New trade tariffs of 10% go into effect on Chinese-made furniture later this month and they will extend to 25% by end of the year according to both The WashingTon Post and Fortune news articles published today. This is almost certainly going to result in price increases, especially for companies such as Hooker Furniture where the bulk of their product is made in China. Metal springs are also in the 300 + items listed, and those are used in domestic made mattresses and even US-made furniture.
I'm putting this out not to be political, but to warn you that I see large price increases on the way, especially on imported furniture. My suggestion if you are considering a purchase in this category, do it soon. Even USA-made product uses many build components in this tariff category, so expect price increases in domestic items as well, though not on the order of direct imports.
Furniture companies are slow to respond and busy prepping for the October High Point Market, but I would wager these increases will all arrive near the end of this year. Just an FYI, you heard it here first. This tariff will hit the pocketbooks of consumers .
Last edited by drcollie; 09-18-2018 at 08:03 PM.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
Shoot, I was worried about this! I was planning on buying the side table and ottoman in Jan/Feb.
I would grab all your budget will tolerate in the next 60 days. Everything on the water or in warehouses is already at existing prices, but the new stuff coming will be tariff-affected. You can bet the CEO's of all the furniture companies in the USA are huddled in meetings starting tomorrow deciding how to handle this. This industry generally runs on thin margins - so I don't foresee a single company absorbing the cost of the tariffs, they will be passed on to the dealer, who in turn will raise the retail price you pay.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
As expected, here it comes..... this letter from Hooker (they also own Bradington Young and Sam Moore) and it arrived this evening. Because this looks to be a very fluid and fast-moving situation with pricing that is going to be confusing AND changing, please get re-quotes at time of order.
As you can see the quote you got a week ago may not be any good two weeks from now.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
Interesting. I do believe the side table I want will be sourced from China. The ottoman will likely be an H&M tufted ottoman of some type, which I don't think contain any springs or components from China other than the leather. But they might elect to increase prices across the board rather than just on the pieces directly effected, so minimize the impact on each item. The 25% is scarier than the 10%, of coarse. Thanks for keeping us up to date.
And more....This one from Hancock and Moore is going into effect Monday Oct 1, so you have today and the weekend to order at existing prices. Sheesh, this is going to be a pricing nightmare for all of us, because any quotes will have to be re-done that were made previously. And as you can see, another round may come, too.
The good news? Those nice Italians and Germans leathers don't look quite as pricey now.
Leathers in Hancock and Moore that come from China and will be affected (there is also a list of fabrics however those I am not going to type out at this time)
Alberta
Angelo
Aspen
Caress
Cavalier
Coventry
Document
Dream
Finesse
Juno
Longview
Nirvana
Piazza
Portfolio
Revival
Ryder
Viking
Last edited by drcollie; 09-02-2019 at 10:14 AM.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
I have multiple suppliers all doing the tariff increases. This is going to make for confusion and the possibility of mistakes on pricing. Most likely I will slow the quote process down so I can double-check on things and minimize mistakes.
Over-the-phone pricing is done quickly and chance of an error is greater vs email or forum quote requests.
Last edited by drcollie; 10-09-2018 at 10:30 AM.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
So far, this is a pricing NIGHTMARE, the likes of which I have never encountered in my 32 years in the furniture business. Every supplier has a different way of dealing with these tariffs and as such they are not uniform and require digging out the paperwork from each maker before sending in a purchase order for a customer. For that reason, when you ask for a quote on a price please be prepared for pricing errors not only from my store, but from virtually every dealer in the country. These are manual add-ons per specific item in many cases, and we don't have a nice (modern) digital interface to look up prices.
If you took the time to read through this tariff situation, you will see there is a second tier of them coming in January which is even much higher - so if this is not politically resolved before then, its going to be an even bigger mess.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.