at least from things shipped from overseas.

Canada and Mexico....we'll see prices rising fast.

Maybe we will have plenty of pigs to eat?

Having worked as a supervisor in a US meat packing plant for over 3 years, the LAST thing I want to eat is pork from China.

And work its way across the country.

This could turn into a crisis fairly quickly, in my opinion.

who will be furloughed-- dock workers, truckers, railway and other logistics. Same report said first thing to go will be clothing and seasonal goods that arrive more or less real time. Other things that are non seasonal and may have longer term inventory will last as long as they last. Could affect things like construction eventually as so many hand power tools are made overseas. Bad thing is Trump will carry the lie well past its expiration date before completely back tracking while declaring victory but by then the disruption will be so bad it will take months or longer to get things flowing again and shortages will lead to price gouging and systemic inflation. Not that I think that Trump or anyone in his sphere can look ahead and figure this out.

What are you out of what should I buy now?

Do you have enough shelf stable food and household supplies to last for a few weeks?

In general, there should be enough domestic food supplies to not worry about too many shortages.

But humans are unpredictable as hell. If there are a few empty shelves here and there, folks may not panic. But if the media spins things up, then shelves could empty for no good reason.

A run on toilet paper again? Could happen. Apparently the wood pulp for manufacturing TP gets imported from Canada. Of greater concern would be replacement parts for the manufacturing of goods. Guessing a lot of those parts come from China.

Got kids? Back to school items may be tough to get. Clothing may get more expensive, or just less available. Toys for Christmas may be a bit harder to find.

I don’t want to fight folks for the last whatever on the shelf, so I’ve stocked up on things I use, whether it’s food or household goods.

Your list is likely vastly different than mine.

"By Memorial Day"
"This summer"
"by the time we are doing our Back to School shopping" (i.e. beginning late July)

I'm curious too. With the estimates varying so widely, I don't have a guess of my own. It may depend on what we're talking about. Grocery shopping might be first, then the clothing/shoes/backpacks--relating to fabrics--could be further down the line.

I'm watching just a handful of retailers (a couple of athletic shoe companies and one clothing retailer) who are heavily dependent on China, Viet Nam and Japan--so far the prices have not gone up.

I've heard that books are excluded from tariffs, but I'm watching a book publisher too just because I'm curious, and some of this company's books are printed in China, while others are printed in European countries like Italy and (maybe) Norway or Finland.

LOL

Scarcity of the staples and shelves loaded with specialty items nobody can afford.

If the media did their jobs properly maybe we would know.

I bought some paper towels on sale in bulk and the price had gone up $5 or so, so with the coupon they were the same as the already inflated covid prices. I will get another one. Then I have some to last for a while. Garbage bags had gone up too and something else. I will get more on sale. I have cut back a lot on what we use. I had better get extra toilet paper too even though it is not on sale. That had already gone up before all the tariff crap.

I have pretty strict dietary requirements so I don't know how to stock up on some things and fresh things will not keep, but I had better get the ones which may go up which last a while I guess.

if pricey. Haven't checked info on nutritional value versus fresh but have been using several for a while since stores around here have taken to selling produce in batches too large for me to finish before they spoil.

Luckily there's a donation cupboard nearby for when I get things fresh that I know will spoil before I finish them.

I have to look into freeze dried fruits. I don't know if they have them here. They often add a lot of sugar into fruits that are dried here which I can't eat too much of and they're already naturally sweet and low carb etc. so they don't need sugar added. I do get some dried apricots which have no sugar added. But I usually prefer the fresh berries like blueberries strawberries, and fruits like cherries etc. I can't wait until the fresh cherries come again, they are delicious and they have a lot of melatonin which seems to help me sleep too. So they are great for low blood sugar when I sleep.

I like the crunchy treat they add to my yogurt but you can also reconstitute them with water.

Some companies sell mixed-vegetable varieties recommended for soups and stews. Haven't tried them.

My only recommendation is that if you get the huge size 10 cans, separate out smaller batches into airtight containers. Found that even if you never reach in with a wet hand or spoon, the stuff towards the bottom gets moist and that seemed unhealthy to me. Apparently just the moisture from the air does it.

