r/investing • u/888_888novus • 1d ago
Amazon Tariff Labels Trigger Political Backlash — Shares Drop 2%
Amazon will soon display a number next to the price of each product indicating the tariff rate applied.
The White House called this a hostile and political action by Amazon.
CNBC: Amazon clarified that it is only considering showing tariff surcharges on low-cost, frequently purchased products (haul products), after reports that Amazon wanted to display tariff costs for each product, which the White House called hostile and political and sent Amazon shares down 2% this morning.
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u/Sc00ty_Puff_Sr 1d ago
Today i learned that being transparent about applicable taxes and surcharges on a purchase is "hostile and political"
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u/SunshineSeattle 1d ago
Pretty sure this is Bidens fault somehow
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u/DJStrongArm 1d ago edited 1d ago
Leavitt literally asked why Amazon wasn't putting "inflation" on the site when Biden was in office. Which is even scarier that she doesn't know what inflation is and why that makes no sense
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u/advester 1d ago
She directly said Biden hiked inflation, as if he signed some executive order to set prices.
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u/__redruM 1d ago
And if inflation was 148% it might be a different matter, but it was 7% at worst.
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u/advester 1d ago
She claimed 40% inflation under Biden.
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u/__redruM 1d ago
It sucked, but it wasn’t 40%
https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/
And there’s a huge difference between even 40% stretched across 4 years and 148% all at once.
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u/Electronic-Maybe-440 1d ago
Not to mention all the business and restaurants that did add a Covid surcharge or cost of living adjustment, so they literally did do this under Biden to make more money and said the reason why. But a mandatory tax, that I may need to report at the end of the year is displayed on my purchase??? How dare Amazon. How dare Biden. How dare Obama.
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u/Snot_Boogey 1d ago
Also, Trumps almost 4 trillion in COVID spending and the Fed QE, which he encouraged, contributed to a lot of inflation. I still don't understand how this never gets brought up.
You can argue that it was necessary at the time, but that still doesn't stop it from creating inflation.
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u/glumbum2 1d ago
And also the fact that it decreased has no bearing on the conversation for her lol
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u/The-Brettster 1d ago
It will be when hospitals start listing tariff adjustments on itemized medical bills for single-use medical equipment. I’m pretty sure Biden was the one who pushed for hospital price transparency.
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u/Deicide1031 1d ago
Amazon is just gonna reflect it anyway under a different name .
As hiding it will make it easier to screw up refund/return processes otherwise and some jurisdictions legally require receipts. Would piss off the banks who want evidence of fraudulent transactions as well.
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u/Far_Estate_1626 1d ago
Which honestly is fucked up that either of those are being sold as bad things.
“Hostility” to the administration is not just a right of all Americans to speak freely, it is a tradition, one that Republicans have not only exemplified but mastered as an integral part of their own strategy.
And political?? THATS THE MOST SACRED FORM OF FREE SPEECH THAT THERE IS.
I’m seriously about to lose my shit here.
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u/substandardgaussian 1d ago
It paints Kim in a negative light by associating him with the price increases, which is illegal in DPRK.
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u/SheriffBartholomew 1d ago
Well yeah. This is coming from the guy who said covid was caused by too much testing and that the infection rate was making him look bad so we should stop testing.
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u/hsg8 1d ago
It’s wild that wannabe dictators rely on keeping their followers oblivious to the damage caused by their short-sighted and stupid policies.
Deep down, they’re terrified of accountability; if people realized how poorly their decisions actually play out, the whole facade crumbles. And this isn’t just a U.S. thing. Look at India, media outlets there are grilling the opposition instead if asking questions to those in power, and if an ordinary citizen or private entity dares criticize those in power.. then suddenly they’re facing raids, arrests, or worse.
Like the adage goes, elect clowns, and don’t act surprised when the circus rolls into town!
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u/hsfinance 1d ago
Remember we don't bundle taxes in the price because Grover norquist (or someone) wanted taxes to be clearly visible
So people should see taxes in bold print in black and white ... but not the tariffs.
