As temperatures soared on a sweltering July day in New York City, shoppers at Queens’s largest mall said they were feeling the heat – of rising prices.
“T-shirts, basic t-shirts, underwear, the basic necessities – the prices are going up,” said Clarence Johnson, 48, who was visiting the Macy’s at the Queen Center mall to pick up shirts he ordered online.
As Donald Trump presses on with his trade wars, retailers have been passing price increases onto customers. Department stores – which rely on a variety of imported goods and materials, from shoes to t-shirts – have particularly been scrambling to deal with the flux in prices.
Nothing, typically. I have encountered a few of his people from time to time who get angry when you explain how tariffs work. “Wait… what? Really?” But too many of them can’t or won’t comprehend the level of danger they are in. That we’re all in.
At work, a CTO for a firm we were designing a solution for got upset because hardware was in customs, and tariffs needed to be paid.
He didn’t understand why the manufacturer wasn’t paying, and it had to be pointed out (by someone from the other company bringing this hardware) that tariffs are a tax on importing, not exporting, and for every single contract they have ever had, tariffs are paid by the client.
This was not a small company, either. We’re talking about a fairly large firm in finance. And the CTO didn’t understand how tariffs work.
We’re fucked.