Tariffs are the chatter of the town, and with good reason. Placing blanket tariffs on countries that American businesses import has been shown to increase costs, which are often passed on to consumers.
Such tariffs were a promise of President Donald Trump’s official campaign platform — and a promise that was kept. On March 4, Trump implemented 25% duties on Canadian and Mexican imports. Before that, another 10% tariff was added to Chinese imports, bringing those duties to a total of 20%.
The price increases that consumers may see as a result of these tariffs won’t necessarily be minute.
A recent study from the National Retail Federation, released shortly before the election, found that American consumers collectively could lose between $46 billion and $78 billion in spending power due to tariffs on imports.
To get more specific: A $40 toaster oven would cost $48 to $52 (a 20% to 30% increase), and a $90 pair of athletic shoes would cost $106 to $116 (an 18% to 29% increase).
Although companies aren’t publicly specifying yet how their prices could change following the new tariffs, some have stated that price hikes are a very real possibility. Here are a few of those retailers.
1. Best Buy
The Geek Squad’s home base may not be your first choice for new technology if prices increase — and that’s a possibility with the new tariffs.
Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said in a March quarterly earnings call that only 2% to 3% of their overall assortment comes from imports, but she anticipates vendors will be passing along price increases from tariffs to retailers like Best Buy, “making price increases for American consumers highly likely.”
Best Buy Chief Financial Officer Matthew Bilunas said, “[W]e prefer not to raise prices. But because of the higher [cost of goods sold], we need to enact some price increases, and that is going to vary based on product category, SKUs, competitive environment, and other factors.”
To boot, during a quarterly earnings call in late November, Barry noted that it wouldn’t be the first time the retailer has passed some of the cost of tariffs on to the consumer.
2. Stanley Black & Decker
Stanley Black & Decker is the company behind six tool brands sold at many major retailers: Craftsman, DeWalt, Irwin, Lenox, Stanley, and Black & Decker.
The company’s executives have been gearing up for Trump’s tariffs since before the election.
On the company’s quarterly earnings call held last October, CEO Donald Allan noted a real possibility of price increases associated with tariffs. And that stance was solidified during a quarterly call in February.
“Regarding tariffs, ultimately, we expect to mitigate the impact of potential scenarios through a combination of supply chain and price adjustments,” Stanley Black & Decker Chief Financial Officer Patrick Hallinan said in February.
As Allan explained in October, the retailer will likely adjust its supply chain by moving production that currently happens in China to other areas in Asia. But that will take time.
And price adjustments likely won’t be immediate, either. Hallinan explained in February they may lag the official formalization of tariffs by two to three months.
3. Target
Stanley Black & Decker may say rising costs are coming in a couple of months — but Target’s price hikes will be much swifter.
Target CEO Brian Cornell told CNBC that shoppers will likely see price increases within a matter of days after the Trump administration’s implementation of 25% duties on imports from Mexico and Canada, which happened on March 4.
Produce like strawberries, avocados and bananas are most likely to be affected since Target relies heavily on Mexico for produce in the winter, Cornell explained.
4. Steve Madden
During a February quarterly earnings call, Steve Madden CEO Edward Rosenfeld said the retailer’s “number one” course of action in response to tariffs is moving production out of China.
They’ve already made progress on this, too: 71% of their imported products came from China as of late 2024, but that number has dropped to 58% as of February.
Still, those price raises aren’t totally avoidable.
Rosenfeld said the company “will be selectively raising prices … [I]t’s not gonna be an across-the-board price increase, but we will be surgical about it.”
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