New England businesses weighing adding surcharges due to tariffs. How that can affect you.
Shoppers in New England are already seeing the impact of new tariffs and some retailers are even letting customers know about extra costs, or surcharges before they check out.
At CPR Cell Phone Repair in southern New Hampshire, just about everything that store owner Chad Johansen needs is made in China.
Materials from China doubling in price
"Screen repairs, battery replacements, camera replacements," Johansen told WBZ-TV. "Almost doubling in price on these parts for us. Unfortunately, that then gets handed down in our pricing."
Tariffs on these items from China when they enter the U.S. – at 145%.
"That's the tough part, when things are almost changing hourly, we're not entirely sure what tomorrow's going to look like," Johansen said.
What is a surcharge?
Some companies have added a tariff surcharge at checkout. WBZ-TV reporter Tiffany Chan got an alert on an online order telling her to pay a 10% fee on the overall cost of the purchase or take the items out of the cart.
"The consumer pays in the end, regardless of whether the tax is charged directly to the consumer or instead charged to the seller of the good," Boston College economics professor Peter Ireland said. "It's hard enough for the businesses themselves to do that calculation, let alone a consumer or an outside analyst."
How can consumers protect themselves
So how can you, the consumer, protect yourself?
"Ultimately, we're going to have to rely on the workings of a competitive market. Where if some firms mark their prices up by too much, others will find it advantageous to undercut to the advantage of the consumer," said Ireland.
Johansen said it's incredibly hard to plan long term when the tariffs are changing daily. While he hasn't raised prices just yet – it's not off the table.
"We're concerned that we're not going to have the stock on hand or the stock here in the states to repair those devices," said Johansen.
