Latest news with #consumerimpact
Bloomberg
14 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Erratic Weather Is Hurting Indian Firms in The Biggest Consumer Market
By and Satviki Sanjay Save Some of India's largest companies, already hit by a demand slump, are facing a new threat in wooing the country's 1.4 billion consumers: unpredictable weather. A cooler-than-usual summer this year — followed by the earliest onset of rain since 2009 — has hurt companies selling everything from talcum powder to air conditioners.
Washington Post
03-06-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Do you know who exports these foods to the U.S.? Test your knowledge.
More than four months into Donald Trump's second term as president, many Americans have been struck by a malaise, unknown to earlier generations, known as tariff fatigue. Its symptoms include a dizzying inability to keep up with the constantly changing costs of goods and how they might affect consumer pocketbooks. Since his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump has announced new or revised tariff policies more than 50 times, based on an accounting maintained by The Washington Post. Some tariffs were rolled back within a day. Some, such as the 145 percent tariff on Chinese imports, have been reduced because of political and economic pressures. For a hot minute, most of the tariffs were halted after the little-known Court of International Trade ruled that they were illegal, a decision that was temporarily paused Thursday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs: Now you see them, now you don't. Now you see them again — but for how long? Story continues below advertisement Advertisement The head-spinning, ever-changing landscape has left many Americans wondering how the tariffs will affect their ability to purchase not just dolls and pencils, but also the kinds of products that wake us up in the morning, season our foods or satisfy our sweet tooth after a long day on the job. The Post reviewed import data for eight common ingredients — those found in cookies, candy bars, salad dressings, cereals and hot beverages — to see which countries send us the most of each item. We then compared the top country in each category against the current trade tariffs, whether the universal 10 percent tariff that applies to all countries or the steeper ones applied to China, to see how imports could be affected. How much do you know about the sources of American imports? Test your knowledge with the following quiz. Some of the answers may surprise you as much as they did us.
Gizmodo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Gizmodo
What Are You Panic-Buying Before Tariff Price Hikes?
Americans have quickly learned that tariffs—'the most beautiful word in the dictionary,' according to Trump—are not, in fact, 'going to make us rich as hell.' As we watched the POTUS slap higher and higher tariffs on imported goods—especially from China, which faces tariffs as high as 145%—consumers are the ones hurting the most. Almost everything is now more expensive than it was a month ago—tech, in particular. For example, DJI increased the price of its popular Osmo Pocket 3 vlogging camera by over 50%, from $519 to $799, and Microsoft raised Xbox Series S and X consoles by $100 and jacked up game prices to $80. Naturally, people are freaking out and panic buying not just essentials like pantry staples or toilet paper, but anything and everything that will get pricier soon. Gizmodo staff aren't immune to impending price hikes. Here's what some of us have panic-bought recently. Kyle Barr, Consumer Tech Reporter: Back in early April, I told anybody who would listen that they should buy their gadgets ASAP before they became too expensive. I took my own advice and jumped on two retro handhelds, a TrimUI Brick and a BatlEXP G350. Both individually cost under $50 when I ordered through the dropshipping site AliExpress. With the end of de minimis exemptions on low-value imports from China and lingering 145% tariffs on Chinese goods, those devices will necessarily cost far more when you try to order some of the latest emulation-focused devices. I'm heartbroken by the impacts tariffs have had on the board game industry, and I've been trying to support my favorite creators by running my local brick-and-mortar shop to buy Arcs: The Blighted Reach from Leder Games and Stonemaier Games' Fishspan. There's a little voice in my head whispering I shouldn't be spending this kind of money when we're facing an impending recession, but tariffs were a big reason I spent half the morning on April 24 refreshing GameStop's store page just to preorder a $500 Switch 2 bundle. Rose Pastore, Gizmodo Editor-in-Chief: Japan's sunscreen technology is light-years ahead of what's FDA-approved in the U.S., and my sensitive-skin family has been using Japanese spf for years. I can usually find my favorite sunscreens (Biore UV Aqua Rich Watery Essence and Skin Aqua UV Super Moisture Gel) for around $12 a tube at local Japanese markets. I have no idea how tariffs will affect their price—or the ability to easily find them at all—so earlier this week I hurried over to Teso Life to stock up. I also bought several of my favorite ultra-soft Japanese toothbrushes (Lion Systema), which are adult-sized but have bristles that feel like the baby toothbrushes you find in the U.S. Sabina Graves, io9 Staff Reporter: After finding out that tariffs would impact party supplies right after the closure of Party City locations, I decided to preemptively buy as much as I could for my daughter's first birthday in August. So I went to Shein for their Strawberry Shortcake collaboration for party favors, and a few other retailers with options in theme for decor. Seeing all the back and forth with online shops right now with raised taxes due to tariffs made me glad I planned early, but the uncertainty of where resources will come from is stressful. Raymond Wong, Gizmodo Senior Editor, Consumer Tech: Unlike my colleagues, I haven't jumped the gun and panic-purchased anything yet. But I'm very close to pulling the trigger on a few Game Boy modding kits from FunnyPlaying. The boutique modding shop hasn't announced any price increases (only that shipping times may take longer) for its popular DIY component swaps (IPS displays, lithium-ion batteries, shell and button replacements). But the fact these parts ship directly from China means they could be subject to up to 145% tariffs. Trump's administration is reportedly hoping to lower tariffs on Chinese imports to 'below 60%,' according to Bloomberg, but who can be sure if and when that might happen? It's not just third-party Game Boy parts that I fear may become too costly because of tariffs, but any niche DIY hobby, like mechanical keyboard customizations, where it's often a small operation (if not a single-person one) selling very specific small-batch products, may become too expensive to partake in. The worst-case scenario is that these small businesses become unsustainable and they're forced to quit altogether, and the products simply disappear overnight—and the vibrant online communities of tinkers with them. What about you, loyal Gizmodo reader? Have you panic-purchased anything, and why? More than any year, because of the uncertainty of tariffs, it feels like doing your birthday, anniversary, or holiday shopping early is a good idea, and could save you a ton of money.
