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Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

punchbowl.news

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Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#321

Post by AStonesThrow »

bluGill wrote: post #197
clbrmbr wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% this. I’d take it a step further and say that sales tax should be included when you are logged in and it can be anticipated, like is the case in most other countries.

Sales tax cannot be per-calculated, since it is charged on the total sale. Rounding errors will get you. (when I worked fast food 30 years ago one value meal was $3.18, but two were $6.27) The government pays attention to this type of thing and they will get you for those pennies. (remember there are many governments, it is possibly all the local governments in question would decide not to pay attention, but that doe…

> one value meal was $3.18, but two were $6.27

That sure is a HUGE rounding error! 9¢ savings by doubling up is nothing to sneeze at!

> they will get you for those pennies

Was your restaurant ever audited? That is a lot of pennies!

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#322

Post by ceejayoz »

dylan604 wrote: post #284
ceejayoz wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Low margins, high volume. The family owners of our regional privately held grocery store chain (Wegmans) are worth billions. They're making plenty.

How much of that wealth is tied directly to the store chain vs investments they have made elsewhere?

The chain, itself, did $11B in revenue in 2020 for its ~100 stores. It's privately held, largely by the family and their friends. I certainly don't doubt they've purchased other investments with the proceeds over time, but they're making plenty.

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#323

Post by ericmay »

sorcerer-mar wrote: post #316
ericmay wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Do you publish these anywhere? Very into good products and as you know they’re hard to find haha

I haven't yet - I want to but honestly just haven't had any good ideas on how to do so. I could just create a website and maintain it for other people I guess?

If you have any recommendations or ideas I'd be happy to collaborate! Doesn't need to be something that makes money, though hopefully something that doesn't cost money either! Lol

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#324

Post by taytus »

beloch wrote: post #267
Eextra953 wrote: post #188

I'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. Transpa…

Just because the White House say it is a partisan issue, doesn’t make it one.

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#325

Post by Der_Einzige »

rsynnott wrote: post #245
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...

Surely he should be proud of his bigly beautiful tariffs, and happy to have them prominently displayed, that a grateful public might marvel at them.

And since now we have the ERS, I shouldn't have to pay my federal income taxes anymore, since Trump said he'd get rid of the IRS and abolish it!

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#326

Post by enaaem »

beloch wrote: post #267
Eextra953 wrote: post #188

I'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. Transpa…

The cope I have been reading on the MAGA side is that now you can see which products are from America or not from China. The white House should have went with that message, but they can't stop being butt hurt all the time.

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#327

Post by DrillShopper »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #256

I was just talking to a couple friends of mine, about this, yesterday. They run a medium-sized manufacturing business that has almost all their work done overseas. Another friend of mine was just laid off, as a transportation broker, directly because of the tariffs. The tariffs have the potential to drive tens of thousands of small- and medium businesses into bankruptcy, overnight. I feel as if this was not well thou…

> The tariffs have the potential to drive tens of thousands of small- and medium businesses into bankruptcy, overnight.

That is their goal - to drive out the small and medium businesses so that the president's donors can swoop in with private capital offers to enrich themselves.

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#328

Post by Der_Einzige »

mrweasel wrote: post #68
CodeCompost wrote: post #16

Tariffs are good. Tax the consumers and pass them as tax breaks to the rich. /s

I absolutely hate the fact that you can go read "Protection or Free Trade(1)" by Henry George and learn that this is exactly what will happen. Tariffs are a tax on the poor, it will never benefit them, in any shape or form. It won't bring them jobs, it won't increase their pay, tariffs only serves to line the pockets of the already wealthy manufacturers. For everyone else this is just an increase on the products they…

Henry George, Georgeism, the Land Value Tax, Thomas Paine, and the modern versions of their ideas (i.e. Andrew Yang's platform) are LITERALLY the best ideas we have ever conceived in regards to economic policy making. Milton fking Friedman agrees that the LVT is the only "good" tax.

Unfortunately, parasites get fucked up by these policies, and so they will fund right wing fascist revolutions to make absolutely sure that NOTHING that Henry George ever proposed is implemented.

Henry George is among the greatest humans who ever lived.

Free Trade! Free Land! Free Men!

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#329

Post by atoav »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #256

I was just talking to a couple friends of mine, about this, yesterday. They run a medium-sized manufacturing business that has almost all their work done overseas. Another friend of mine was just laid off, as a transportation broker, directly because of the tariffs. The tariffs have the potential to drive tens of thousands of small- and medium businesses into bankruptcy, overnight. I feel as if this was not well thou…

"Not well thought out"? This was the equivalent of putting on a blindfold and throwing random darts at a world map.

On top of that the reasons they gave are contradictory, because in the end the truth is the tariffs were based on the vibes one specific man had held since the 80s. However the world is very different since then.

Not even the numbers make sense. If the goal was to punish people with whom the US has a high trade deficit, why slap a 10% fee on those who don't have a trade deficit at all? This tells countries: "No matter what you do, we will abuse our position of power anyways" instead of telling them "If you behave we both will benefit".

But maybe that wasn't the reason, instead it was manufacturing? Then why on earth not pair tariffs with incentives and help for corporations who want to move their production lines to the US? With the current volatile climate in the US nobody is going to move anything, except maybe away from the US.

Re: Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

#330

Post by DrillShopper »

conductr wrote: post #150
trollbridge wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I buy cheap things at Harbor Freight now instead of on Amazon because at least then I know I can return it if it breaks.

I find Amazon has the better return policy. HF has at times zero flexibility and I find I really have to pay attention to each item’s policy and weight the risk of failure (eg. A $5 hammer is low risk, $400 machine is too high risk). It’s not worth the mental math required while shopping. I only buy consumables there (HF) now, gloves, ropes, tarps, etc. Nothing with moving part, especially a motor. I’ve been left hol…

This seems like the exact situation a credit card chargeback is designed to fix.
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