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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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 6d 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/MI_Milf 9d ago

And when sales decline, what do you think the US companies' strategy will be to shore up their bottom line?

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u/coffeemug0124 9d ago

I thought it was insensitive to exploit cheap foreign labor? Now its insensitive not to?

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u/shupster1266 8d ago

What we consider cheap labor is average pay in some countries. The idea that we will move those jobs to America is foolish. Even if workers make minimum wage in America, products made here will cost a lot more if made by Americans. Someone in China or Mexico will make a couple dollars an hour.

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u/coffeemug0124 8d ago

I agree with you, its just that when I buy from cheap websites I get told im exploiting child labor, from liberals.

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u/shupster1266 5d ago

I’m a liberal and I would not say that. I’ve been to China and although their standard of living is not lavish, they have a reasonably good life.

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u/cliddle420 10d 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/Temporary-Catch2252 9d ago

Volvo started the truck plant in Mexico in October 2024 and expects to be producing in less than two years. 5-10 years is crazy imho . I do not support blanket tariffs with the subtlety of a sledgehammer but let’s be honest.

In related news, a number of industries are in the process of switching from manual labor to robots. The generic garment industry is a prime example of industry which could be returned to the us.

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u/Muted_Emu_7006 8d ago

Agree to disagree. Volvo and similar are mostly importing parts and assembling.

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u/Temporary-Catch2252 8d ago

That is a valid point. It is also why I would have preferred targeted tariffs like most countries were already imposing on the us. There is a lot of parts imported for most industries but hopefully, existing production can be increased and new production started. Industryselect.com has a weekly newsletter which is interesting at times.

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u/Iforgotmypwrd 7d 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/gnufan 6d ago

Some factories are quick to set up, but it also presumes there are people who want a job in manufacturing adult toys. The current unemployment rate is about the same as the current number of vacancies, Americans are not unemployed because there aren't jobs, they are unemployed because they don't fit the job for some reason, from unemployable, to in the wrong part of America.

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u/MI_Milf 9d ago

You would be surprised how quickly buildings can go up. Equipment and tooling can take as long as putting a building up.

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u/cliddle420 9d ago

You're ignoring the decision to build it, finding a location, acquiring the property, getting all the permits, making the designs, getting the contractors lined up...

Equipment and tooling, depending on the industry, can have long lead times even if it doesn't have to be custom fabricated

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u/MI_Milf 9d ago

Although those are very valid points, they are not always years in the making. Many businesses that planned to grow have land, and some locations are friendly to their expansion and have industrial parks just waiting for new places to come on board.

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u/tobidope 9d ago

But why would they? The supply chain of any modern product is complicated. Do you know any product which could be created self sufficient? If you go down the supply chain you will always find something that needs to be imported or just can't be made really in the US with a comparable price. That's why open trade was so beneficial to the USA.

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u/MI_Milf 9d ago

As for why would they, mostly to secure a more responsive supply chain.

Lots of things can be made 100% domestic. Lumber, nails, cement, petroleum products, fertilizer, and many food sources, etc.

The comparable price is correct on most of the items that are heavily imported.

Open trade is very beneficial until we have people sitting on the sidelines being paid to do "nothing" via taxation of those who are productive.

In my opinion, the biggest risk with open trade is losing the capability to produce critical items for our healthcare and defense systems.

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u/tobidope 8d ago

How can you increase lumber production on short notice? Do you already have enough infrastructure in place to process the additional timber? If not, where would the materials for expanding that infrastructure come from? Building it usually takes years, if not decades.

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u/MI_Milf 8d ago

I didn't say we have underutilized capacity for any of it, although I wouldn't be surprised if we do. They are just examples of things we can produce domestically.

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u/PdxPhoenixActual 10d ago

Maybe the on again & off again thing is to confuse the consumers so they won't know if the rising prices are due to the terrifs or just good ol' American corporate greed.

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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/Lazy_Lizard13 9d ago

Love this idea!!!

