Should Walmart "Eat the tariffs"? Should a "free market" GOP be intervening in pvt business? Is he concerned about consumer confidence? Should he be?

Question

Is tariffs the reason for rising prices?

Does it matter if Walmart was profitable prior to tarriffs?

Who said "Eat the tariffs"? Trump never said who "they" is?

Is "I'll be watching" a threat?

Is Trump implying a potential POTUS led boycott or is it benign when he says "so will your customers"?

WhiteSteve · Accepted Answer

I didn’t have “siding with Walmart” on my 2025 Bingo card, but this is the weirdest few months I’ve ever seen in America, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by anything.

The whole thing is half-baked and misguided. He’s using tariffs the wrong way, to combat a “trade deficit” that to anyone with any basic understanding of international trade should know isn’t even indicative that there’s a problem needing fixing because sometimes we just buy more from certain places than we sell to them, which in and of itself isn’t necessarily detrimental to our economy, or positive for it if it’s “fixed.” This is a solution in search of a problem.

MAGA supporters are the most uninformed or misinformed coalition that I’ve ever seen enter the arena of political participation. As loud and numerous as they may seem, they just simply don’t have a fucking clue.

That’s what’s most scary about them: people wildly passionate about things they clearly cannot grasp intellectually, or at least have no interest in trying to. They love a prepared narrative. Load the new software as the message needs to change, and these people will obediently push it while mostly not seeming to understand the meaning of the words coming out of their own mouths. Original thought and analysis isn’t their thing. I’m actually dying to know the site or sites they go to to receive their marching orders. Some of these people I wouldn’t have confidence that they could write a grocery list, let alone gather a bunch of accurate information, deeply think about the topic, and then pen their own opinion on it. Not a fucking chance😂

Even people on here who I might otherwise think are reasonably smart, at least on paper…. they just go dumb when it comes to Trump. I don’t understand. I guess it’s just an attraction to shared grievances or bigotries, or promises that fulfill their greedy intentions.

But even these folks start opining on stuff, and I’m like “you’re literally not talking about real life shit that’s actually happening; your head is filled with some kind of FoxNews bullshit that couldn’t be further from the truth, which I can’t believe you weren’t able to self-confirm just by going outside and seeing that that’s not what’s really happening in the world, and is an obvious fallacy or deliberate mischaracterization to benefit one political party and harm another.” Like that should be SO fucking obvious, oh my god🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ Alternate working title for life: “Nothing is as FoxNews tried to tell me it is when I checked for myself and, you know, actually EXPERIENCED real life.” These people are literally making up stories out of whole cloth in a lot of cases.

I’m borrowing some phrasing from commentator David Pakman here, but “there’s no longer a shared basis in fact that we can engage in meaningful debate and dialogue.” They don’t like the facts, the facts hurt their arguments and narratives, so they just show up with their own fake-facts and just try to tell sane people they’re crazy for not believing them. Absolute lunacy. Just absolute lunacy.

So…. all that said…. what I want to know from MAGA supporters…why do you constantly allow this guy to move the goalposts on you, and you help? You know what I NEVER heard during Trump’s campaign speeches? “Temporary pain.” Not mentioned once. It was all “I’m gonna fix this Day One, immediately.” That didn’t happen.

And if the plan was “short-term pain for long-term gain”…. then just say that, BEFORE the election. Because all I heard from the “Let’s Go, Brandon” crowd was how their families were destitute, could hardly put food on the table (probably while there’s a brand new Ford F-150 in the driveway, lmfao) and might not even make it to Election Day, let alone Inauguration Day…. what happened to that? Gas isn’t meaningfully cheaper, no relief there.

