CHRISTINE: I’m Christine Cyr Clisset.
CAIRA: I’m Caira Blackwell.
ROSIE: I’m Rosie Guerin, and you’re listening to The Wirecutter Show.
CHRISTINE: This episode of The Wirecutter Show is called “Care of Shopping Confused.”
ROSIE: Hi, it’s Rosie, and today we’re doing a quick bonus episode on the news story dominating the headlines, tariffs. Over the last few months we’ve seen tariffs imposed on Mexico and Canada on certain products like cars. President Trump has also imposed a 10% tariff on imports from all countries. Hours after a raft of new even higher tariffs went into effect on Wednesday, April 9th, the administration changed course and paused them for 90 days. So as of this recording, only one of those tariffs remains in effect, a 145% tariff on China. But even that has changed in the last 24 hours. Those policies have left many Americans wondering how product prices will be affected stateside and what it will mean for us as individuals.
CHRISTINE: There’s a lot of uncertainty for companies that make products, for customers who buy products, and even for our journalists at Wirecutter who review products. And the news is changing quickly and unpredictably. So we thought, what a better moment, to host Caitlin McGarry, Senior editor, covering tech here at wirecutter, who has done some excellent reporting on how to approach buying everyday goods and bigger ticket items right now. based on what we know with regards to these tariffs.
CAIRA: That’s right, Christine and I are gonna talk with Caitlin about what’s likely going to change, what you can do to prepare, and what you really shouldn’t do. Here’s a hint, no panic purchasing. We’re gonna take a quick break, and then we’ll be here with Caitlin on the other side. Be right back.
CHRISTINE: Welcome, Caitlin, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Caitlin, the new tariffs that President Trump is putting into effect have really dominated the news over the last few weeks. And it’s admittedly really difficult to decipher what’s actually happening when and what is really at stake. It doesn’t help that the Trump administration has announced, implemented, and then paused or changed various tariffs over the past weeks. So Caitlin, I’m hoping you can tell us what is actually being taxed at this point.
CAITLIN: Yeah, it’s been a confusing few weeks to be sure. So right now, there’s a baseline 10% tariff on every country. So imports coming in to America from those countries will be taxed at 10%. And then the other higher tariffs that went into effect on Wednesday have been paused, but there’s still the really high tariff on goods coming into America from China. So those tariffs apply to nearly all goods imported from those countries with a few exceptions like semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, crude oil, things like that.
CHRISTINE: And just to clarify, there are still these higher taxes on some things from Canada and Mexico, right?
CAITLIN: Okay, yeah. There were tariffs that were implemented over the last couple months on Canada, Mexico, and on things like cars, and those are still in effect.
CHRISTINE: And how much should people expect prices to go up? For instance, will all iPhones made in China go up by 145%?
CAITLIN: I’m sure we’ve all seen the headlines about like, your iPhone will cost $3,000. And that obviously won’t happen because I think Apple still wants to sell iPhones. So some of the bigger companies like Apple have high profit margins, so they can absorb some of that cost more easily without passing the full thing on to consumers. But companies who don’t make a lot of money on their products, things like small businesses, they probably will have to pass on most of that to buyers. We probably won’t see increases right away. We’ll see prices go up with new product launches. When it comes to clothing, those prices will go up because clothing is seasonal. So when new stuff starts coming out, it’ll just cost more. And then same deal for consumer electronics. So when a new product comes out, it will just cost more than the previous version did.
CAIRA: Shopping seasonally like you want the new drop of the Nike use or whatever that’s going to cost you more, but if you need staples you can expect those to—
CAITLIN:—much stay the same for a little while? It depends on where the staples are made. Because now the tariff is just on China, that really high tariff, is just in China. All goods imported from China will cost more. So it depends. If your clothing is made in China, yes, it will cost more. A lot of shoe factories in particular are based in Southeast Asia, so China, Vietnam, etc. A LOT of consumer electronics are made in china, like there’s just no other place to make them right now, so. basically anything tech related will cost more.