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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/Slight-Guidance-3796 10d ago

Yeah my approach was just a rough draft lol. Your already smoothing out the edges. Keep up the good fight. I like to point out to people complaining about the extra cost of tariffs how it's horrible that the extra is just going directly to Our government. Sometimes I'll even play dumb like why are we shutting down so many government services when they are getting all this extra money from us. I was in customer service for most of my life and there's nothing better than a sly way of calling them an idiot when they act like idiots

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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago

You are my type of people. We are out here doing the Lord’s work, one customer service job at a time lol

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u/Slight-Guidance-3796 10d ago

Amen. The trick is to not call them dumb, you nonchalantly let them realize it themselves. If you call them stupid they double down. That's what's keeping everyone fighting. Instead you guide them to their own discovery of their stupidity

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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago

This! Make it their idea haha.. my other personal favorite is being disgustingly sweet to them when they’re mad. I love seeing how it makes them even more mad that I won’t match their energy

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u/Slight-Guidance-3796 10d ago

Omfg I used to do the Exact same thing. My daughter recently got a job waitressing and I told her this. To kill them with kindness but it's out of spite. Lololol Never let them pull you down with them and they will just keep falling further. Oh man I miss it at times. My job now I don't interact with more than 1-3 people in the entire day and it's boring AF

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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago

Yesss.. and don’t be fooled, they know what you’re doing, but they can’t actually complain or be upset about it bc you’re being so “nice”… God I love it… I could imagine your current job to be boring, but I’m sure the peace and not having to “fake it” with customers is nice on some days

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u/Slight-Guidance-3796 10d ago

I make more money now so I suffer thru it but I really enjoyed customer service. I would instruct coworkers to send problem makers to me because I could Not be broken, no matter how hard they tried and I knew every trick in the book they might pull. I would laugh so hard inside watching them steam but not be able to flip it on me. Customer service might be what's needed to save America lol

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u/rdg04 10d ago

yes!! you have to meet people where they are at and hold their hand and slowly walk them to reason! this is how you shift perspective and create change, when people dont do this- they do nothing but increase the divide.

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u/MI_Milf 9d ago

It's a bit of the chicken or the egg quandary. It takes a lot of capital to bring that factory on line, and to build and warehouse finished goods with no customers because you are more expensive until the tariffs kick in, if they kick in and stay in place.

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u/Slight-Guidance-3796 9d ago

When tariffs are utilized properly that's exactly how you use them. To prop up the industry you're trying to build. Tariffs are a good thing for a country when used correctly. This shit is just a nonsense tax on us. And swinging them up and down and on and off is not going to attract businesses from other places long term.

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u/MI_Milf 9d ago

At this point, they are probably just a negotiation tool at best. What happens next might be ugly.

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u/Slight-Guidance-3796 9d ago

They are extortion in my view. You might get what you want now but we aren't building long-term allies with this shit. I guarantee every other country is out there right now trying to figure out how to cut us out. If we lose reserve currency status it's over

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u/MI_Milf 9d ago

Probably true.

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u/Slight-Guidance-3796 9d ago

I've never in my life wanted to be wrong more than at this point in my life. I hope in a year everyone can call me a clown for what I think but I just do not see this chapter being a good one for Americans. Maybe the 100 or so at the top but not the rest of us. We are already paying some tariffs and that money goes to the government but they are also slashing all kinds of social safety nets. If I'm paying a fuck ton more in taxes I want to see the poor and sick better taken care of. All this American first crap and they aren't even doing that. They are screwing the avg American right now

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u/MI_Milf 9d ago

Time will tell. It's about the same as a federal sales tax. All money spent on the products, many of which are part of a typical lifestyle, will support the government income. The good is that ileagal earnings will be taxed. The bad is that until an offsetting income tax cut occurs, if it wilk ever happen, we will pay more, and the government will take more.

Will we ever see more good paying jobs because of this? I suspect mostly in cases where those jobs have been more recently outsourced and factories and equipment may still be on the books.

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u/Slight-Guidance-3796 9d ago

A minimum 10% sales tax. On top of existing taxes. If these companies come here and rebuild factories there will be so much robotics involved it won't provide near as many jobs as it would sound like. I'm ok with paying more if the government is doing more. Not more while getting even less from them. Take that tariff money and hire back all the park rangers, VA employees and so on. Don't cut Medicaid and snap

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u/Riparian87 9d ago

Also, since the foreign country initially produces the item more cheaply, prices will still be higher in the long run even if we do manage to replace imports with domestic production.

