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Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

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Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#271

Post by xienze »

ceejayoz wrote: post #249
xienze wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But do they have the same kind of state and local sales tax rules that we do? Again, _you can't know the price to display if you don't know where exactly in the country the package is going_. It is not possible to display the "final price" in US online stores ahead of checkout unless the user is already logged in AND the shipping address is the same as where the user lives. The juice is not worth the squeeze for onli…

That's an argument for fixing the rules . As functional rules in this regard are clearly possible to create. The EU has a similar smattering of disparate jurisdictions (with varying VAT rates) just like the US does.

Googling says 27 tax jurisdictions in the EU versus over 13000 in the US. Again, not quite as simple as you're making it out to be. And for what? Making the checkout process slightly more convenient for people who lack the mental ability to estimate their total?

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#274

Post by paulcole »

myrmidon wrote: post #104
paulcole wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

1. Biden was clearly gone mentally well before they let on. He should have been taken out in the primary season.

2. Democrats believe that "anybody who's not the other guy" is a winning strategy despite it failing over and over. They think that a candidate that people are excited to vote for is not a necessity and have been proven wrong over and over and over again. They got beat with this strategy in 2000, 2004, 2016 (and now 2024). It barely worked in 2020.

If the plan in 2028 is somebody who's a hold-your-nose and say "Well I'll vote for anyone who isn't republican" they will get absolutely smoked again.

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#275

Post by reverendsteveii »

wombat-man wrote: post #268
reverendsteveii wrote: post #215

"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.

The point of the tariffs is rolling them back when the entity being punished does what Trump wants them to do. This was revealed in the initial stutterstep rollout of tariffs against Canada and Mexico. They both gave him political victories on the border, and in exchange the tariffs were delayed.

Quit assuming he wants what he says he wants and start assuming he wants the obvious, easily-predictable consequences of his actions.

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#276

Post by kyleblarson »

rsynnott wrote: post #243
rubyfan wrote: post #83

Is this a reputable news site? There are some warning signs that make me believe it’s sponsored content. It feels less like news and more like propaganda?

... -ish. It's ex-Politico people. Like, they didn't just make this up.

Amazon just released a denial.

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#277

Post by ericmay »

sorcerer-mar wrote: post #218
ericmay wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a little difficult for me to make the point I want to make here because I don't disagree with you, but the usage of the word "brand" is not as descriptive as I'd like it to be. If you're buying good copper cookware the manufacturer "brand" matters, they build a reputation for having quality products, ideally continue to make those quality products at a fair price, etc. and life is good. But then there are brands…

I get it - there are brands that are well-known for being brands (i.e. famous for being famous) and there are brands that are well-known for making legitimately good products. Avoid the former like the plague, but the latter is one of the best methods to find legitimately great stuff.

Absolutely. I actually keep and maintain extensive lists of businesses that produce "real stuff" that we only buy from for those item categories.

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#278

Post by indoordin0saur »

Clubber wrote: post #14
robalpha wrote: post #7

Wouldn't this reveal their margins? If you see the tariff amount, you can then find the appropriate line in the policy and then calculate how much they paid for it at import.

Yes, good point. I suspect the numbers won't be precise. The objective is to qualify raising prices, not necessarily their own transparency. Of course this is signaling that Amazon is choosing to distribute the costs to customers rather than absorbing them in any way, so take that for what it is.

> Yes, good point. I suspect the numbers won't be precise.

This has to be illegal. You can't slap on a $20 sales tax fee at the end when it's actually $12 and pocket the difference as profit.

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#279

Post by 4ndrewl »

Aurornis wrote: post #124
gherkinnn wrote: post #109

Earlier 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.

Prices are always set by supply and demand. The price will rise until it gets high enough that the product of sales * price falls. It has always been that way. Businesses haven’t been selling goods and services out of the goodness of their hearts at an arbitrary price. It’s always supply and demand. Tariffs are expected to reduced demand because they increase prices. This is why the stock market is down and nearly ev…

The reason the stock market is down is because of the raging uncertainty of the environment in which businesses have to navigate. Multi-month, let alone multi-year planning has become impossible. Businesses can deal with tariffs, taxes and costs. What they can't deal with is uncertainty.

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#280

Post by littlestymaar »

acdha wrote: post #113
mrits wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it takes much thinking to realize how misleading this is. I'd really be interested in Prime Day when tariffs are decreasing everything

Can you give an example? Usually short term price fluctuation would be in response to something like a sudden change in market demand or something like a natural disaster lowering production but nothing like that seems to have happened other than the largest tax increase in U.S. history and the demand shock from the federal cuts should be lowering prices, not raising them.

> Usually short term price fluctuation would be in response to something like a sudden change in market demand or something like a natural disaster lowering production

That's theoretical economics, meanwhile in the real world, retail stores change the prices of goods depending on the weather or holidays.

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