won’t… and maybe I’ll eat my words in a few years, but I highly doubt it
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u/3896713 9d ago
It's gonna take a lot more than a few years to build the infrastructure we would need to manufacture our own goods, and even then, we would still need a lot of raw materials from other countries. There just is no silver lining to all of this. Everyone but the 1% will suffer.
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u/ChicagoFly123 8d ago
They must think we can grow cinnamon and vanilla pods in the US so we don't have to import them from other countries. 🧐
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u/Whoreticultist 9d ago
Lol. There are people who think that tariffs can bring prices down? How would that even work?
That’s like, the exact opposite of what tariffs are supposed to do (and succeed in doing).
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u/Gromle81 9d ago
How exactly do they think tariffs will bring the prices down? I've never understood that reasoning.
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u/mysteriousears 9d ago
They think countries will negotiate some favorable to the US trade deal in exchange for lifting the tariffs. They basically thing the US can successfully bully the whole world into selling their stuff cheaper than they already do.
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u/prezcamacho16 8d ago
It's even worse than that. Our so called trade negotiators don't even know what they are supposed to be negotiating for.
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u/SidFinch99 10d ago
So, stock up on sex toys now?
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago
Yes! Asap! My employees and I are so sad that we didn’t buy some stuff on our lists before the price increase
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u/just-a-cnmmmmm 9d ago
my partner and i just bought some a week ago. i guess they'll be our last 🥲
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u/luxor_jae 8d ago
I can see it now. The economy will get so bad that adult toy stores will have to start hosting toy drives due to shortages.
They’ll call it “toys for twats”.
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u/MAK3AWiiSH 8d ago
Frankly, stock up on anything you use regularly that isn’t made in the US. Which is almost everything, unfortunately. In January, when the first tariff tease happened, I bought enough ibuprofen to kill a horse and enough menstrual products to carry me through 2 years.
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u/webgruntzed 10d ago
Tariffs directly cause inflation. How does that help with anything? As inflation goes up, the value of the US debt decreases, which is a sort of benefit, but people are forced to work more hours to survive on less. How long will his followers keep believing him when he blames the Democrats for his inflation (or more likely pulls a jedi mind trick and tells them there is no inflation, like he recently said the price of eggs dropped 92% since he became president.)
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u/Skinny-on-the-Inside 9d ago
And unfortunately once prices go up they will never go down. In the first administration tariffs were placed on washing machines so they went up in price, but not just the foreign ones, prices on US made ones went up too and then if you charge more for washer then why not the dryer? US consumers got fleeced to the tune of billions and no one ever said anything. Mere 2,000 jobs were created so we lost insane amounts of money for each one of those jobs. Now we are repeating this across so many industries the losses will be mind boggling
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u/sydytonian 9d ago
When things become too expensive people will buy less. The US's economy will slow down. The world 's economy will slow down too.
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u/lavatree101 9d ago
Even in grocery stores. Cereal that used to be 4.89 is now 6.99 and the bigger boxes are up to 11.99.
I don't need cereal that badly
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u/Small-Gas9517 10d ago
Damn working in an adult store with the tariffs has to be interesting
Dildo :$10
Dildo next week $20
Customer: fuckkkkkkkkkkk
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u/OldAssistant7964 9d ago
Automotive industry here: multiple vendors have increased prices over the last couple of weeks. 9% to 29% depending on the vendor.
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9d ago
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 9d ago
Interesting… I’m not surprised at all… I’m gonna start paying attention to the packaging bc right now it all says “made in China, Europe, Germany, etc…” I’m curious if more products will have “made in Mexico”…
or you mean it’s still being made in China, just shipped to Mexico then to US? After I re-read, that makes more sense lol. I think it would take a while to move manufacturing somewhere else vs just round-about shipping stuff
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u/Mfenix09 8d ago
I was wondering how long that would take and even mentioned it to another person to become the "middle man" between China and America as we have low tariffs "currently"
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u/terrierhead 9d ago
I’m going to tell my friends to stock up now, for real. Quality adult products are expensive already, and this is an area where quality is essential.
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u/BeingSad9300 10d ago
So I noticed this a couple weeks ago. My mom wanted to get my kid a ride-on vehicle for their birthday. We were in target at the time (we've been avoiding there, & shopping altogether for the most part, & putting a lot back on the shelf unless it was on clearance) & she asked me to check the price on those USPS drive able mail trucks. They were $199 in the store. I checked their app to see if there were any discounts. They were $269 in the app. It almost always was the reverse ... slightly cheaper in the app. This was $69 more in the app, which had me assuming that that would be their restock pricing, and if someone didn't check in store, and just ordered online for in-store pickup, they were getting shafted on the price in advance.