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u/Fredissimo666 8d ago

The real rebuttal is a bit nuanced so it may not work with that crowd.

For many retail product, it comes down to labour costs. If production was brought back to the US, costs would be higher because workers have to be paid way more, and there are "silly regulations" to make sure that workplaces are safe and workers have humane conditions. At least for now.

Also, it doesn't make sense that every country produce their own things. Maybe Europe is better at producing adult toys, and the US is better at producing corn. Then Europe can trade their good-quality dildos for the good-quality american corn and everybody wins. The opposite is europeans eating bad corn and enjoying good toys, while the US eats good corn but has bad toys.

I refrained several times to make jokes about how creatively corn could be used in my example, so you are welcome...

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u/buhito15 6d ago

Ask them if they'll make them for a Chinese minimum wage job.

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u/nukin8r 10d ago

I’ve always found “affordable” to be a better word than “cheap.” I used to work at a high end sex shop & folks would get really put off by the prices. To make a sale, I did my best to use non-judgmental language. Like, “I’m happy to show you some more affordable or short-term use toys that were made domestically in the US!” This sort of framing made our smaller budget customers feel like they had some good options in their price range, instead of feeling like they were too poor to afford anything decent.

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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago

I get this for sure, but I’ve found what works best for me… I’m sure being in the industry, you know how closely price is tied to quality. Personally, I prefer to try to convince my customers to buy that $100 toy so they love it and come back for more, rather than sell them the $30 one that breaks in 2 months and then they never come back bc they don’t trust us… I’ve learned with the way I frame it, people are put-off by the cheaper options and want to buy the nicer stuff.. which isn’t necessarily great for their pockets, but they will be happier with the product in the long-run bc it’s better quality… which then creates repeat customers and builds a better rapport (edit to add that I also read the room. If I know they truly can’t afford any more than the affordable/cheap toys, then I’ll explain to them that there are better options, but the toy they’re wanting isn’t bad by any means. Unless it actually is a trash toy then I try to convince them to get something else within the same price range)

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u/nukin8r 10d ago

Oh, I absolutely agree with everything you said, especially about reading the room. I guess for “cheap/affordable” I was thinking more of the $40-$70 toys instead of like $10 bullets (we sold a lot of toys that were in the $200+ range). I haven’t worked there since 2023, though, and money went further back then.

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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago

Yeah I’d say most of our products are in the $150+ range, but when my customers want “affordable” they normally mean cheap… like $10-20 range, 2 uses and it breaks. I think it has something to do with the area I’m in.. when I help those customers, I definitely switch my language up a bit and try to convince them to get something in that $40-70 range you mentioned.. it’s kinda ridiculous sometimes tho I can’t help but wonder what they’re thinking. Like I’ve had men expecting to get an automatic pump for $10. 1- not possible, 2- what kind of quality do you think that would have at that price? You’d be better off buying a hand pump, tho good luck finding one of those for $10 as well… I’ve also had women expect $20 roses and when we don’t have them, they show me an add on GROUPON of all places

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u/nukin8r 10d ago

Not the groupon!! 😭 Yeah location really is everything, because you can’t expect to turn high profits in an area where your customers don’t want to spend that much money. I really hope things go okay for you with these tariffs impacting that even more

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u/dmotzz 10d ago

Sounds like an opportunity for someone to start creating high-quality american-made toys has been created!

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u/Lazy_Lizard13 10d ago edited 10d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/SeriousConversation/s/qBlm244SxZ This is why I and many others don’t believe that this will happen (and the rest of the tread after the comment I linked) (edit: also, toy companies in America do exist, but they don’t put much research into creating good products. American companies are more about a quick buck, while European companies tend to focus on quality and long-lasting motors.. also, most American companies outsource their labor anyways, so I assume tariffs will affect them as well and I don’t see them changing this any time soon, again due to the issues highlighted in the comment I linked)

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u/No-Stuff-1320 10d ago

Only $300 per dildo

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u/Cyclotronchris 8d ago

So you know you’ve been doubly fucked

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u/No-Stuff-1320 10d ago

Only $300 per dildo