As The Daily Beast noted, while Donald Trump repeatedly and falsely claims that his tariffs will be paid by foreign countries, in reality, “they’re a tax paid by American companies, with the costs passed on to consumers.”
Target CEO Brian Cornell underscored that point on CNBC Tuesday morning. Cornell sounded generally upbeat about Target in his interview. But if you’re a shopper, the picture is a lot less rosy.
Toward the end of the interview, host Becky Quick asked about Trump’s tariffs’ effects on prices. Cornell tried to sugarcoat: “We’ve done a lot of scenario planning” in order “to understand what are the different options that we might have to face,” he said.
Bottom line: prices are going to rise sharply. Cornell said Target depends on Mexico, a Trump-tariff target, “for a significant amount” of fruits and vegetables. “We’re going to try to make sure we can do everything we can try to protect pricing but if there's a 25% tariff, those prices will go up,” he added. He predicted that will happen “over the next couple of days.”
Host Becky Quick asked, “For things like what? Strawberries, avocados? Bananas?”
“You’ve got that list right,” Cornell replied. “Those are some of the key items.”
In other words, there are plenty more price increases on food coming, too.