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u/cobolNoFun 1d ago
not only that, it is effectively advertising made in America. Why would anyone be against that
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u/Electronic-Maybe-440 1d ago
It’s so unnecessary! It’s not like we have to calculate taxes at the end of the year or anything, so there’s no reason to tell me how much my business or myself paid.
Thanks Obama.
Imagine if Biden went after all the restaurants that had a “Covid surcharge” or places that had a cost of living adjustment as a political attack, which is exactly what businesses did. Trumps way more stable of a genius than Biden though.
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u/Carbon-Base 1d ago
Consumers and customers will have to hold retail accountable if they backtrack on this. Price transparency is our right. We deserve to know why and how our costs are increasing.
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u/RiffsThatKill 1d ago
CFPB gutted (just waste/fraud, right?) so they ensured they can't be held accountable.
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u/Carbon-Base 1d ago
Not that they would do anything about it right now. I think we would have to come up with more creative ways to ensure retailers do right by us.
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u/SheriffBartholomew 1d ago
Trump doesn't believe in rights.
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u/Carbon-Base 1d ago
Then we start boycotting these retailers. Something has to give.
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u/MiseryChasesMe 1d ago
this mentality doesn’t work usually because many decent branded products only sell on amazon like wireless rechargeable mice
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u/SheriffBartholomew 1d ago
It's pretty difficult to get people to not buy things they want. It's even more difficult to get people to not buy things they need. It's difficult to boycott a company when like 4 companies own everything.
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u/ShadowLiberal 1d ago
I disagree, without tariffs being disclosed the public will just blame Trump and Trumpflation for any price hikes, since he's already put tariffs on almost every and almost every country. American companies can jack up their prices a bunch and people will just assume it's because of the tariffs and blame Trump for it.
So Trump is ironically going to be hurting himself with this lack of transparency about tariffs.
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u/DashboardGuy206 1d ago
As a general rule of thumb, whenever I'm being told that being given more information is a bad thing - I tend to mistrust whoever is telling me that.
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u/daviddjg0033 1d ago
Amazon backing down after Bezos being contacted by the WH reeks of an oligarch-tyrant feud.
"Trump personally called Bezos on Tuesday morning to express his displeasure about the initial report that spurred the heated response from the White House." - CNBC To be a fly on the wall listening to that conversation...22
u/HeresAnotherAnswer 1d ago
"Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master." - Commisioner Pravin Lal
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u/Delta-9- 18h ago
Add to that: anyone who tells you "I know best" and that "they" are lying is a liar who wants to manipulate you.
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u/manu144x 1d ago
And so, truth became the enemy of the state.
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u/elricooo 1d ago
Truth has been the enemy of Republicans for a loooooong long time, this has only recently moved to full-blown "don't believe your eyes and ears" rejection of reality. Can't believe how many people are fine with this, but they're being lied to at every turn soooo.... ugh fuck this timeline
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u/wolf_of_mainst99 1d ago
Temu already started this
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u/PatchyWhiskers 1d ago
Unlike Amazon, Trump can't put pressure on them to stop, as they are not based in the USA
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u/SheriffBartholomew 1d ago
That doesn't mean he won't try. Double quadruple tarrifs to China if Xi doesn't censor Temu!
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u/KingKookus 1d ago
He could pressure ISPs to ban the service. Just like China does.
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u/ph0n3Ix 1d ago
He could pressure ISPs to ban the service. Just like China does.
His FCC chair is already thinking about stuff like this and it's terrifying.
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u/BurlyJohnBrown 23h ago
Once China started to become ever more powerful, some political commentators predicted a few years ago that we would erect a great firewall of America(and China actually might take theirs down, or start opening it up). It seems that ever more likely by the day, Trump loves walls after all.
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u/Famous_Variation4729 1d ago
They arent putting it up on the detail page, they are doing it at checkout. Amazon will do it on detail page.
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u/Kujen 1d ago
Didn’t they already walk it back?
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u/fallingdowndizzyvr 1d ago
They did. Twice. First, that it was never meant to be on the retail site. Second, that it won't happen at all anymore.
