Why is it so expensive?
Because you’ll pay it.
It’s covid inflation all over again! Even things that weren’t affected by supply chain disruptions went up because greed! Yay greed!
Yep exactly the same, they jacked up prices during the pandemic due to supply chain problems, then they kept the prices high after the problems went away. Then the trumptards blamed Biden for inflation and we got president orange hitler and the nazi takeover.
Insert Padame and Anakin meme here:
“So you’re going to blame Trump for this inflation, right?”
“Right!?”
…I’m so sure they’ll be consistent in their behavior… Yup… Totally…
The 10th Rule of Acquisition is, “Greed is eternal”
Greed will save us all!
Everything is connected nowadays.
Yes your raisin bran cereal might not have tarriffs directly, but the equipment used to make it, harvest the ingredients, package it, and ship it are all made of steel. If steel goes up in price your raisin bran goes up in price.
Also, most companies don’t mind a good excuse to raise all prices, see what grocery stores did with covid
No matter what kind of business you run, if you haven’t already raised your prices, you’re taking a huge risk.
We have no idea what’s going to happen with the tariffs, what products will eventually increase 10 to 100+%, how the loss of the migrant workforce will impact food costs, how the ongoing war in Ukraine will impact fuel and crop costs, or how any of the other idiotic decisions this administration is making will impact every corner of every industry.
I mean, I’ve personally been stocking up on supplies since November 2024. The only thing we know for sure is that this guy is currently running the country exactly how people in the 20th century feared “a woman” would run the country - emotionally and erratically with zero assurances.
I would be terrified if I were a business owner.
Small businesses, maybe. Large corporations already have large enough profit margins, they’re just squirreling them away in personal accounts instead of proper rainy day funds.
The Great Depression 2 will unfortunately outlast any stockpile one can reasonably make. Still smart to stock up on essentials, but they will only get you so far.
Invest in sustainability where you can, everyone. Build up your communities and connections. Invest in solar, gardens, composting, tools… anything that will help keep costs down over time.
They would never!
How preposterous! Greed is a thing of the past!
My company CEO said we are family. So clearly, that means he’s gonna take care of us. He said so.
After the first Trump administration raised tariffs on washing machines, the price of dryers — unaffected by tariffs — also went up, as companies took advantage of the moment.
Duh. Line MUST GO UP.
All too expected.
This is not how supply and demand works. Businesses can’t just arbitrarily raise prices unless consumers are willing to pay them. Do you think they were artificially keeping prices low until now? Obviously not. They are always trying to charge as much as they can, and consumers are always trying to pay as little as they can. The final sale price is whatever both parties think is fair.
Of course there are exceptions such as when businesses engage in price fixing or achieve monopolies, but that’s not what’s going on here. What’s happening is that everything in the economy is connected. Even goods that aren’t directly tariffed are still affected by tariffs. If you planned to buy a new washing machine, but now they’re too expensive because of a tarrif, then maybe you buy a microwave instead. If a lot of people do this, then the increased demand for microwaves will cause their price to go up.
Even goods that aren’t directly tariffed are still affected by tariffs. If you planned to buy a new washing machine, but now they’re too expensive because of a tarrif, then maybe you buy a microwave instead.
What? If I need a new washing machine, I’m either buying a new washing machine or doing laundry in the bathtub. I’m not going to decide to buy a second microwave for clothes when the microwave i already have is perfectly functional…for food.
The type of market you’re describing, where the buyer and the seller both have a say in determining prices, only happens in small, locally focused markets. The type of market that’s being undercut and eventually replaced outright by Wal-Mart and other big box corporate stores (with our tax dollars,by the way!) that absolutely don’t give a fuck what the buyer wants to pay, because they have enough people that are complacent, desperate, fatigued, or out-of-touch enough to pay whatever they charge. If they can point to something tangible as an external cause of higher prices, they’ll absolutely do it. We saw it happen with COVID, wage increases, tax proposals, and all sorts of other shit.
A “free market” that doesn’t include freedom for the consumer isn’t a free market at all.
Maybe my example wasn’t clear; I don’t mean that you would buy a microwave if you already have one, I mean that you will spend your money on something else if you can’t afford the washing machine. Some goods are tightly correlated with each other such that if the price of one goes up (e.g. due to tariff), the price of the other will go up as well because it’s a partial alternative.
