What is — and isn’t — getting pricier under Trump’s tariffs? – vox.com
2025-05-01T10:00:00Z
Prices are rising due to Trump’s tariffs — but not universally just yet.
covers politics Vox. She first joined Vox in 2019, and her work has also appeared in Politico, Washington Monthly, and the New Republic.
President Donald Trump warned of short-term pain resulting from his tariffs.
That pain has arrived in the form of higher prices — and it might not be temporary.
A wide range of products — from car tires to clothing, many of which are produced in China — have seen price hikes in recent weeks as retailers face increased costs due to tariffs. Executives of big-box stores have reportedly warned the White House that they may have no choice but to pass some of those costs on to American consumers, and that product shortages could follow.
Not all price increases are happening at once or on the same scale. That’s in part because some retailers took steps to mitigate the initial impact of tariffs on their businesses.
But any price increases will put pressure on Americans who were already struggling to keep up with inflation in the post-pandemic era. This year, lower-income consumers, in particular, are already pulling back on spending, and the Yale Budget Lab has projected that the tariffs could cost Americans an average of $4,900 per household.
That’s left retailers reluctant to raise prices too much and drive away customers. Businesses that can afford it have been stockpiling inventory for months in an attempt to keep prices low and ride out the tariffs, hoping that Trump will change course.
“I think they probably can make it until the holiday season,” said Edmund Zagorin, founder and chief strategy officer at Arkestro, a supply chain startup that helps companies use AI for procurement of materials and services.
But if Trump digs in his heels on tariffs for the long haul, the current price hikes might only be the beginning.
Which companies have announced price increases?
Clothing, electronics, household products, baby items, and more are already more expensive now that the tariffs have taken effect, raising costs for retailers that they are passing on to consumers.
Chinese retailers Temu and Shein have announced that they are starting to raise prices. Price hikes vary by category of goods, but Bloomberg reported that Shein prices rose by about 10 percent in a two-day span last week. Temu has added “import charges” of 145 percent of an item’s cost.
Their announcements came before Trump eliminated what’s called the “de minimis” exemption for Chinese imports on May 2. Under that exemption, shipments of goods valued at less than $800 — the vast majority of Temu and Shein orders — are exempt from tariffs.
Some Amazon sellers have also raised their prices in recent weeks. E-commerce software company SmartScout found that 930 products sold on Amazon have seen price hikes since early April, increasing by 29 percent on average. About 25 percent of those increases have come from sellers based in China.
Companies from Procter & Gamble to Goodyear to Hermès have also announced price increases due to tariffs. Others appear to have done so quietly, with Logitech raising its prices by as much as 25 percent in the wake of the tariffs without explanation.
Companies that make goods in the US won’t necessarily be spared. Even if products are made in the country, their component parts may be fabricated elsewhere, meaning that they will now cost more to produce.
Why price increases haven’t hit uniformly
Although many companies have announced drastic price increases, the effect of tariffs on prices has not been uniform so far. There are a few reasons for that.
For one, supply chains are now much more robust to shocks like tariffs than they were even just a few years ago.
After the pandemic upended global supply chains (recall the 2020 run on toilet paper), companies took steps to invest in warehousing and increase their US inventory to avoid future shortages. The total value of US business inventory adjusted for inflation has increased from $1.9 trillion at its trough in June 2020 to about $2.6 trillion in February 2025.
That means that many businesses already had stockpiles of products that weren’t subject to the current tariffs.
“We’re not going to see anything like what we saw during Covid,” Zagorin said. “Companies just carry more inventory, they have higher safety stock levels. … The supply chain is much more inherently resilient as a result.”
Companies such as Sony, Apple, Williams-Sonoma, and Costco have also taken additional steps to further expand their US inventory ahead of the tariffs. That means that some big-box retailers are “sitting on an inventory glut in certain categories where they estimate there to be demand,” Zagorin said.
That has caused shipping activity to decrease in the immediate term, he added. Ship tracking data shows that 33 percent fewer freight vessels are slated to arrive at a major port in Los Angeles in the first full week in May than in the same week last year.
“There are no ships coming into the port in Seattle and LA because the beast has eaten, and the beast is full,” Zagorin said.
But not all businesses can afford to stockpile, especially if they have limited capital or are launching a new product. Perishable items can’t be stockpiled, meaning that prices of things like imported fresh produce could jump sooner. And there is only so long that retailers’ stockpiles will last.
If Trump maintains the tariffs, particularly the high rates on China, through the end of the year, it would create significant supply chain challenges across US businesses, and American consumers would ultimately pay the price.
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