April 29, 2025 • 8 mins
ABC's Mike Dobuski reports that some of the cheaper places to order goods are getting more expensive, they same can be said for cars...because of tariffs
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is an alert day weatherwise, so it's one of
those days to kind of pay attention. It's pretty certain
that we'll get some extreme weather today the form of
heavy downboards, high wind, hail, cannot roll out a tornado.
What we don't know is specific timing at this point.
The big window is between two and ten this and
(00:22):
that's pretty much for the entire state. More narrowly for
us here in central Ohio. We're looking at between five
and eight is kind of the window for any kind
of severe weather this afternoon. But it's gonna start to
warm up, gets about eighty one that'll touch off some
showers and strong storms. Again, Like I said, heavy downpours,
possible hail, and high wind between two and ten. It
(00:44):
sounds like a delivery from Amazon. Although I'll tell you what,
My wife bought something yesterday and it was there in
like four hours. A good call, like four hours, Like
what a world to live in the fact that you
can say, oh, I forgot to get this at the
grocery store, go to Amazon, and it's at your front
door in four hour. It's impressive. It is, which leads
(01:07):
us very nicely to our next segment. It is Mike
Debuski from APC News, our tech reporter. It's Tech Tuesday,
Mike on the Legacy Retirement Group dot Com phone line.
And yeah, let's talk about buying stuff online, Mike. Some
of these sites these and these are not high end sites.
These are stuff that you get, you know, little tiki
tech stuff. These Chinese e commerce sites. Temu is one
(01:30):
of them, and they are basically saying, you know what,
stuff's about to get more expensive.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, that's absolutely right. Tamu, in case you haven't heard
of it, is this Chinese e commerce platform. A good
way to think about it is like a low cost
version of Amazon or Walmarts. They've been around since twenty
twenty two. They've been very popular here in the US because,
in part they sell such cheap, low cost goods and
things like you know, phone chargers, small electronics, clothes, in
(01:58):
some cases home up alliances. There's a whole variety of
things on Timu. However, over the past few days, we've
seen prices already start to rise on this website, in
some cases pretty dramatically. I'll give you one example. A
child's bathing suit that used to cost twelve dollars last
week now costs more than thirty with eighteen dollars of
(02:20):
import charge now added onto that price. That is a
one hundred and fifty percent upcharge on that child's bathing suit.
And it's not the hard to find other items that
are kind of being similarly up charged between one hundred
and thirty and one hundred and fifty percent in that
particular case. Of course, guys, this is in part due
to the tariffs that the Trump administration has imposed on
(02:40):
imported goods from China at about a one hundred and
forty five percent tariff rate there. But it's also because
of what's known as the de minimus exemption. This is
a provision of our import duty code that says, if
you're trying to ship something into the United States that
is valued at less than eight hundred dollars, you don't
have to pay import duty fees on it. And it
(03:02):
was kind of set up as like you're on vacation
and you want to send a souvenir or gift home
or something like that, you don't have to pay exorbitant
fees in order to do so. However, it has allowed
companies like Timu to gain a foothold in the US market,
not by paying for these import duties, they don't pass
that extra cost along to the consumer. In addition, they
(03:24):
don't really have a huge warehouse operation here in the
United States. They ship directly from China, which means that
it might cost a little or excuse me, it might
take a little bit more time to get your package
whatever it happens to be that you ordered, but you
are paying a lot less in order to do that.
Because they don't have to pay for a warehouse, they
don't have to pay for staffing here in the United States. However,
(03:46):
President Trump earlier this month announced that they're getting rid
of the d Minimus exemption. It is set to expire
on May second, which is this Friday. And as we're
seeing these companies like Timu Sheian is another one that
is focused on apparel, are raising prices, which means that
they're going to have to start competing with the Amazons
and the Walmarts of the world.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Interesting, and they're not doing it quietly. They're not just
raising the prices and hoping you won't notice, which the
increases that you just specified, I think you won't notice.
But they actually released statements and said, yeah, we're going
to increase prices because of some global trade rules and tariffs.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, and it's interesting to see how various companies have
been approaching this. Both Timu and Shean released a joint
statement saying that, you know, the tariff and the de
minimous part of this is forcing us to raise prices, right,
we want to continue operating. In fact, they have been
recently promoting products that ship locally to consumers the few
warehouses that they do operate here in the US. You know,
(04:43):
if they ship directly from those warehouses, they would avoid
any import fees. And they've been really steeply discounting goods
from those warehouses in an effort just to keep people
on the platform. But it's not the only approach we've
seen in the broader market. Volkswagen, for example, will add
an import fee to the windows sticker of your car
(05:04):
if you're buying something that is built outside of the
United States and imported here. Just one of the many
approaches that you know, these various companies are taking to
make sure that consumers know why prices are going up
across the board.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Michael Debuski, ABC News Tech Reporter, So you mentioned vehicles,
Let's go there. We talked last week about the Jeff
Bezos backed vehicle that he's been this super cheap electric truck.