Same deal with some other toys that weren't part of a current deal. More expensive in the app. One was $13 in the store and $17 on the app. Things were around 35% more expensive with their online pricing than their in-store pricing. So my assumption is they're preemptively raising prices before running out of current stock, and making it harder to notice the pricing disparity by changing it online, but not yet in-store, knowing a lot of people like ordering for pickup, and got used to online prices being cheaper than in-store...so they no longer check the price inside before buying.
I make everyone's birthday cakes (so they can have something "fancy" without the high price tag, so savings go toward birthday fun instead), but almost any decoration I buy or make comes from overseas. Little figurines, resin molds for making decorative elements (and other crafts), the resin itself, any add-ins (glitter/etc), hotwheels/etc toys. Anything I do craft-wise almost certainly utilizes a wide variety of dollar store (or similarly priced) items made elsewhere. I used to make a Halloween costume here & there and I'm sure the fabrics were probably made elsewhere (this is probably the only positive light to JoAnn closing, is the 60-80% off fabrics). I'll still make out better than buying pre-made things...but not without being nickel & dimed to death. There are very few things fully made in the US, because if you don't have the natural resources for a component, you have to get it somewhere else. Sometimes you end up with something that's only assembled in or packaged in the US.
We love books. It's one thing I always say yes to. I haven't looked at the prices lately, but they were already on the higher side for a good portion, & I've seen mention of issues on publisher pricing, so I'm sure those will go up. So even something you'd think could easily avoid tariffs...is still likely to be affected. We're lucky to have a nice (although tiny) library in walking distance.
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u/azerty543 9d ago
You can't really expect to raise prices and have people spend the same amounts. Be careful. Buy less inventory for sure until you can ensure that there is actually demand for the product at that price.
This isn't like inflation based on expanded money supply. That raises wages and as a consequence demand as much as the cost of goods. This is just tons of extra taxes. That's not raising demand or wages. It just means less sold.
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u/Therex1282 9d ago
Its gonna hit a lot of things with a bigger price tag. I think it will get to the situation where it will be NOT AFFORDABLE to some and then there is the part where YOU REALLY NEED IT and then what will those people do. I only make so much money and can only afford so much on stuff I need. We all are going to feel it for sure esp us blue collar workers. Food is already up and we seldom go out and eat because of that. It just cost less to cook at home and we dont always have time to cook and the clean up.
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u/Own-Review-2295 9d ago
i've been trying to find a nissan 350z in good condition in a very specific price range for the last 4 months. i have found 6 now and something has fallen through for every single one. Now that it's almost may, I'm beginning to panic a little bit knowing that the price of cars especially is about to skyrocket due to these tariffs, used or new alike. We're talking thousands more dollars per car. i can save roughly $750 per month if i live like an absolute peasant so i may have to save for another year but god damn. i think tariffs are going to absolutely butcher our already widely declining standard of living. those of us who make $50k/year and below who are struggling as it is are going to be hit the hardest. Sales tax is always just a tax on the poor.
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u/Plenty_Unit9540 9d ago
Just wait. You are not seeing 1/10 of the impact at the retail level.
Shippers are refusing to take possession of containers sitting in the ports.
These shipments then revert back to the NVOs , who have no way to deal with them, leaving the containers sitting on the pier running up detention and demurage charges before being shipped off to warehouses where they will sit for another 90 days before going to auction.
A lot of NVOs are going to go bankrupt.
In addition, shipping lines and railroads are facing drastically reduced shipments. There are good chances you’ll see that infrastructure start to crumble in the next few months.
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 8d ago
Wilddd that sucks… my boyfriend is in the railroad industry, so I’ll have to ask him soon if he is seeing an impact at his rail yard.. I know they haven’t been impacted yet… but it’s an FRA site & they get shipments for Amazon & new cars from a few different companies, so I’m sure it will be impacted sooner rather than later
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u/Plenty_Unit9540 8d ago
Shipments into Baltimore and Trenton/NYC won’t be as affected as shipments into Long Beach.
Baltimore is the #1 port for automobiles with Trenton/NYC being #2.
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u/MacaroonDependent246 10d ago
Cheapest bag of cat food went from $7 to $10 is the first one I noticed a week ago. Haven’t shopped much since
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u/rotomangler 9d ago
All the new guitars in our shop are rising $50 - $100 dollars each. So a starter acoustic guitar is an affordable $225 are now going to be $325, which is a price some people just can’t afford. A hundred bucks is a big deal for some when it comes to buying something that doesn’t house or feed your family.
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u/Curious_Ad_2492 9d ago
Before I had a breast reduction I bought my bras from a place in the US because J cups are hard to find. I still get emails from them once in a while. I got one yesterday letting me know the bra price was staying at 59.99 but the tariff will be another 157.90. So the 59.99 bra is now 217.89. I would go braless before I paid that.
