Tariffs are calculated by the U.S. Customs Service after a U.S. importer receives a foreign product. Once the item is on sale for consumers, the cost of the tariff is added to the item’s regular price. Trump has suggested 200% tariffs on Mexico and 60-100% tariffs on China, among others.

Those who work in agriculture or with food imports know the harm that could come from 200% tariffs on Mexico’s goods, but plenty of other retailers are also in a frenzy over China’s potential tariffs.

Walmart

Walmart is the most recent retailer to announce that it would likely raise its prices if tariffs were enforced. Over half of Walmart’s inventory is domestic, leaving only about a third of its products at risk of being affected, mostly by tariffs on China’s goods. Walmart CFO John David Rainey said it’s too early to determine what items would be altered.

“We never want to raise prices,” Rainey told CNBC. “Our model is everyday low prices. But there probably will be cases where prices will go up for consumers.”

Walmart is one of the many retailers working to establish a plan to diversify imports to alleviate consumers of some of the effects Chinese products could bring.

Steve Madden

Many of the products Steve Madden sells originate from China, prompting the retailer to take action to lower its amount of foreign imports.

Steve Madden CFO Edward Rosenfeld said the retailer has been planning for scenarios that would cause it to move goods out of China quickly.

“We currently source a little bit more than 70% of those goods from China,” Rosenfeld said. “Our goal over the next year is to reduce that percentage of goods that we sourced from China by approximately 40% to 45%, which means that if we’re able to achieve that and we think we have the plan to do it, that a year from today, we would be looking at just over a quarter of our business that would be subject to potential tariffs on Chinese goods.”

AutoZone

Philip Daniele, the CEO of AutoZone, put it plainly: “If we get tariffs, we will pass those tariff costs back to the consumer.”

The company is expected to begin raising its prices early, anticipating how the new policies will affect its margins. In 2019, former AutoZone CEO Bill Rhodes said, “We have a significant amount of products that come out of China,” making it clear why the company would want to get ahead of the promised tariffs.

Columbia Sportswear

Columbia has also expressed concern about how tariffs could affect the affordability of its products. According to CEO Tim Boyle, Columbia might have to raise prices to cover additional tariff charges.

In other words, the more it costs importers, the more consumers have to make up for it.

e.l.f Beauty

Tarang Amin, CEO of e.l.f Beauty, didn’t go into detail about what plans the company might be making to tackle tariffs, but he said the company may have to raise its prices if higher tariffs take effect. The company’s CFO, Mandy Fields, said about 80% of its products were sourced from China, a decrease since 2019 when nearly 100% of its products were imported from there.

“We certainly have run a number of scenarios for potential tariffs, and I think still too early to tell what level those may come in,” Fields said. “But we have a playbook, and we have a number of levers at our disposal.”

Lowe’s

Lowe’s has begun to follow in Walmart and Steve Madden’s footsteps, attempting to diversify its imports to avoid any dependence on China.

Lowe’s CFO Brandon Sink said tariffs “certainly would add product costs” but added that the “timing and details remain uncertain at this point.”

“We believe we’re well prepared to respond when and if it does happen,” he said.

Stanley Black & Decker

Stanley Black & Decker, a tool company, has 50 American manufacturing sites and more than 50 worldwide.

The company’s CEO, Donald Allen, said the manufacturing firm was considering “a variety of different scenarios” to brace for Trump’s proposed tariffs.

“Coming out of the gate, there would be price increases associated with tariffs that we put into the market,” Allen told Business Insider.

Traeger

The wood pellet grill manufacturer is currently souring about 80% of its products from China and 20% from Vietnam. While the grills are not covered by tariffs, grill accessories are.

Traeger CEO Jeremy Andrus said the company would work with manufacturers to improve efficiency and “figure out how we can share in those tariffs,” meaning Traeger could pass on the added costs to consumers.

“Pricing is always a lever, and I suspect that an environment where tariffs are broad-based and pervasive that most brands will also be leading to price to mitigate the downside of those tariffs, and we would look to do the same,” Andrus said.

Effects on other retailers

Tariffs would affect countless different companies and retailers, but value stores, such as Dollar Tree, won’t escape the effects of tariffs. Companies with business models devoted to bringing consumers value prices are posed with the difficult decision of dealing with higher costs, which could harm profits or raising their prices, which could harm their value business model.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Trump has also directly referenced John Deere. In September, he threatened 200% tariffs on John Deere products if the company moved its production and jobs to Mexico. The tariffs he suggested imposing on the 200-year-old company would wind up backfiring on farmers and consumers alike.

It’s unknown if or when Trump will enforce the tariffs he has promised for so long, but there’s no question that retailers across the nation are preparing for the worst and trying to warn consumers to do the same.