Best Buy and Target CEOs say prices are about to go up because of tariffs

Political framing and supporter justifications

• Many expect tariff-driven price hikes to be rationalized by Trump supporters as “tough negotiating,” “patriotic sacrifice,” or later blamed on opponents (e.g., Biden, the Fed).
• Several comments describe the dynamic as cult-like: any outcome is retrofitted into a positive narrative, with little concern for consistency or expert consensus.
• Others argue some right-leaning media and voters are more ambivalent, acknowledging tariffs will raise prices, especially on staples like eggs.

Who actually pays tariffs

• Long subthread on tax incidence: in theory, burden depends on supply and demand elasticities.
• Multiple commenters stress that in practice manufacturers rarely “eat” 20–25% tariffs given thin margins; costs are overwhelmingly passed to consumers, especially short-term.
• Others note that tariffs are regressive: they function like a consumption tax that hits lower-income households hardest.

Price effects, inflation, and corporate behavior

• Many point out retailers already used COVID and supply-chain shocks to raise prices and keep them high after costs eased; tariffs are seen as fresh cover to hike prices and margins.
• Examples cited (washing machines, dryers) where both foreign and domestic prices rose under prior tariffs, with large “cost per job created.”
• Concern that tariffs will push up both imported and domestic goods, stoke inflation, and contribute to further rate pressure.

Supply chains, Canada/Mexico, and retaliation

• Commenters emphasize deeply integrated North American supply chains: components cross borders multiple times, so tariffs stack and propagate.
• Expected impacts: higher car prices, costlier groceries (especially winter produce from Mexico), and harm to U.S. exporters via counter-tariffs.
• Several Canadian voices describe widespread anger, boycotts of U.S. goods, and long-term damage to U.S.–Canada relations.

Market volatility and potential manipulation

• Repeated pattern noted: dramatic tariff announcements followed by talk of quick walk-backs, which move markets sharply.
• Some suspect insiders and politically connected actors can profit from this volatility; others frame it as “governing by chaos” that businesses hate regardless of motive.

Industrial policy vs. chaotic protectionism

• A minority argue tariffs can work if: narrow, predictable, long-term, and tied to strategic sectors or cost-adjustment (environment, labor, human rights).
• Most think blanket, high, rapidly shifting tariffs won’t cause serious onshoring: policy risk is too high and global labor-cost gaps too large.
• Debate over whether the U.S. should even try to “re-manufacture” broadly instead of focusing on higher-margin services, with some emphasizing “good jobs for non-elite workers.”

China, “cheap junk,” and quality

• Some welcome anything that reduces dependence on low-quality Chinese imports.
• Others respond that without deeper changes in corporate incentives, production moving home or to other countries will just yield “more expensive low-quality junk.”

Consumer and citizen power

• A few wish for coordinated consumer boycotts to force corporations to absorb more costs rather than passing them on.
• Others argue the more realistic target would be coordinated political pressure to reverse tariffs, but note U.S. voters are fragmented, demotivated, or structurally disenfranchised.