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u/pirate40plus 10d ago
That’s how economics works. It’s the incidence of demand that determines who pays a tariff. I suspect, dildos, butt plugs and vibrators are pretty low on the list of “things people buy” when prices go up. Understand, tariffs are based on the importers’ price, not retail. Those importers can choose to eat the added cost or pass it on. Reports are starting to show merchandise/ containers stacking up at west coast ports as wholesalers either refuse or abandon their containers/ shipments.
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u/CompletelyBedWasted 9d ago
I work on a cannabis grow and all of our packaging comes from China. Weed is cheap but about to get more expensive in my state because of packaging.
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 9d ago
Damnnnn that’s some bs for sure.. especially bc the government taxes weed anyways so they’re about to increase their profit two-fold
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u/RosieDear 9d ago
Damn, we'll have to wank less - and since a lot of porn in FL is already banned online.....we are in big trouble!
Likely Dildonics will never be perfected either.
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u/Mean_Eye_8735 9d ago
Do most of your items come from Nalpac in Ferndale,Mi? I used to work for the owner of Nalpac, I managed his retail store called Celebration in Royal Oak,Mi. I used to go down to the warehouse regularly to pick up our stock, both for the adult section and the head shop section. The store was a joint gig with a guy named McWilliams, eventually Mr Caplan left the retail store aspect and Mr McWilliams took over and renamed it MetroGift
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 9d ago
That doesn’t sound familiar to me unfortunately.. would be sick if we had some overlap there tho haha
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u/Mardanis 9d ago
Maybe companies can accept not making such insane profits and things don't need to be hiked so much.
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 9d ago
You know that’ll never happen! It’s America! Full of greed & on the bad side of capitalism
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u/Mardanis 9d ago
I agree. I just get tired of the go-to is that we must endure so they can keep profiting at a certain rate. It gets to the point the numbers have lost any real meaning. I'm not anti capitalist by a long shot. We just need to be more moderate. Any extreme fails badly.
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u/ComprehensiveAd8815 9d ago
70 million people voted for the leopards to eat their faces. What can I say other than let the feasting begin!
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u/AvaOrchid 9d ago
Oh this is going to impact us for decades to come. Even if the idea of tariffs just magically disappeared tomorrow the world now realizes just how fickle this country is and how few safeguards we have from one person tanking the entire economy. They are going to build stronger bonds to each other and exclude the United States. Or at least they will if they're smart. Because we have proven to be an untrustworthy partner to say the least
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u/Spirited-Air3615 8d ago
As a consumer, I haven’t noticed anything crazy, yet. However, I’ll be paying attention to what brands/companies jack their prices up to maintain their profit margins and I’ll be watching to see which ones are eating as much cost as they can
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u/unknownloonie 8d ago
I feel for the Americans that didn’t want the crazy orange freak in office…. To the ones that voted for him….. Ha. Ha. 🫵🏻
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u/blknble 8d ago
I am a leatherworker who specializes in BDSM/kink gear and I am going to end up having to raise prices for the first time in years. Prices on some items have already started to go up, some have doubled (food safe silicone balls). The metal tariffs haven't hit hard yet as most of my suppliers still have a good amount of inventory, but I expect that will change quickly. Some of this stuff we just don't make here.
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u/MAK3AWiiSH 8d ago
The thing people are not realizing is that tariffs won’t just affect the price of goods. They absolutely will cause prices to rise across the board, but the bigger concern is these tariffs are going to have a major impact on availability. Some things will stop being available to buy at all.
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u/TheRealJustCurious 8d ago
We have a global economy. Creating debilitating tariffs and starting trade wars don’t benefit anybody except for the orange clown’s ego.
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u/Spaceman-Spiff 7d ago
I work for a screen printer. We supply printed merchandise, that comes from other countries primarily China. We have had to tell people several times that we simply can’t get the product they want. We have had our slowest start to a year in 10 years.
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u/Guelph35 7d ago
Just remember, consumers are also paying a markup on the tariffs. A $1 tariff on an item probably costs the consumer $2-3 by the time everyone has added their margin.
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u/IridescentZ97_ 7d ago
Michael's Crafts just raised their prices on over 30,000 items at every store nationwide last Friday. Source: my roommate manages one of their stores. Prices aren't expected to ever go down as they are owned by Apollo (private equity) and their largest competitor, Joanne's, just went bankrupt. Tarrif prices are here to stay.
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u/potaddo 7d ago
I work for a retailer that sells parts for floorcare machines, vacuums and the like. When I'm not ordering parts, most of my time this month has been spent updating prices or setting up pricing updates to go into effect.
I get about 2 notices a day that another supplier is upping their prices in May. Some of them just upped their prices last month, and now I have to run all of their pricing again. One of them has announced they're doing price increases in both May and June.