Hope you find some you like.

At least if the fresh stuff is unavailable I could have these.

Because the tariffs were telegraphed in advance and implemented haphazardly, some retailers were able to place orders and stock up on some items.

While shortages may occur in the US, China is still exporting to countries that aren’t levying 245% tariffs, such as Canada and Mexico. It will be interesting to see if “retail tourism” to those countries increases in the coming months.

and other best-selling (new) electronics on Amazon and smaller retailers.

I think costs have already been factored in/exploited on some items. If you use HONEY, you can see prices over the past 30, 60, 90, and 120 days. WOWSER... Anything that normally sells well but might involve or be impacted by tariffs is going up, up, up.

Sending metta

A lot of big companies stocked up in anticipation of a short trade war. Many companies have supplies until the Christmas shipping comes in.

Smaller companies that cannot hold stock . . . Right about now. My friends company basically weighing buying supplies from China or finding a cheaper vendor as we speak. The trade war is going to be brutal for them.

Practically their entire business model relies on cheap Asian goods with small warehouses to cut costs.

are tariffs on or not ?

I remember when the Covid shutdown happened and everybody cleared off the shelves at the store so

I'm making a Costco run for the things that people will stock up when the news of empty shelves hits the news.

Paper towels, toilet paper, tissue and coffee

Whether their made in China or not these are the things people will freak out about (maybe not the coffee)

Also, today I'm heading down to the beach, near Huntington Beach for a walk. There are usually 6-10 cargo ships waiting to enter the port of Long Beach but lately I have only seen 2-3 and they appear to be empty.

I'll put up a photo later so you can all see what it looks like.

It has started...

$5 Dollar Tree will be empty. Will cruise the stores this week.

Now other countries are saying fuck you US we will go elsewhere you are out but the tariffs are pulled back, correct?

That’s the one thing we still produce the vast majority of domestically. For example only around 1% of our overall food supply comes from China and it’s very specific stuff like farm raised shrimp (gross), apple juice, garlic.

In theory tariffs could cause an abundance of food here in the U.S. since we export so much and cause prices to fall in the short term, which then could cause problems longer term.

Ummmm

USMCA compliant fruits and vegetables are exempt from the potential 25% tariff on Mexican goods.

China was specifically cited in the post I was responding to, their tariffs could be many times higher than that but we don’t import very much food from them in the big picture.

has any significant impact on toilet paper for the US market. Here is an article from MSN from back in 2024 on that subject that was relative to a port workers strike and people thinking they may run out of toilet paper. As the article says:

"Roughly 99% of toilet paper Americans use is made in the United States. Kimberly-Clark, Proctor & Gamble and Georgia-Pacific make a majority of the toilet paper in the United States."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/where-is-toilet-paper-made-as-consumers-scramble-the-demand-isnt-necessary/ar-AA1rEujM#:~:text=Roughly%2099%25%20of%20toilet%20paper%20Americans%20use%20is,of%20the%20toilet%20paper%20in%20the%20United%20States.

We ship material up there, we import wood pulp and then manufacture TP here.

Those machines use parts, most of which are probably sourced from China. There are all sorts of ways in which the production of TP can be hindered by tariffs.

a supply problem. I read numbers that are all over the map as far as what percentage of Canadian pulp is used and the Canadian machines needing parts from China would be a non-issue since the Canadians and the Chinese aren't battling each other.

April 23, 2025 - Port of Seattle is empty. Only one ship and no containers. Usually a busy port.
Prices are already getting out of reach for many. Soon we see empty shelves.
I have not shopped for awhile so do not know. Groceries--yes and those prices are going up and up and up.

April 23, 2025 - Port of Seattle is empty. Only one ship and no containers. Usually a busy port.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220272803

There are 5 of us and we are all old and decrepit. My pantry is growing a little bit every week. We invest in beans, rice, and dehydrated potatoes and chiles and a 12 pack of the cheapest TP. I have witnessed empty shelves. Yikes! Stay safe out there everybody!