Kamala promised to go after corporate price gouging. Love the idea, but the “how” of it wasn’t well-explained, I’ll concede that. But that’s the kind of intent I want to see. People need to realize they aren’t financially struggling “because brown people”, it’s these assholes in the suits and ties who are fucking us, by charging us too much as customers, and paying us too little as employees. That’s unsustainable. But they can’t let you figure it out, so they say “MeXiCaNs ArE TaKiNg YoUr JoBs!!!” to distract you and stop you asking the questions you SHOULD BE. Like your job was picking lettuce in 95 degree weather or something🙄🤦‍♂️😂

Here’s the thing that kills some of the Walmart sympathy though…. they and Best Buy, right AFTER the election, all of a sudden made a public statement that tariffs would result in higher prices at their stores. These people voted for Trump, bet the farm on that, because these people think the only thing that matters is making as much money as possible, so anyone talking about business laws and regulations that benefit us working Joes and Janes isn’t what they’re trying to hear. Corporations see Democrats as a hindrance to make money, despite the regulations usually being sensible. The only ones saying they aren’t are people losing money by running their business ethically, and this weird army of people not in that class, currently getting fucked by that very dynamic, but they mistake themselves for just temporarily embarrassed millionaires one promotion-via-someone-else’s-deportation away from being part of the elite class, which is just….. LMFAO.

“Would ya please pass the jelly?”😂😂😂

https://www.youtube.com/embed/hawQ5wobi1Y

They’ll accept you one day, Jim-Bob👨‍🌾

But yeah, just to try to start wrapping this up…. in a sense, Trump is right, in that these huge corporations are seemingly endless cash cows, in Walmart’s case, to the tune of the CEO owning a 365-foot yacht that cost more than all of us in this discussion will cumulatively see in our lifetimes. And I’m sorry, I’m not gonna be laying down a gold brick road for anyone else to walk on just because they have a successful business, an inherited one, no less.

We need to stop fellating people and inconveniencing ourselves in favor of their interests just because they can succeed in a capitalist economic system, that is not in any way close to “the point” of life. That’s not the measure of what a worthwhile human is, how good they are at making money and how much stuff they have. You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me if that’s what you prioritize and revere in life. That’s a way bigger problem than any singular politician.

So, it’s funny to see Trump at odds with these people now. But it makes all the sense in the world, because the whole “make America great” thing is one of the biggest lies ever told and sold. God fuckin’ help you if you think that’s what Trump is doing any of this for, holy fuck… and I mean HOLY FUCK🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

I always say, it’s not even the politics of it all as much as “How the fuck are you letting this obvious con man grift you, while half of us are standing here screaming at you to not do it, for your own good as well as ours?” Uncle Baby Billy has some holy health elixir he’d like to sell you too…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/dD2WT8SeOSw

This is PLENTY out of me, but for direct answers to your questions…

Yes, the tariffs are responsible for the rising costs. Walmart could also raise prices on other things not affected by tariffs and no one would be the wiser. Everyone’s an asshole in this particular situation, so I wouldn’t put anything past anyone. But as a broad answer, yes.

Profit margins aren’t relevant here but should be looked at, and made public. The issue may not be profits as much underpaying for wages and benefits. I worked closely with Walmart at the store and corporate levels at my last job. I know we had to sell them stuff at a certain profit margin for them, and balancing that with a customer price point that wouldn’t stifle sales, while also getting our own profits, of course.

Walmart was usually looking for 30-35% profit margin. I could get them as low as 25% if the item was a high-volume mover. But for some standard shelf space item, they wanted it in the thirties. They monitor their own sales efficiency by “space x profit.” They care about how much money per square foot they make, and on the shelves, money per square inch. So the size of your packaging is considered, all of that. We even altered packaging to accommodate them before, to get a good-selling but not high-volume item to work out monetarily in their “mods” (shelf item placement planogram).

So they get theirs, we would make 25-35% ourselves, typically, and we’d have logistical costs, shipping, warehousing, all that, and plain old labor. My buddy who was our GM is at a bigger food retailer now, he was saying “prices aren’t coming down. 80-85% is tied up in labor. And every year, I have employee reviews, and the line of people not asking me for more money is WAY shorter than the other one.”

Last thing and I’ll shut up, lmao…related to that, I remember I new store opening, and one of the big wigs had a meeting with the sales managers and area supervisors to go over all the rules and regs. I’ll never forget that he said —for this newly built, expanded version to replace the smaller one across the street— “We’ll be staffed ‘The Walmart Way’, we’ll be running lean and mean.” Basically they keep both the amount of working employees (and their wages and benefits) painfully low. There was NOT A DAY where I didn’t have like a dozen people ask me to help them find an item, because they’d see me either putting out our items or walking around with a tie on and a messenger bag, because they “can never find anyone from the store to help them”, lmao.

