new York
Cnn
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You are about to feel the effects of President Donald Trump’s business war each time you shop.
In a few weeks, infinite varieties, colors, sizes and flavors will be replaced by smaller selections, fewer options and a limited choice. It will represent a brutal change compared to what consumers were used to stores and online.
While free trade has flourished in the past five decades, the number of goods imported into the shelves has tripled between 1972 and 2001, according to research, which is equivalent to a 2.6% increase in GDP. The grocery stores now store around 30,000 different items, Walmart sells 120,000 goods in its superstores and Amazon’s online catalog contains millions of products.
But Trump has implemented a universal price of 10% on almost all products entering the United States – with higher rates for certain goods – and 145% of prices on China, essentially a commercial embargo on the second world economy. This could limit the choices for shoes, bags, toys and many other products.
“For me, it will be one of the greatest victims of the prices. You will see much less variety than you would have done,” said Jason Miller, professor in management of the supply chain at Michigan State University.
Already, companies are made with difficult decisions on the products they can still offer under steep prices, eliminating articles that are too expensive to produce or that buyers will abandon price increases. Companies cancel products manufactured in China and buy only their best -selling items from manufacturers from other countries where they can negotiate lower prices. They also suspend the product launches and the new innovations they have spent years preparing.
Many companies compare the ravages of Trump’s prices on supply chains with factory closings during the pandemic. But consumers should not expect similar levels of empty store shelves or a race on hygienic paper, said Miller.
“Rather than empty shelves, there will be much less choice in certain product categories,” he said.
For new mothers, the prices mean that the best -selling version of Sarah Wells of her backpacks will only be sold in black or another color, Like Brown or Gray, once short of inventory.
“We cannot offer four other colors at the moment,” said Wells, the founder of an eponymous brand of backpacks, bins and other breastfeeding products.
Wells interrupted order products in China last month Due to the 145%tariffs. She found a manufacturer in Cambodia,, But has intentionally limited his first inventory order to bags with the highest demand and the beneficiary margins.
“We cannot justify the risk of a complete reorganization of the catalog,” she said.
Wells expects to be exhausted from some of his best sellers by July. Some items may not come back until next year, if applicable.
On the Ash website, a high -end female shoe brand, the boots have completely disappeared and there are only a few ballets left.
“I have never seen our page look like this,” said Marina Rosin Levine, CEO of Highline United, who owns Ash and Isaac Mizrahi and produces private brand shoes.
Ash withdrew the site’s boots to hold them for the fall, not knowing if there will be enough inventory during the season, she said. It has also reduced the products of products from China and reduces its controls of its manufacturers in Vietnam.
“Right now, a woman like me would be delighted to have falls on the reduction,” said Rosin Levine. “It would be the ideal time to conclude an agreement. You will see less and less. ”
Major brands cutting the variety
The big brands are also reduced.
Hasbro, the owner of Nerf, Play-Doh and other toys and games, reduces certain articles that will not be profitable with 145% prices on China, said Gina Goetter, head of Hasbro Finance, during a call for results in April.
According to the Toy Toy Association, around 80% of toys sold in the United States are made in China.
In American stores, Hasbro plans to promote older and “proven” toys produced in India on China products. Chinese -produced toys include items with electronics, high -end decorations and foam materials, said the company.
Newell Brands, the manufacturer of Graco, Baby Jogger and other brands of consumer goods, will also reduce the variety of baby equipment that it sells due to prices on China. In the United States, around 97% of babies strollers and 87% of children’s car seats come from China, the company said.
“We encouraged our business leaders and our brand leaders to adopt another round,” Newell CEO, Newell CEO last week during a call for results last week. In recent years, the company has reduced its variety of products by 100,000 items to less than 20,000 to reduce costs and eliminate double products.
Dollar Dollar Tree and five below, the clothing brand Vinces Vince and Sarants Brands – the manufacturer of Mead, fifty -star laptops and shoulder staplers – have also reported that they interrupt certain items due to prices.
“There will certainly be a little reduction (product),” said the chief of Vince Finance Yuji Okumura last week with analysts. “There are just things that will not make sense” to import such high levels.
The price repercussions will not only limit the choice of consumers – it will also make innovation and create winners and losers in the retail industry, according to businesses and researchers.
The prices mark the end of the company’s strategy to offer all things to all customers, said Shawn Nelson, CEO of the Lovesac furniture retailer. Companies in better position to succeed in this new era of protectionism will be more specialized and will have thinner products catalogs.
“The more the assortment and the catalog of a company are wide, the more likely it is to cancel the product ranges,” said Nelson.
Consumers can see less new products occur, if they arrive.
“We wanted to create other small creative devices, and right now, we are going to put these ideas,” said Bobby Djavaheri, president of Yedi Houseware, cuisine and small household appliances, told CNN.
Sarah Wells has also stopped creating new bags of bags and styles, a retirement from her commercial mission.
“It was a large part of what I founded my business-giving mothers choices on the bags and where to take them,” she said. “There is nothing new in the hopper right now.”
