summary:
Many people living in the United States have a certain premonition that the real difficulties will come in 1-2 months. At that time, large supermarkets will raise prices, and even the shelves will be empty.
Production of Phoenix.com Technology
Author｜Liu Juan
Editor｜Dong Yuqing
"Native Americans with Mazards, Calm Chinese"
The storage room in the American home of dentist Cui Lu is very crowded at this moment. There are two unopened moppies, two new phones, and countless brand new power banks. "Buy all the furniture and appliances you can buy or not at home."
All of these things were purchased before Trump took office.
"You may not believe it. Many people around have purchased some furniture and appliances in advance, and have replaced the necessary daily necessities."
As a Chinese dentist who has lived in the United States for many years, Cui Lu is a little calm at this moment. She said that based on her understanding of Trump's previous term, almost everyone around her felt that this president, who was in a turbulent mood, would make money on tariffs after he came to power, and everyone made a wave of consumption in advance in a tacit understanding.
However, when it comes to the impact of tariffs on the daily lives of the American people, Cui Lu is still a little worried.
"Actually, I am not very sensitive to prices, but I can't help but worry about the possible price increase in the commodity prices in the future."
Many Americans have recently woken up and found that major e-commerce platforms have quietly set off a wave of price increases.
For goods placed in the shopping cart, the general price of more than ten dollars has increased to more than twenty dollars, and even more, the tariffs and fees are higher than the value of the goods themselves.
Data from third-party analysis agencies show that since April 9, the average increase of nearly 1,000 products on Amazon in the United States has been nearly 30%.
Scott Needham, founder of the e-commerce analysis company SmartScout, sighed in an interview with the media: "This is the first time I have seen such a collective price increase." According to Nidham, one-quarter of the sellers who have raised their prices come from China.
Take Anker, one of the big sellers on Amazon, as an example. Its power bank brand was also popular by Trump in August last year. According to Phoenix Technology, about one-fifth of the products sold in the United States have raised prices, and one of the portable power banks has risen from $110 to $135.
According to Phoenix Technology's observation, under the pressure of tariffs, giving up some non-essentials is a practical and feasible consumption choice, but daily necessities are always difficult to escape.
Under the topic of "Tariff for International Students" in Xiaohongshu, some international students have targeted their stockings to target short-term necessities such as bread, beverages and instant noodles.
But some people also chose not to participate in stocking up. An international student in the United States said on social media platforms, "No need to stock up. Just this President's habits have changed too quickly."
Xiaohongshu blogger "lazy Tu doesn't want to go to work" has settled in the United States for eight years. She told Phoenix.com that there is no feeling that the price of the product has increased. After the tariffs were imposed, I did not stock up on a large amount of goods, but I just bought two more portions of noodles and fans I like to eat. Some people choose to make a bad product (not stocking up any items), some people just stocked up a few packs of instant vermicelli and drinks, and some people just bought one more when the product was discounted.
"Let the bullets fly for a while." They said so.
"The real storm is still approaching"
However, the current tranquility may just be brewing a bigger storm.
Many people living in the United States have a certain premonition that real difficulties may come in 1-2 months.
This is because the impact of tariffs will have a certain lag. Cui Lu told Phoenix Technology during the exchange that in two months, there may be a lot of people crying on TikTok. If we persist for a few more months, Maga (pronunciation is the same as MAGA, here refers to Trump's "supporters") will know that it is painful, but it is not painful yet.
In addition, Phoenix.com Technology found that some foreign trade practitioners said that some American manufacturers still have inventory now and the price impact is not obvious yet.
Some people also choose to self-destruct in advance.
For example, according to the US Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC) report on the 29th, some American media reported that online retail giant Amazon plans to add marks on the product price list to show consumers how much the price increase of each product caused by the US tariffs.
Perhaps because of fear of stinging American consumers, Trump himself called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and put pressure on the latter to give up doing so. Within hours after the call, Amazon had to publicly downplay the impact of labeling tariff costs, and later even announced that the plan had been completely cancelled.
But this is just a temporary delaying strategy.
Large American retailers have settled the accounts for this part of the losses. For example, Pepsi lowered its financial expectations for 2025, believing that the company's profits may stagnate this year. Pepsi sales fell 1.8% in the first quarter, and the company blamed it on uncertainty caused by tariffs and the economy.
Nestlé also announced that amid the surge in coffee and cocoa costs caused by tariffs, the company has to raise the prices of Nestlé Coffee and Kitako Chocolate Bars.
Large companies can naturally bear the pain and withstand this decline. But a large number of small and medium-sized American companies can only admit that they are unlucky and even wait for bankruptcy.
"Tariffs cannot always be so high, too many people can't stand it." said an Amazon merchant headquartered in Illinois, USA.
At the consumer level, it will also have a huge impact. "The CEOs of these large retailers told him straightforwardly that the prices of (merchandise) have not risen yet, but they will soon rise, and not just food," Axios News reported a few days ago. "He was told that the shelves will become empty."
Cui Lu also recently heard that "it seems that the package can't be in." This means that the express mailing road is blocked. In the face of this upcoming real storm, Cui Lu has already figured out a perfect solution - just take her children back to China during the summer vacation, "and buy all the clothes and learning equipment for the child for the year."
Even earlier than Cui Lu's action were tourists who could not wait to fly to China for tourism.
Recently, the Ministry of Commerce and six other departments have launched another combination of measures, with 8 measures in three aspects to improve the convenience of overseas tourists shopping in China. For example, the starting point of departure tax refund will be reduced from 500 yuan to 200 yuan, the cash tax refund limit will be increased from 10,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan, and the tax refund shop will be added in places where overseas tourists gather, and the "buy now and refund" service measures will be promoted nationwide, so that passengers can receive tax refunds at the shopping site.
A shopping mall operation manager said that this year foreign tourists tend to go from "China travel" to "China shopping".
Cui Lu also told Phoenix Technology, "It's the first time I feel like I can live like this."
In the streets and supermarkets in the United States, more cruel truths have not been revealed: the terminal prices that have not been updated, the real price avalanche is still hidden in a barcode that has not been updated. By then, it will be the moment when more psychological fluctuations occur, and I am afraid it will no longer be as simple as living.
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