The Guardian
09-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Why is Trump so fixated on toys for little girls?
Donald Trump has found a new target for his trademark mockery and dismissal: little girls. In comments at a 30 April cabinet meeting, the president seemed to dismiss the economic impact of his chaotic tariff regime on American consumers by citing girls as the primary complainants. 'Somebody said, oh, the shelves are going to be open,' Trump said. 'Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally.' Trump is prone to odd non-sequiturs, but the dolls have become something of a sticking point. Onboard Air Force One on 4 May, he doubled down on his insistence that American girls should have fewer toys. 'All I'm saying is that a young lady, a 10-year-old girl, nine-year-old girl, 15-year-old girl, doesn't need 37 dolls,' he told reporters. 'She could be very happy with two or three or four or five.' In an interview with Kristen Welker of Meet the Press that same day, Trump again mentioned the dolls. 'I don't think a beautiful baby girl needs – that's 11 years old – needs 30 dolls,' Trump said. 'I think they can have three dolls or four dolls because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable.' He went on to assert that American children also have too many pencils. 'They don't need to have 250 pencils. They can have five.' In some respects, the comments seem like a rare bit of honesty from the president: an acknowledgment of the reality that his tariffs will hurt consumers and lower the American their standard of living. With steep tariffs on many consumer goods, particularly those made in China, and supply chain issues caused by retailers and producers frantic attempts to offset the costs of the new tariffs, many common products – yes, including children's toys – will become shorter in supply and steeper in cost. Because of Trump's policies, it is indeed true that there will be fewer presents for children underneath American Christmas trees this year – a trend that is likely to continue for years to come if Trump's trade war triggers an economic recession, as is widely expected. Americans themselves don't have much say in this, but Donald Trump wants us all to know that he's comfortable with us, and our children, having less. But the selection of dolls, in particular, as Trump's stand-in for consumer prices reflects the gendered ideas about work, money and purchasing that animate Trump's chaotic economic policy. After all, Trump did not talk about the impact of his trade regime on toy trucks or GI Joe action figures – and he certainly didn't mention its likely impact on things like video games, basketballs, squat racks or protein powders. The tariffs will increase prices across economic sectors and hurt consumers of all kinds of goods. But Trump did not speak in general terms about those who might like to buy a house one day, or about who will be hurt by his tariffs on Canadian lumber, or about those who would like to be treated for their illnesses but who have to pay steeper prices for the medicines they need when tariffs hit pharmaceuticals. He didn't talk about any of the consumption that Americans are uniformly agreed to think of as reasonable, dignified or aspirational. He chose, instead, something seen as trivial, childlike, and only for girls. The comments aim to cast the pain that consumers will face as ultimately feminine and frivolous, their complaints petulant and childlike. In this respect, Trump is drawing on a long tradition of economic rhetoric that aims to cast consumption as feminine, decadent and morally suspect – and to contrast it with the supposedly more manly and virtuous productive side of the economy. It's a laughably stupid symbolism, one that only works for those deeply committed to their ignorance about how the economy actually works: in truth, everyone consumes, and people of all genders participate in the productive economy. But Trump does not argue based on the facts: he asserts dominance. And here, he casts those Americans who would complain about the economic pain that he is inflicting on them as feminine and hence as contemptible, deserving no more respect than spoiled children. The project of masculinizing the economy – perhaps especially at children's expense – is one that the Trump administration seems to be pushing more broadly. Trump claims, despite the near-universal assertions of economists to the contrary, that his tariffs will shift the US away from the primarily female service sector industries that have dominated the American economy since the 1970s back to a more masculine manufacturing base. To this end, his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, a billionaire former CEO, went on MSNBC late last month to describe his vision for the future of the American worker. 'It's time to train people not to do the jobs of the past but to do the great jobs of the future,' Lutnick said, arguing that fewer people should be aspiring to bachelor's degrees and should expect to occupy themselves in lower-skill factory work instead. 'This is the new model, where you work in these kind of plants for the rest of your life, and your kids work here, and your grandkids work here.' This is the vision for your children's future that the Trump administration wants to put forward: deprived of material comforts and joy in childhood, then deprived of the hope for upward mobility in adulthood. They want you, and your kids, to be poor, desperate and ignorant. They want you to work in repetitive, dangerous, back-breakingly physical jobs, and they want you to have no aspiration to anything better. They want you to imagine your future, and your children's futures, not as an open horizon of freedom and potential, but as a dark and desperate struggle, devoid of the notion that we might be anything more than useful instruments for the needs of capital. What do they offer Americans as compensation for this loss? Virtually nothing, aside from misogynist contempt, and the assurance that as our living standards sink and our prospects disappear, in our suffering, at least, we are masculine. On Fox News this past Tuesday, the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, tried to put this spin on things. Describing what he would say to a little girl who would be denied dolls because of Trump's tariff policy, Bessent insisted that it was for her own good. 'I would tell that young girl that you would have a better life than your parents,' Bessent said. But the Trump administration is doing everything in its power to ensure that America's children – and in particular, its little girls – have it worse. Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist
Washington Post
09-05-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Americans are worried about affording the necessities. Not dolls.
It's not about dolls. President Donald Trump has downplayed the financial impact of his trade policies on American consumers, suggesting that price increases would be minimal. 'Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls,' he said during a recent Cabinet meeting. 'And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.'
