I'm seeing other stories now that this punchbowl news article is made up (ex: https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2025/apr/29/hsbc-t...)
Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers
261–270 of 443 posts
Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers
#262Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Sales tax cannot be per-calculated, since it is charged on the total sale. Most of the developed world pre-calculates sales tax. If McDonalds charges you $10.32 in Australia, the government gets $0.84(8181812...) of it. Rounding isn't an issue because you don't write a check for each individual $0.84(8181812...), you pay them the aggregate amount on a regular basis.
Here is a list of 20 district sales taxes in California alone (out of ~150). Los Angeles County Measure H: 0.25%, 10-01-2017 to 03-31-2025 City of Orland Transactions and Use Tax: 0.50%, 04-01-2017 to 03-31-2025 Rio Dell City Transactions and Use Tax: 1.00%, 04-01-2015 to 12-31-2024 City of El Monte Transactions and Use Tax: 0.50%, 04-01-2009 to 03-31-2025 City of San Pablo Reduction Transactions and Use Tax: 0.25%,…
Yes. This is silly. We should change it. (But it's largely an issue for online sales, not physical locations. The McDonalds in San Anselmo, barring The Big One, stays in San Anselmo.)
See also: American healthcare, college, etc. "Our setup is absurdly complex in bad ways" is not an argument for keeping that setup, it's an argument for making fixes.
Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers
#263I can’t read the actual article because I can’t find a way past the paywall… but I am fairly certain this is a political play. If consumers see two products, one from China and another from Vietnam, both with their tariff markups listed, I have a feeling they’d pick the Vietnam product more often due to the lower markup. This makes Trump happy because he clearly wants us to stop buying Chinese products.
Never mind I am a silly little goober who thinks a little too well
https://www.axios.com/2025/04/29/tariffs-amazon-prime-day-se...
Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers
#264I'm not sure why so many comments think this is a bad idea. I think it's a great idea and should be adopted by all retailers. We already do the same thing with sales tax. Tarriffs are close to sales tax in there effect to consumers so it makes sense to show it up front. It lets customers see just how much more they have to pay due to the, ever changing, tariffs. Good for Amazon.
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Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Back when the price of crude oil was in the news a lot, if a rise was announced, gas stations would immediately hike prices, even though it takes like a month for the oil to be refined into gas and delivered to the station.
Maybe you believe in the theory that "price of good = cost + profit" ? It's wrong
Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
From https://www.newsweek.com/walmart-loses-22b-consumer-confiden... "You can see that the money runs out before the month is gone, you can see that people are buying smaller pack sizes at the end of the month," McMillon said. They do need to eat, but they are eating less - and not by choice. They don't have the money to buy what they want to. No amount of advertising will fix that.
Smaller pack sizes cost more per unit! People think they're saving money that way. They often aren't.
If you only have $10 you can’t buy the $12 pack with the lower per-unit price.
Being poor is expensive!
Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers
#267I'm not sure why so many comments think this is a bad idea. I think it's a great idea and should be adopted by all retailers. We already do the same thing with sales tax. Tarriffs are close to sales tax in there effect to consumers so it makes sense to show it up front. It lets customers see just how much more they have to pay due to the, ever changing, tariffs. Good for Amazon.
It's apparently a partisan issue. Take a look at the White House's response.
> * White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she had discussed the Punchbowl News report with Trump, and his message about it was: "This is a hostile and political act by Amazon." * [1]
The Trump administration has expressed a clear expectation that businesses like Amazon should pretend tariffs are paid by foreign countries. Transparent pricing is now disloyal.
[1]https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/white-house...
Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers
#268"This is hostile and political." --The President. No, Really. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/29/white-house-blasts-amazon-ov...
I can't tell if they still, genuinely, just don't understand how tariffs work and how they are charged. But if they're lying... why? to what end?
People are going to notice when prices are jacked up or stores are empty.
Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers
#269WH: “This is a hostile and political act by Amazon.”
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/04/29/wh_hostil...
Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are other sources of price changes - commodities prices, exchange rates, taxes in originating countries, costs of transport....
Yes, but how many of those dramatically jumped recently? Two years from now, sure, you’ll have to ask about other things but it’s not like the commodities market had other massive upsets this month.
Oil has varied in a range of about 23% in the last few weeks, and the USD to CNY rate. Raw material for many things (like plastics) and obviously used for transport.