Retailers seize on Trump tariff fears and urge shoppers to buy now

Retailers have taken to warning customers to buy products now before the expected price hikes that could come when Donald Trump takes office and puts the sweeping tariffs he has promised into place.

Companies ranging from Julie Skin, a beauty brand, to outdoor goods retailer Tarptent to Finally Home Furnishings have all sounded the alarm, according to an analysis from The Wall Street Journal.

The beauty brand warned customers might face 25 percent higher prices on signature products like a filtered showerhead, while the furnishing company launched a “Pre-Tariff Sale” on Facebook.

“There is a misconception that the countries exporting goods will bear the cost of the tariffs, but that is simply not true,” owner Sydney Arnold told the paper.

On the campaign trail, Trump suggested tariffing China as much as 60 percent, while levying across-the-board, double-digit tariffs on all other goods entering the U.S.

This week, Trump threatened another suite of tariffs, this time on Mexico, China, and Canada, in what the president-elect said was a move to stop immigration and drug-smuggling.

The threat immediately sent world leaders and businesses scrambling, given that China is the main supplier of imports to the U.S., Canada is the main explorter of crude oil to the U.S., and major U.S. automakers have plants and suppliers in Mexico.

A Goldman Sachs researcher warned this round of tariffs would have “significant consequences” on consumers, as companies raised prices to compensate for the extra expense of the tariffs.

George Washington University economics professor Tara Sinclair agreed, recently telling The Independent consumers will suffer under Trump’s tariff policies.

“Tariffs would likely be a higher tax on consumers – U.S. consumers,” Sinclair said. “This idea that those tariffs would somehow be magically paid by the foreign companies and wouldn’t be passed through American consumers does not seem to stand out empirically in the data.”

The Trump administration has defended its tariff policies.

“In his first term, President Trump instituted tariffs against China that created jobs, spurred investment, and resulted in no inflation,” spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to The Independent. “President Trump will work quickly to fix and restore an economy that puts American workers by re-shoring American jobs, lowering inflation, raising real wages, lowering taxes, cutting regulations, and unshackling American energy.”

A Wall Street Journal poll of 39 economists found that 100 percent opposed imposing tariffs on imported goods.

Sixteen Nobel prize-winning economists, meanwhile, warned in an open letter that Trump’s proposals would have a “destabilizing effect” on the U.S. economy and negatively impact American world standing.