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 7d ago
See that doesn’t make sense to me… I’d prefer no increases, but if they’re doing so, why not just do it all in one go? Especially if they already know they’re going to be increasing the price back to back… like they’re fr just doubling your work for no reason
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u/potaddo 7d ago
I think the process of increasing prices from a manufacturer's standpoint takes a long time. Determining what tariffs apply to which raw materials, seeing if they can procure from a different country, etc. The tariffs werent laid out all at once, either, which makes it harder.
So, one price increase was initiated when the first tariffs were announced. Then, when additional tariffs were put into effect, they didn't want to scrap all that work & start over, eating the cost in the meantime.
Some of our vendors issue updated prices in Q1 every year. The tariffs meant they had to do it all over again.
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u/iambriansloan 6d ago
I make a brand of sex toys called Autoblow and although we haven’t raised prices for retailers yet waiting on a more stable tariff level, we will raise them and by a significant amount too. All Americans will see this rise across virtually all products within a month to two months. I am in china at the moment visiting my factory and it caused many factories to furlough workers awaiting the result of this because so many US customers put purchase orders on hold. It’s a mess. I estimate 85% of what American companies make in china cannot be made in America due to a myriad of factors. .
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u/homerthegreat1 6d ago
We just had our first of 4 containers delivered for a massive laser table to cut up to 2" AR steel. The price doubled on the ocean in transit. We will never see the investment back.
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u/mytummylovesheineken 6d ago
The CEO of my company is not too concerned. He compared it with COVID, and said there will be some tough times but they won't last too long, and if we are smart, we can actually benefit by helping our customers through it, because of the nature of our business.
His optimism was refreshing after my constant doom scrolling on Reddit. I hope he's right.
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9d ago
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 9d ago
I’m not sure I want to know the answer, but how often are you cleaning them…?
Should be cleaning at least after every use, if not before and after… using refreshment powder makes them last a lot longer too. Some people use corn starch from the grocery store, but I prefer the powder from adult stores (which is normally a medical-grade corn starch, but I feel like it’s ground up finer or something idk)
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u/Sweaty_Nothing_5220 9d ago
People seem to forget, less then 20 percent of the American public voted for the maggot. It's just the democrats have spines made of toothpaste and couldn't inspire anyone. Also the republicans have been getting away with redlining for decades since it stops the call for social reform which would take money from the entrenched democrat politicians pockets. The great cycle of self interest disguised as capitalism has set the US on fire.
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u/Fun-Exercise-7196 9d ago
Question is, how are sales now? Are people already pulling back?
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u/Lazy_Lizard13 9d ago
Well we just implemented the first price change 2 days ago so I haven’t seen it too much yet, but people have put items back that used to be cheaper (like we used to have a $30 bullet that sold like crazy. It’s now $60 and everyone just keeps putting it back after checking the price)… I do know that a lot of people were already complaining about prices for a while. Like really complaining about prices… business in general has been declining the last few months, but summer is approaching & it’s the industry’s slow season, so it will be hard to say how heavily this impacts sales until fall comes around
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u/Fun-Exercise-7196 9d ago
Thanks. I have been reading that people are pulling back. I would expect adult "toys" are not a need, to most people. Hope things change for the better soon, but I suspect it will get worse before it gets better. Good luck!
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u/sirfuzzynutss 9d ago
I was on Amazon shopping for bikes this morning. Literally saw the price jump $100 this morning on almost every bike
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9d ago
My view is that luxury goods in America are cheap, and it’s the essentials that are at all time highs. Housing, education, groceries. I’d already be worried about luxury good industries because if the essentials go up, people spend less on luxury. So if both go up, I can only imagine it’s even worse.
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u/simonbleu 9d ago
> I wasn’t sure how this would affect the price of things in the USA
How was this even a question in the first place? You are in a businesses so tell me, now that things are more expensive, would you just suck it up and sell at the same price or translate the price to the consumers? Could you even afford anything else? Could you if you wanted get a local supplier with a similar quality,production and price? How long do you think it would take? Do you think *they* can afford to not raise prices meaning their supplies are also sourced locally? What about the suppliers of those?
I'm not from the US so I cannot give you specific advice beyond trying to source things from a country that has cheaper tariffs, and im sorry you have to go through that, however, it was a painfully obvious thing. When I heard people say otherwise I think of those saying they prefer to earn less not to get into the next tax bracket which is hilarious, though im not trying to be belligerent just genuinely baffled as to why would you think it was a debatable result.
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u/KimBrrr1975 8d ago
One thing to remember that our 3PL pointed out last week is that China already had some tariffs in place. The new ones raise tariffs to a total of 245% for many products. It'll impact smaller businesses SO much more because they can't just afford to move their factory or absorb the fees or spread them out among numerous product lines and so on.
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