Have you spent time with that? Have you messed around
with it or driven it? I have not yet.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
No, But this is a very compelling product in the
automotive space. It is an electric pickup truck. It's very small,
to only a few inches longer than a Mini Cooper.
No radio, no power windows. When was the last time
you saw crank windows in a new car? While only
one color for this thing, which is interesting gray. But
all of those basic sort of choices means that this
(05:56):
thing starts under twenty thousand dollars according to Slate, and
they are adding in the sort of federal ev tax
incentive to that price, so the actual price is probably
closer to twenty five thousand dollars. Even still, Slate says,
this is meant to be a blank slate. It's giving
you a blank canvas. You can add in a radio
(06:16):
if you want. You can add in mounts for your
phone or a tablet, so you can add a sort
of infotainment system to your car. You can even option
rear seats that turn this thing into small sort of
fully enclosed SUV. The big question, of course, is whether
they can make it happen. I've been tooling around in
another low cost EV over the weekend. Chevy was kind
(06:37):
enough to line to lend me an Equinox electric vehicle.
This is one of the lowest cost evs on the market.
Three hundred and fourteen miles of range. That's more than
twice what Slate is quoting for the base battery on
their pickup truck. And you get a radio, you get
power windows. You don't get leather seats or anything like that.
You get manual seats, no power trunk or anything like that.
(06:58):
But it's a very big, basic, competent electric vehicle. I
was able to drive it back and forth to Philadelphia.
I went to a mini golf tournament with a friend
of mine, only I had to charge it once.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
It's funny you talk about no radio, no power windows,
and things that we've taken for granted in the last
I don't know, twenty years or so, thirty years in vehicles.
But you know now, you know, in my truck, I
get upset, you know if I like my heated steering wheel.
Who It's funny what you get used to, right, I
get used to their backup cameras and you know, little
(07:28):
luxuries like on my my mirror, the heaters of my
mirror are not working. It's like, well, wait a minute.
I used to have a manual vehicle that had to
crank up the windows and add an ash tray in
the door for my cigarette. You know how far we've
come with our cars, and we're kind of going back
to the stripped down model and that slate auto.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, I think both of these cars really ask a
compelling question, which is how much do you really need
in your car? Right, It's nice to have heated seats.
It's nice to have adaptive cruise control, which the Chevy
that I was driving did, the Slate does not. You know,
it's nice to have all those things, but do you
really need them? And is it worth the extra cost
that the you know, manufacturer is passing on to you.
(08:11):
The Chevy that I was driving, for it's worth costs
thirty four thousand dollars before ev tax incentives. That's you know,
anywhere between five and seven thousand dollars depending on where
you live. However, this car that I was driving is
assembled in Mexico, which means that it would be subject
to import towers,
It is an alert day weatherwise, so it's one of
those days to kind of pay attention. It's pretty certain
that we'll get some extreme weather today the form of
heavy downboards, high wind, hail, cannot roll out a tornado.
What we don't know is specific timing at this point.
The big window is between two and ten this and
(00:22):
that's pretty much for the entire state. More narrowly for
us here in central Ohio. We're looking at between five
and eight is kind of the window for any kind
of severe weather this afternoon. But it's gonna start to
warm up, gets about eighty one that'll touch off some
showers and strong storms. Again, Like I said, heavy downpours,
possible hail, and high wind between two and ten. It
(00:44):
sounds like a delivery from Amazon. Although I'll tell you what,
My wife bought something yesterday and it was there in
like four hours. A good call, like four hours, Like
what a world to live in the fact that you
can say, oh, I forgot to get this at the
grocery store, go to Amazon, and it's at your front
door in four hour. It's impressive. It is, which leads
(01:07):
us very nicely to our next segment. It is Mike
Debuski from APC News, our tech reporter. It's Tech Tuesday,
Mike on the Legacy Retirement Group dot Com phone line.
And yeah, let's talk about buying stuff online, Mike. Some
of these sites these and these are not high end sites.