MisterWack · Accepted Answer

Let me explain this for the 100th time on this website,

These tariffs Our 47th President Donald J Trump is threatening to implement are specifically on imports.
What the Hell does that mean? Basically, those in charge of importing consumer goods provided by a private business / production entity is an import company.
That import company is being taxed since as we all know a tariff is a tax on either imports or exports.

Once the tariff is levied on the import company, that import company will be incentivized to levy their own tax onto private companies / businesses. Once the private companies / businesses are taxed, they’ll be incentivized to levy price increases onto their consumer base. The consumer base pays for the trade deficit.

Now, this is something I never explained on this website up to this point: President Donald J Trump has been selling the narrative that these tariffs aren’t on an import company which goes down the chain to companies then their consumer base costing Americans a ‘sales tax’(since that would be unpopular even to his own constituents), however these tariffs are actually to hold China and other countries accountable for ripping us off.

Quote from current POTUS that completely recognizes the reality of the situation: “Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected.

Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, "EAT THE TARIFFS," and not charge valued customers ANYTHING.” - 47th President Donald J Trump

Proving the reality is exactly what it is, reality. He is admitting they get their product from China and to move it into the US would cost Walmart (private business) money which they make up for in raising prices on consumers. Why else do you think he told CEOs not to show the price hikes and their impact on their consumer base? It will hurt the economy and the blame will be pointed at him which would hurt Trump’s feelings, political poll numbers, and ego.

Abbycado · Accepted Answer

I wonder how many of these MAGA morons are up in arms that they themselves run a trade deficit with every retailer they shop at? I’m sure not a single one of them is smart enough to understand that.

NoDecision · Accepted Answer

Isn't that like Walmart not getting "due process" and the same rights as any other company?

OneViewpoint · Answer

Why should Walmart eat the MAGA tariffs? Walmart had nothing to do with implementing these tariffs. MAGA voted for higher government taxes to increase inflation. Now the MAGA-tards can enjoy the policies they voted for. They can enjoy "owning China and Canada, and Mexico" like they enjoyed "owning Mexico" 8 years ago.

MAGA wanted Capitalism not some Lib Commie govamint that dictates prices. No, MAGA believes a free market ALWAYS makes the right decisions. But they voted for the dumbest most ignorant president in US history to tell the market what prices are gonna be for everything from food to cars, to clothing. Because MAGA is fucking stupid!

So why should Walmart or any private sector business pick up the tab for the stupidity of MAGA voters? Why should China tank their prices to make it easy on the assholes who voted for this? Why wouldn't China (end every other country) just go find other countries to buy their goods? Why shouldn't there be consequences for the MAGA morons who voted for this disaster?

This is hilarious. And the ripple effects are just starting to hit the US economy. It can't be stopped at this point. Especially with the inept team of toadies tRump has installed throughout the executive branch of govamint in the USA. Let it burn!

Red_Arrow · Answer

Why should Walmart stop blaming tariffs? All intelligent people know that the cost of the tariffs is paid by the buyer. In this case the buyer is Walmart and they have to raise prices to cover the loss caused by Trump. I am seeing prices rise at many stores all over and the rest will soon follow or go out of business.

BonzoInBitburg · Answer

You can't even call yourself a capitalist with comments like that. Businesses exist to make money and taxing them with tariffs and telling them to make less money goes against everything a capitalist stands for.

molonski2 · Answer

Walmart answers ONLY to stakeholders

BUT , to send a clear message , just let those shelves run dry for a bit. He has been clearly told , but as those numbers affect day to day.

Then the average moron who thinks this ludicrous strategy is positive will clearly see that this guy is beyond dangerous.

He's been told , and he is sht scared of those doing the telling.. moronic attitudes , and utter stupidity.

AviatorTom · Answer

A company can charge whatever it wants for its products. Its consumers will decide if the price is right. Companies always look for reasons to justify a price increase. Tariffs justification might work, might not.

Lynx122 · Answer

This is just funny. He says things about the economy that just aren't true and then when reality happens he claims everyone else has an agenda.

Friendlybro79 · Answer

by the way this is his admitting a country's government doesn't pay the tarrifs the importer does... in turn increasing our prices... like everyone except Trump and maga have said. It's so annoying how dumb he is.

DryGermanGuy · Answer

That would be the day...