CHRISTINE: And a lot of materials and parts are made in China and shipped to the United States to be made into other products, right? So those products will probably see an increase as well.
CAITLIN: Yeah, so it affects materials as well as like finished.
CHRISTINE: And when should we really expect to see the prices rise? You said, you know, new product launches, but what about things that are sort of like more everyday products? Do you think it’ll be like kind of a slow creep or will we see spikes?
CAITLIN: I would expect a slow creep. Most companies have actually already been planning for tariffs because they’ve been talked about for you know a few months now so some of the experts I talked to said that companies have kind of been slowly raising prices over the last few months so I think we’re just going to see like a slow creep except for with those new products launching those will be like a pretty immediate spike.
CAIRA: So this all sounds pretty scary and uncertain, and I can imagine people might get the urge to go out and just panic buy everything before prices shoot up, but how do you suggest people really think about this from a spending standpoint?
CAITLIN: Well, it’s Wirecutter’s stance that you should never run out and panic buy anything, and most things won’t see an instant price increase. Like we were talking about, you know, there will be seasonal products and like brand new products. Those will probably see the price increases first, and everything else will be a little bit different more gradual.
CHRISTINE: So Caitlin, what are the products you’d suggest people consider buying now before prices go up?
CAITLIN: Well, first… buy something if you really, really need to, like something is broken and you have to replace it or tech device that just like won’t turn on anymore. That’s when you should think about replacing right now. But our advice is the same as it always is if you have to buy it new, get the highest quality product that you can afford so that it will last longer. As I was saying consumer electronics, that’s a category that’s almost certainly going to increase because so much of it is made in China. So if you need a new laptop or a new phone, you should probably think about buying it sooner rather than later. And anything else made in China will also go up in price. So what are some of the products where we can take a wait and see approach then? Pretty much anything that’s not made in china. Oh, so nothing? I know, you’d be surprised how much stuff is imported from China, like so much furniture and textiles, it really runs the gamut. If you don’t need to replace something right away, I would strongly recommend waiting for deals. So we always see discounts on Memorial Day, Prime Day, Black Friday, things like that. And we’re also always advocates for buying refurbished or used better for the environment. You can often find better prices. I personally love Facebook Marketplace and my local buy nothing group. So you can really find ways to shop that will lessen the impact of tariffs on you.
CAIRA: We are fans of buying refurbished and we love Facebook Marketplace, but I had a question just about deals and won’t the tariffs be impacting the amount of deals that we see on these big deal days like Prime Day or Black Friday?
CAITLIN: I spoke with an analyst who told me that retailers just might be more hesitant to offer the kinds of discounts we’ve seen before or if the prices have gone up so much the discounts you’ll see might be the same like percentage wise but like obviously won’t be as cheap as you could get them like last year.
CHRISTINE: This is all really great advice, but we also wanna be clear that the news is gonna change and it’s going to probably continue shifting, right?
CAITLIN: Yes, absolutely. So we’re closely tracking the changing retail landscape as tariffs are implemented, as they’re adjusted, as they are paused. And we’re keeping track of prices too over the next few weeks and months. So if you have questions or you need help navigating like this really thorny product landscape right now, I definitely recommend emailing us or reaching out on social media and we can help.
CAIRA: Caitlin McGarry, senior editor on the tech team. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you. If you want to read more about Wirecutter’s coverage on tariff-affected products, or if you want keep up with the changing landscape, go to nytimes.com slash wirecutter. Or you can find a link in the show notes. The Times newsroom, as well as our colleagues at Hardfork and at The Daily have excellent coverage as well. That’s it for us. Thank you so much for listening. The Wirecutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Garan and produced by Abigail Keele. Engineering support from Maddie Mazziello and Nick Pittman. Original music by Dan Powell, Marian Lozano, Alicia Buitoupe and Diane Wong. Wirecutters deputy publisher is Cliff Levy. Ben Fruman is Wirecutter’s editor-in-chief. I’m Caira Blackwell.
CHRISTINE: I’m Christine Cyr Clisset.
ROSIE: and I’m Rosie Guerin.
CAIRA: Thanks for listening.
