Walmart just leveled with Americans: China won’t be paying for Trump’s tariffs, in all likelihood you will

fukhueson@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 530 points –
Walmart just leveled with Americans: China won’t be paying for Trump’s tariffs, in all likelihood you will
fortune.com
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The fact that they're sending this message now means they will use this as an excuse go raise the prices even higher than nessesary to increase their profit margin. If they really cared about consumers then they should have been yelling from the treetops BEFORE the election.

They said this the last time it happened... During his last presidency.

https://www.reuters.com/article/business/walmart-says-higher-china-tariffs-will-increase-prices-for-us-shoppers-idUSKCN1SM18X/

Walmart Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs said in an interview that higher tariffs will result in increased prices for consumers.

If only someone else said something about how bad these tariffs would be...

https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/2024/trumps-proposed-blanket-tariffs-would-risk-global-trade-war

https://amp.miamiherald.com/opinion/article292867514.html

https://apnews.com/article/harris-economy-ceos-trump-rule-of-law-tariffs-2dd224c63fb4dae47438b6599cc5a968

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/09/09/economist-calls-trumps-threat-to-tariff-countries-that-shun-the-dollar-a-lose-lose.html

https://www.euronews.com/business/2024/11/04/how-much-could-trumps-tariffs-damage-europes-economy

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Business/would-trumps-tariffs-trigger-global-trade-war-experts/story?id=114887448

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/4938752-trump-economic-policies-impact/amp/

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/10/16/politics/trump-fact-check-john-deere-economy

https://www.semafor.com/article/10/18/2024/what-are-the-consequences-of-trumps-tariffs

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tariff-threat-john-deere-economists-baffled-2024-9

https://fortune.com/2024/08/16/trump-tariffs-trade-war-inflation-economic-policies-joachim-klement/

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/yellen-speech-tariffs-will-increase-inflation-risk-trump/

I'm not saying no one was warning us against tarrifs, just pointing out that Walmart specifically waited until after trump was elected (apparently twice now) to announce their warning about tarrifs.

Walmart doesn’t have an obligation to educate the American electorate.

Yes that is true, so ask yourself why they would make such announcements after they know it won't change anything. Best case scenario they are trying to save face for when the tarrifs drive up prices. Worst (and IMO most likely) case is that they use it as an excuse to further increase their profit margins, much like they and other stores did when there was an increase in inflation.

While I don’t disagree, from a business standpoint, yeah, exactly what you said, the reality is they’re coming. When prices go up, they just told everyone who to blame, rather than trying to deflect after having to raise prices.

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