Static_In_The_Attic · Answer

A business is a business & businesses aren’t going to eat the cost due to inflation, tariffs or any other bull$hit. Unfortunately the customers will have to eat the costs.

CindyRuns · Answer

Very simple bit of Free Market. They can raise prices as the wish and I can choose to shop elsewhere

Kelley1 · Answer

Walmart should add tariffs to the price. Walmart should show the price, the tariff, the underline, and the total so people would know how much they are paying for the tariffs.

SolitarySolace · Answer

So you think it’s government overreach for a president to say, “Stop price-gouging your customers”? Walmart made billions, and President Trump simply pointed out they could absorb the cost without passing it onto everyday Americans. That’s not a threat—it’s leadership. You don’t get to call yourself ‘pro-consumer’ while defending corporate greed.

Spencer10 · Answer

Hmmm whats Walmart to do? Support Trump and eat the cost of Tariffs or lose money and maybe go out of business? Pretty tough choice. Tough to "eat" a 30 percent tariff.

Anonymous · Answer

You know that Bernie Sanders and a lot of Democrats used to support tariffs, right? It used to be consistent with left-wing ideology because it helps American workers. Yes, it may result in higher prices, but it helps American workers. The problem is that liberals have to oppose everything Trump does, even if it is something that they used to support. The same with peace in the Ukraine. Remember twenty years ago when Democrats were pacifists, opposing all wars? Now, they have to oppose Trump's attempt to end war in Ukraine not because Trump is wrong, but because they have to oppose everything Trump does.

Alex-Snow · Answer

Trump should pay the difference not the consumers

Likes2drive · Answer

Maybe since it’s temporary anyway, they can afford it

Anonymous · Answer

Since his tariffs are so amazing and wonderful, it would be very strange for him to try to make businesses hide the effects from tariffs. He should be showing them off proudly!

beefcakebradybatson · Answer

TRUMP should eat the tariffs by rescinding them.

Avicenna · Answer

Do you feel comfortable buying goods which may be made by slave labor?  And when will you stop sucking up to the Chinese Communist Party?

Plates9741 · Answer

Walmart isn't going to eat the tariffs and neither is China. It is a misinformed, dumbfuck MAGA fantasy to think that they will. Extra cost is usually passed on to the consumer. MAGA has been told this 1000 fucking times.

Shiprex · Answer

I like the last option best. Internet Top Gun

Dargil · Answer

The GOP should be concerned with equal access to foreign markets. That means. reasonably equal tariffs and reasonably equal import restrictions.

Dongie · Answer

Nobel here. They could eat a bit and watch the tariffs go way down when Chyna gets on board and trades fairly. Which should be right away.

Ariesman81 · Answer

Well... we will see where their loyalty lies. Profits is my guess.

exitseven · Answer

Wal mart is using the tariffs to rip off their customers. Find another store.

demonics · Answer

*Insert what the democrats/Bernie Sanders were saying about tariffs before Trump actually imposes them when he became president*

BDRick · Answer

They should, in my opinion, eat the cost as they are the worlds largest sales company (Brick and mortar)

Godihateyou · Answer

Walmart will no longer be subsidized by foreign workers and American tax payers. Aligne with Alfred market principles or go out of business.

seeyounexttuesday · Answer

I really love how Trump is getting you lefties to argue against positions you've held for years. It really shows how you have zero principles.

zagor · Answer

Trump is displaying his usual firm grasp of reality.

Anonymous · Answer

no. i support record profits for companies. business > people. Goooooo TESLA! haha.

Anonymous · Answer

Absolutely they should

Hdeesggh · Answer

Its pretty clear, we're a free market economy

Should Walmart "Eat the tariffs"? Should a "free market" GOP be intervening in pvt business? Is he concerned about consumer confidence? Should he be?

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Do these people know that these tariffs he is imposing raises the prices of goods to the seller - in turn RAISES THE PRICE for CONSUMER?

Should Walmart "Eat the tariffs"? Should a "free market" GOP be intervening in pvt business? Is he concerned about consumer confidence? Should he be?

Most Helpful Opinions

What Girls & Guys Said

Do these people know that these tariffs he is imposing raises the prices of goods to the seller - in turn RAISES THE PRICE for CONSUMER?

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