HAPPY MARDI GRAS!
This is just an FYI in case few are paying attention.
With Christmas behind us I have heard some say that it was not as expensive as predicted which was a good thing but now is the time to bend over for price hikes are coming.
Shoppers who enjoyed a brief pause in price hikes may want to brace themselves. After several months of relative calm—and holiday discounts—companies are again bumping up prices on everything from jeans to spices to software, the Wall Street Journal reports. The increases, often in the high-single-digit range, appear steeper than a typical January reset in prices, particularly for electronics, appliances, and other durable goods, economists say.
Levi Strauss, Columbia Sportswear, McCormick, and a host of smaller firms report they’re paying more for tariffs, wages, health insurance, materials, and shipping—and passing at least some of that along. Online data tracked by Harvard’s Alberto Cavallo and Adobe show the largest monthly jump in web prices in more than a decade, led by big-ticket categories.
Small businesses, facing thinner margins, are raising prices across the board or cutting products they don’t think customers will pay more for. A recent Vistage survey found more than half of small-business leaders plan near-term price increases, mostly in the 4% to 10% range, even as they worry higher tags could scare off buyers. Last week, economists at JPMorgan predicted that “inflation will re-accelerate for a time this year,” citing tariff-related costs being passed on to consumers and the “potential pass-through of the sustained weakening of the trade-weighted US dollar over the past year,” reports Reuters.
The president of Structural Systems Repair Group, a Cincinnati-based construction company, tells the Journal that tariffs pushed up steel prices 10% last year and healthcare costs for employees increased by around the same amount. “It’s not sustainable for us to tolerate that kind of increase without some sort of concession from our customers,” Bryan Erickson says.
Be prepared for the increases and think of ways to end this nightmare.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
The way to end this nightmare is to live within your means, stop trying to keep up with everyone else, be satisfied with what you’ve got, stop impulse buying and boycott the hell out of price gougers.
Excellent words of wisdom. chuq
“Be satisfied with what you’ve got” is what messes things up for nearly everyone.
My drug prices seem to be falling dramatically but don’t think will compensate for increases everything else.
Mine are holding steady for now while everything else is zooming. chuq
It always takes time for the knock-on effect of tariffs to bite hard. But by then it is too late for the moaners who voted for Trump to whine about it or do anything to change it.
Best wishes, Pete.
There is regret but is it enough? chuq
What’s basically happened is that government policies and tax laws have been changed over the last few decades to encourage greed, profiteering, the creation of monopolies, and the gutting of consumer protection laws that have resulted in the creation of an environment where it’s nearly impossible for someone with even what should be a middle class income to survive. Over the last few years I’ve seen rents surge upwards from $300 or $400/month for a one bedroom apartment up to $1,500 or more. These days around here a $1,400/month apartment is considered low income housing for heaven’s sake.
The same around here….rents are too high and going higher. chuq