The type of market you’re describing…only happens in small, locally focused markets
This is not true; supply and demand applies in any open market, with the exception of monopolies and collusion which I already pointed out. Yes, WalMart/Home Depot/etc engage in anti-competitive business practices, but they still can’t arbitrarily charge whatever they want, which is what it sounds like the Axios article is saying. If they could, then why did they wait for the looming threat of tariffs to raise their prices? Why haven’t they been charging exorbitant prices all along?
If I need an air conditioner, I’m going to buy an air conditioner because I need one, whether it’s $100 or $300. If I need a new exhaust to get my car to pass inspection, I literally need to pay whatever it costs unless it’s so expensive that it would be cheaper to buy a new car (which, considering that all cars have exhaust, is unlikely).
This model of economics is complete fiction when it comes to essentials. If you’re talking about optional purchases? Yeah, maybe. But when you’re talking about things people actually need? That’s not how it works.
Otherwise we’d all have stopped paying exorbitant rents a decade ago. But we can’t, because people need homes.
Competition may prevent companies from charging completely arbitrary amounts for everything, but if the only control is being somewhat close to what other companies charge that means the price is going to gradually rise. In a world where corporations are expected to increase their profits every quarter, the entire market is incentivized to continually hike their prices with the cooperation of the rest of the market. They all just have to decide they want more money. It’s a death spiral.
This is exactly how supply and demand works.
Tell me you’ve never had to Jerry rig something because you got priced out of that market without telling me.
The final sales price for something from a mega corporation is whatever the mega corporation wants you to pay. If they only sell washing machines for 1200 dollars, but I won’t buy a washing machine for that, then I just don’t get a washing machine. Have you never been to a store in America? You don’t haggle over the price of an appliance with the cashier at Walmart or Home Depot. And some dumb fuck will be right behind you ready to take out a small loan to pay for his new washing machine. So the corporation doesn’t really see the loss in revenue.
You don’t directly haggle with retailers, but if $1200 is more than you want to spend, then you simply don’t buy the washing machine, and you look for an alternative like jerry rigging the one you already own, using the laundromat, or looking for a better deal from another seller. Not buying something is effectively haggling.
When have washing machine prices ever gone down due to this? Not sales, the ticket price.
Washing machine prices have been going down since at least 1977, which is as far back as I can find data while I’m on mobile. From the US bureau of labor statistics you can see that laundry equipment priced at $500 in 1977 is now priced at $768. And, due to inflation, $500 in 1977 has the same buying power as $2647 today. In other words, washing machines have gone down in price about 70% in the last 50 years.
The real value of washing machine prices has gone down as the value of the dollar has gone down. That’s not the same thing as the ticket price going up.
You’re talking about different things in the economy going up at different rates or stagnating. That’s a $268 increase over a period of time in which the value of the $268 that the price went up has plummeted. So, yes, a washing machine costs less in buying power than it did 50 years ago, but it doesn’t actually cost less numerically, in terms of dollar amount.
There certainly are some products that are more responsive to the economy in the short-term, such as fuel, but there’s a pretty big difference between a price holding steady while the economy changes around it to devalue that price and goods that actually respond to market conditions by decreasing the numerical dollar amount charged for them.
As far as washing machines specifically, I see washing machines from Best Buy and Walmart marked somewhere between $600 and $2000, and I would frankly be quite surprised if the average $700 washing machine is anywhere near as durable as a $500 washing machine from the 70s. Most products today, in general, are made to be cheap and disposable rather than to be well constructed for long-term use.
I have a few things from my grandparents’ house when they passed that have been around since at least the 70s and are in extremely good condition that I feel pretty confident saying a modern equivalent of wouldn’t last nearly as long. Like, I have one of my grandfather’s hammers that’s older than I am with a sturdy wooden handle and a solid head that will probably still be perfectly useful when it’s twice as old as it is now. I’ve got a couple of his lock boxes as well that are in absolutely amazing condition. If I bought a hammer today from Walmart, chances are it’s going to come with a rubberized plastic grip that’s going to start wearing down in the next 10 or 20 years. Appliances made in the 70s were also designed to be repaired rather than replaced, whereas today there are only a handful of places that are even willing to do repairs. I had an AC that needed cleaning some routine maintenance and I literally ended up just buying a new one because there was nowhere that was willing to do that work anymore.
A $500 washing machine from the 70s may well still be in operation today. A $700 washing machine today? Good luck getting it to last 20 years let alone 50.