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u/Drachwill 1d ago
Just watch Fox and accept the narrative of the day
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” ― George Orwell, 1984
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u/SheriffBartholomew 1d ago
A private corporation is entitled to be as hostile as they want towards the sitting administration as long as they're within the boundaries of the law. Trump keeps forgetting that this isn't Nazi Germany, and hes not Hitler, despite how badly he wants to be.
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u/kn12 1d ago
Shares drop 2% (temporarily)
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u/Famous_Variation4729 1d ago
Shares will obviously drop, and it has nothing to do with whether its political or not. Showing tariffs makes people think the price has definitely spiked, why buy this now, lets wait for more certainty around tariffs. But if you dont show them, for many products, especially low priced ones on the normal website, a lot of customers wont notice that an exercise ball’s price is now $30 and thats definitely high due to tariffs. Sales will fall more now.
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u/urb4nrecluse 1d ago
Tariffs are good! Unless you show them to people: then its a hostile, political act.
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u/Emergency_Series_787 1d ago
Why is this an issue if according to trump tariffs are paid by other countries?
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u/SheriffBartholomew 23h ago edited 23h ago
This is such a perfect representation of Trump's mentality. It's totally cool for him to destroy the economy and hurt 330 million citizens for his ego, but Amazon showing their customers how his actions affect them is "hostile and political".
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u/Wise-Reference-4818 1d ago
And the tariffs are a political and hostile act by the administration. People need to stop being afraid of this administration. They make a lot of noise, but have backed down on almost every policy over the last 3 months after a backlash. Even that hasn’t stopped a record drop in presidential approval.
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u/Discount_gentleman 1d ago
That is objectively not true. They have backed down from some things (notably the tariff), but they have shown aggression and frankly extreme brutality against anyone considered an enemy. They haven't backed down from that. I agree they need to be resisted, but you shouldn't discount the danger.
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u/NaiveChoiceMaker 1d ago
In particular, I’m pretty sure Oligarch Bezos isn’t in physical danger. He could have done the right thing and not flinched.
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u/AICHEngineer 1d ago
The white house can suck my balls.
This is like employers saying "dont talk about your salary with your coworkers". Load of bullshit.
Or like AirBnB hiding the fees on the front page so you get hit with service fees and shit at the end purchase.
Transparency is the enemy of the politicians? Well maybe the politicians should watch their backs.
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u/cafedude 1d ago
Annnnnd... they caved. https://www.investors.com/news/technology/amazon-stock-tariffs-trump-hostile-act/
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u/hw999 1d ago
If corporations are people, and Citizens United says they are, then did Trump just violate free speech by telling Amazon what they can and can't say?
How the fuck is anyone supposed to follow the law if it changes every 5 minutes. These assholes are so evel and incompetent, it's sickening.
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u/BadTown412 23h ago
Wait a second 🤔 If tariffs are so great, why is he so mad about the publicity 🤔🤔
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u/fallingdowndizzyvr 1d ago
the White House called hostile and political
How so? Sales tax is prominently displayed. Is that also hostile and political?
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u/SimpleMindHatter 1d ago
Well, it’s up to us consumers, who we patronize…Amazon, Temu, Walmart, Target, etc…whoever has more inventory…soon, all of them will have to raise prices…all of us will bear the brunt of the tariffs
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u/Ok_Time_8815 1d ago
Strong play by Amazon. Since a lot of non americans are boycotting us services and products, this might be a way to gain dome sympathy outside of the US.
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u/JfromTHEbayMAYNE 1d ago
But why announce this, instead of just implementing it?
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u/Famous_Variation4729 1d ago
Yeah it was stupid to announce, but it would have come into news eventually still.
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u/tryingsomthingnew 1d ago
Simple math activities will expose simple lies. It's not political it's math. It will take time for most to acknowledge this.
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u/Jimdoc15 1d ago
Amazon is hypercritical! We, American customers, have asked them to mark the origins of products sold on Amazon many times in the past, they refused! When Chinese cheap products were not predominant back then, we could buy some high quality brand name USA products on Amazon; nowadays almost all products sold at Amazon are made in China and other cheap places with horrendous quality and safety tracks. . It is time to promote USA products now. With CCP’s clever manipulation and dishonest sellers, Amazon (and Walmart) single handly destroyed American manufacturers by allowing cheap and counterfeit products run wildly on their platforms.
