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Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

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Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#101

Post by bdavisx »

stetrain wrote: post #90
dagaci wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely they will have receipts for the tariffs paid…

Company A imports steel and pays a tariff, uses the steels to make screws in the US. Company B imports lumber and pays a tariff, manufacturers it into furniture rails in the US. Company C buys furniture rails from Company B and screws from Company A and assembles them into an end table. Company D buys the end tables wholesale from Company C and distributes them on Amazon. How does Amazon display the tariffs paid by C…

Yes, that would be complicated. EXCEPT most of what amazon sells is Company A in China makes product -> Company B imports and sells on amazon. That's easy to calculate.

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#103

Post by stetrain »

bdavisx wrote: post #101
stetrain wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Company A imports steel and pays a tariff, uses the steels to make screws in the US. Company B imports lumber and pays a tariff, manufacturers it into furniture rails in the US. Company C buys furniture rails from Company B and screws from Company A and assembles them into an end table. Company D buys the end tables wholesale from Company C and distributes them on Amazon. How does Amazon display the tariffs paid by C…

Yes, that would be complicated. EXCEPT most of what amazon sells is Company A in China makes product -> Company B imports and sells on amazon. That's easy to calculate.

You're right, but the parent comment was asking about the exception to that majority.

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#104

Post by myrmidon »

paulcole wrote: post #97
jll29 wrote: post #95

I hope amazon.com will call them "Trump tariffs" to make sure who is to blame.

You can blame Trump but in the US, we’re all to blame here. Blaming somebody who’s not me just make it easier to feel good about myself and like I’m less of the problem. I mean call them the Democrats tariffs. 2024 was a gift-wrapped election victory and the Democrats (shockingly) bungled it in staggeringly impressive fashion.

What do you think the democrats did wrong-- what should they have done to win?

I'm curious; I currently don't think that election was so easy for them, with having to run a different candidate, and the overton window shifting right (not just US; EU too).

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#105

Post by cj »

hippich wrote: post #30
jl6 wrote: post #4

Presumably they can determine this for items directly imported, but for all other cases (such as a made-in-the-USA product that is built using made-in-China tools, or from made-in-China components), surely the cost impact on the final product could be extremely complex to work out, if they even have access to that level of supply chain detail?

Last 2 or 3 years we use their AGL service. I am pretty sure a lot of their third party sellers are. So they will have exact information on custom duties paid.

I think the GP is asking about “Assembled in the USA” products where individual components are imported from around the world.

Wouldn’t “custom duties paid” be on each individual component?

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#106

Post by ImHereToVote »

unwind wrote: post #48
maxvisser wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some Amazon programmer tomorrow priceIncrease := (newPrice - oldPrice) / oldPrice var trump_tariff bool if priceIncrease > 1.0 { trump_tariff = true }

Please don't use if:s to assign boolean literals, just do it: const trump_tariff = priceIncrease > 1.0 also saves you from not initializing the variable in the default/other case. :)

If statements are great because they are highly readable.

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#107

Post by venusenvy47 »

hypeatei wrote: post #19

I'm surprised they're able to calculate all of this properly in the first place. The U.S. doesn't have government personnel at the ports so the importer self reports. There isn't a central system to administer these tariffs either so during chaotic moments, you go based off the tweet of the hour I guess.

I'm friends with someone who works for a logistics company, and collecting the tariff from each company, and sending to the government, is part of the service they provide. It actually wasn't a complicated part of their business until a couple months ago, because of how little that aspect would change. But now their compliance teams have to read the Federal Register every day to keep up. They are getting stuck in the middle of this, because they quote the delivery costs to the company, but by the time the shipment arrives, the tariff has suddenly risen and then the company complains "that is not the cost you quoted us".

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#109

Post by gherkinnn »

profmonocle wrote: post #76

I'm fine with this as long as they include the tariff in the listed price. I'm worried businesses are going to use tariffs as an excuse to have a fake list price, then hit you with massive hidden fees at the point of sale. Some sectors have been doing this for years - "service fees" at restaurants, "regulatory response fees" in the telecom industry, all sorts of nonsense in event ticketing. Physical goods have mostly…

I expect businesses to bump prices.

Bump em because of tariffs, bump em some more to pad the margins because what is an extra 5%, bump em even when they're not affected by tariffs because everyone else is doing so, and delay un-bumping them once tariffs fall again.

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#110

Post by dgfitz »

stetrain wrote: post #90
dagaci wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely they will have receipts for the tariffs paid…

Company A imports steel and pays a tariff, uses the steels to make screws in the US. Company B imports lumber and pays a tariff, manufacturers it into furniture rails in the US. Company C buys furniture rails from Company B and screws from Company A and assembles them into an end table. Company D buys the end tables wholesale from Company C and distributes them on Amazon. How does Amazon display the tariffs paid by C…

A and B passed along the tariff costs to C, which passed those costs to D. D now costs more, assuming they pass the delta cost to the consumer. The only delta a customer cares about is the past/current cost of D, which is what amazon would presumably display.

Isn't this the horn everyone keeps trumpeting? It doesn't seem complicated.

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