After spending three months riding his bicycle in slow circles at the bottom of the White House driveway while staring in the windows, it was reported this morning that a frustrated Jeff Bezos would announce his Amazon company would start to label the tariff impact on all products sold by the company.
However, in the angered reaction to President Trump’s tariffs against the majority of his suppliers, what Jeff Bezos likely didn’t realize is the tariff label acts as a “Country of Origin Label” (COOL).
All of the products sold on Amazon that would have tariff cost labeling, are not made in the USA. All of the products without tariff labels would be made in the USA.
Given the nature of American preference toward higher quality products, the “Tariff Label” becomes a DeFacto blacklist. Purchase reviews would proceed accordingly.
WASHINGTON – [T]he e-commerce giant will soon show how much Trump’s tariffs are adding to the price of each product, according to a person familiar with the plan. The shopping site will display how much of an item’s cost is derived from tariffs – right next to the product’s total listed price. (source)
How Amazon could possibly calculate this ‘cost’ given the complex nature and changing dynamics of total cost of production, currency evaluations, subsidies, and countervailing duty offsets, was an unknown. However, as would be predicted, shares of Amazon stock started to plummet, which led to Amazon quickly denying the report.
WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) – Amazon.com denied a report on Tuesday that it planned to disclose the cost that U.S. tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump were adding to its products, after the White House blasted the initial story.
Amazon said Tuesday it never considered listing tariffs on its main retail site, and nothing was implemented on any company site. “The team that runs our ultra-low cost Amazon Haul store has considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products,” a company spokesperson said. (more)
“Given the nature of American preference toward higher quality products”…
I hope you’re right… I’m old enough to remember the American consumer turning it’s back on American products for cheap Chinese cr@p…
It’s going to be a tough road back, but I’m willing to buy into it. 😉
I am under the impression that China is intentionally making bad products on purpose. 🤔
Yup. We are literally begging them and incentivizing them to. A dollar of margin is a dollar of margin whether the product is complex or simple… of course you are going to get that dollar doing the simplest , crappiest stuff, which can be produced in much greater quantities in any given specific period of time, as well. This works when your whole market selling strategy is to be the absolute cheapest regardless of the item’s value to a person.
I could be wrong, but I do not believe anyone in China prices their product in the “value add” model. It is just all cost+ and the + is even sometimes optional just to dump product.
Re “I am under the impression that China is intentionally making bad products on purpose.”
You may not believe it; but, that’s no accident, either!
Yep. Purposeful intentionality.
To some degree I believe you are right. However, like the Japanese before them, some products got better. A number of these products are still under American company brand names which are still competing against each other in the race to the bottom price point. So there is some motivation/oversight on the part of the parent company to improve.
Example… I recently purchased an mid-priced (cheap) offset smoker from HomeDepot. $600ish. It’s a very sturdy, well built unit for the price. Ten or so years ago something like this would probably not even fit together.
I concur.
Like Strother Martin’s signature line in Cool Hand Luke: “What we have here is…a failure to communicate.” lololol
Bezos is nothing more than a grifter with a blow up doll girlfriend.
I wonder if that doll is made in China?
It’s plastic parts are
Ever notice that some of the ‘big’ ones just don’t add up?
I always check the faces around them and who the regulars are. Ask a question and see who the big one turns to.
I am constantly asking Amazon’s AI Bot, Rufus… “Country of Origin?” if it is not listed in the product description. To the extent possible, I don’t buy products from China.
Chinese ibuprofen,
(I am just using for instance because most over the counter and prescription meds do not show country of origin–to our detriment):
Under Bezos new labeling (that he is backing up on now):
100-tablet bottle has an import label showing a tariff cost-adder of 100% or .20 (4-nickels).
That means the original cost from the manufacturer was .20-cents (4-nickels).
Normal sell price $6/bottle.
Old cost .20-cents/bottle.
Bezos Tariff label says. “.20-cents additional cost to consumer.
After public tariff war cost .40-cents/bottle.
But the consuming Americans are now all watching the cost of things.
With suspicious eyes, we are watching.
No. 1, We sure didn’t realize China made ibuprofen?
No. 2, We sure didnt realize it cost only .20-cents per bottle!!
——–
So think about it,
China has been added to the WTO like around 2001 (I think).
Through ignorance or complicity by our government, currency manipulation occurs and when the sell price for that 100-count bottle of ibuprofen went from $5/bottle to $6/bottle, we as a consumer never blinked because, hey! it’s cheap and we figured it was made here in the good ‘ole USA!
Bring on the labels!!!
And while you are at it, label the country of origen for our fast food burgers and chickn nuggets!
That’ll really open our eyes!!!
—–
We have never ever had a president that so fully understood different currencies and its manipulation…
Until now.
PDJT is going to give us a master’s class in wholesale/retail economics.
Let’s see how the Canadian central banker Carney reacts.
Perfect. We would be able to see the markup. Keep in mind the Tariff is on the wholesale cost. A 20.00 dollar retail item may cost Amazon $5.00 dollars wholesale so a 10% tariff would be .50. Let’s see just how greedy they are 😉
Amazon only needs one label. China.
I know it’s petty, but Mama always said, “If it feels icky, it probably is” and THIS guy, Bezos…he’s ICKY
Why does he make me think, “stye”?
Ain’t it the Truth!
I love this so much, along with SD’s prognostications. This is going to be Streisand Effect x Billions if this comes around.
I hope Bezos doesn’t back out of it.
I only wish I had a buck for every hour wasted trying to figure out country of origin for something on there that was very difficult if not impossible to find elsewhere.
Anything to make that fact obvious would be a great win.
And yes, it will send American citizens looking harder for our own alternatives. I’ve spent years now looking for that information, with rarely any certainty of what I think is the answer.
Crap Weasel got what he deserved.