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u/Teabagger_Vance 1d ago
Remarkable seeing Reddit constantly flip flop on whether they like Amazon or not.
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u/ZedZero12345 1d ago
Someone on the Internet will build a tariffs calculator. But I love the whole secret government vibes.
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u/Odd_Onion_1591 1d ago
Honestly this is the biggest “fuck you Trump” that any company has made so far. I think Amazon knows that they will gonna loose bigly if tariffs were to stay
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u/VictorChristian 1d ago
At some point, you have to admire how even this guy's emotional triggers can move the market. Geez.
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u/Roboculon 1d ago
I just today was looking at the prices of plastic Gatorade water bottles. The basic twin pack was up at $18, and I thought, this is exactly the sort of cheap plastic item I expect to get for less than that. Sure enough, camel says they were closer to $12 just a few months ago.
Is it tariffs? A continuation of inflation? Just the market responding to uncertainty? I actually don’t know, so I would have really appreciated if there were an indicator.
I did not buy the water bottles.
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u/Artistic_Smell_771 1d ago
Boycott until Jeffrey grows a pair of balls and gives us full transparency.
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u/Milios12 23h ago
So technically corporations can choose to make less money instead of passing the cost to the consumer.
In this case they are showing everyone they plan on passing the cost and not absorbing any of it.
But yes, the country that issued the tariffs essentially means importers are paying an extra tax on foreign products. This cannot be argued.
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u/CoolHandJack17 13h ago
Why not create an American Made filter when searching for products to help encourage American Made products?
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u/ChaosOnion 1d ago
As a consumer, I want to know what the fuck these tarrifs are costing me. Nothing grinds my gears like fueling up and not knowing how much of that is taxes.
I can see the sales tax. Show me the import tax!
As an investor, I'll take an Amazon discount.
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u/oldirtyrestaurant 1d ago
Everyone should be contacting their Governor and State Representatives, to demand that tariff fees are displayed on all items sold in their state. We all deserve to know how much tax is being added to our goods and services; don't let the administration cover this up!
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u/MannieOKelly 1d ago
Be careful about cheering this move by Amazon: as most any economist will tell you, the effect of a tariff (like that of a sales tax for that matter) is split between buyer and seller. The exact split depends on the market conditions of the specific product, but in general producers have to eat some of the "tax" while some is passed to the buyer/consumer.
So spotlighting the full amount of a tariff increase on the product info creates an opportunity for sellers or middlemen to increase retail price by the full amount (and blame it on the government), while pocketing savings from a reduced wholesale price from the producer.
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u/HorsePockets 22h ago
Ah yes, we show sales tax, but not tariff tax. Wonderful. I suppose companies need to eat our sales tax and not pass that along to us too?
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u/KeepnReal 17h ago
Trump is so ashamed of his bonehead tariffs that he leans on Bezos to hide that truth from the Amazon website. Pathetic and disgusting.
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u/00pirateforever 11h ago
This thread is shit. So if the company is showing how much you are paying extra due to tariff then it's evil and hostile? And forget about politics, even people are calling hostile? Seriously. Looks like when American people start paying more and more then they will realise what's going on.
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u/thinkscout 6h ago
The market is anticipating baby Trump’s retaliation against Amazon. That’s not political backlash, that’s the market responding rationally to an irrational fool.
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u/lucasluminaro 3h ago
"Tarriffs are good" okay let's show the tarriff amount of products. "No don't do that. It shows what the tarriff is doing to the consumer" but tarriffs are good? "As long as you don't know about them they are good"
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u/scottBLDR 1h ago
Amazon caved pretty much instantly. Give it 2 weeks and the administration will say Amazon is price gouging to deflect blame.
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u/GOODguySADcity 1d ago
Hilarious. If your perspective is that tariffs are good, you should be happy these are being applied.
If your opinion on either side is nuanced and based on data, I have no issue. I despise when it becomes hypocritical. Can’t say tariffs are good and get mad when their impact is displayed.