These are stuff that you get, you know, little tiki
tech stuff. These Chinese e commerce sites. Temu is one
(01:30):
of them, and they are basically saying, you know what,
stuff's about to get more expensive.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, that's absolutely right. Tamu, in case you haven't heard
of it, is this Chinese e commerce platform. A good
way to think about it is like a low cost
version of Amazon or Walmarts. They've been around since twenty
twenty two. They've been very popular here in the US because,
in part they sell such cheap, low cost goods and
things like you know, phone chargers, small electronics, clothes, in
(01:58):
some cases home up alliances. There's a whole variety of
things on Timu. However, over the past few days, we've
seen prices already start to rise on this website, in
some cases pretty dramatically. I'll give you one example. A
child's bathing suit that used to cost twelve dollars last
week now costs more than thirty with eighteen dollars of
(02:20):
import charge now added onto that price. That is a
one hundred and fifty percent upcharge on that child's bathing suit.
And it's not the hard to find other items that
are kind of being similarly up charged between one hundred
and thirty and one hundred and fifty percent in that
particular case. Of course, guys, this is in part due
to the tariffs that the Trump administration has imposed on
(02:40):
imported goods from China at about a one hundred and
forty five percent tariff rate there. But it's also because
of what's known as the de minimus exemption. This is
a provision of our import duty code that says, if
you're trying to ship something into the United States that
is valued at less than eight hundred dollars, you don't
have to pay import duty fees on it. And it
(03:02):
was kind of set up as like you're on vacation
and you want to send a souvenir or gift home
or something like that, you don't have to pay exorbitant
fees in order to do so. However, it has allowed
companies like Timu to gain a foothold in the US market,
not by paying for these import duties, they don't pass
that extra cost along to the consumer. In addition, they
(03:24):
don't really have a huge warehouse operation here in the
United States. They ship directly from China, which means that
it might cost a little or excuse me, it might
take a little bit more time to get your package
whatever it happens to be that you ordered, but you
are paying a lot less in order to do that.
Because they don't have to pay for a warehouse, they
don't have to pay for staffing here in the United States. However,
(03:46):
President Trump earlier this month announced that they're getting rid
of the d Minimus exemption. It is set to expire
on May second, which is this Friday. And as we're
seeing these companies like Timu Sheian is another one that
is focused on apparel, are raising prices, which means that
they're going to have to start competing with the Amazons
and the Walmarts of the world.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Interesting, and they're not doing it quietly. They're not just
raising the prices and hoping you won't notice, which the
increases that you just specified, I think you won't notice.
But they actually released statements and said, yeah, we're going
to increase prices because of some global trade rules and tariffs.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, and it's interesting to see how various companies have
been approaching this. Both Timu and Shean released a joint
statement saying that, you know, the tariff and the de
minimous part of this is forcing us to raise prices, right,
we want to continue operating. In fact, they have been
recently promoting products that ship locally to consumers the few
warehouses that they do operate here in the US. You know,
(04:43):
if they ship directly from those warehouses, they would avoid
any import fees. And they've been really steeply discounting goods
from those warehouses in an effort just to keep people
on the platform. But it's not the only approach we've
seen in the broader market. Volkswagen, for example, will add
an import fee to the windows sticker of your car
(05:04):
if you're buying something that is built outside of the
United States and imported here. Just one of the many
approaches that you know, these various companies are taking to
make sure that consumers know why prices are going up
across the board.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Michael Debuski, ABC News Tech Reporter, So you mentioned vehicles,
Let's go there. We talked last week about the Jeff
Bezos backed vehicle that he's been this super cheap electric truck.
Have you spent time with that? Have you messed around
with it or driven it? I have not yet.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
No, But this is a very compelling product in the
automotive space. It is an electric pickup truck. It's very small,
to only a few inches longer than a Mini Cooper.
No radio, no power windows. When was the last time
you saw crank windows in a new car? While only
one color for this thing, which is interesting gray. But
all of those basic sort of choices means that this
(05:56):
thing starts under twenty thousand dollars according to Slate, and
they are adding in the sort of federal ev tax
incentive to that price, so the actual price is probably
closer to twenty five thousand dollars. Even still, Slate says,
this is meant to be a blank slate. It's giving
you a blank canvas. You can add in a radio
(06:16):
if you want. You can add in mounts for your
phone or a tablet, so you can add a sort
of infotainment system to your car. You can even option
rear seats that turn this thing into small sort of
fully enclosed SUV. The big question, of course, is whether
they can make it happen. I've been tooling around in
another low cost EV over the weekend. Chevy was kind
(06:37):
enough to line to lend me an Equinox electric vehicle.
This is one of the lowest cost evs on the market.
Three hundred and fourteen miles of range. That's more than
twice what Slate is quoting for the base battery on
their pickup truck. And you get a radio, you get
power windows. You don't get leather seats or anything like that.
You get manual seats, no power trunk or anything like that.
(06:58):
But it's a very big, basic, competent electric vehicle. I
was able to drive it back and forth to Philadelphia.
I went to a mini golf tournament with a friend
of mine, only I had to charge it once.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
It's funny you talk about no radio, no power windows,
and things that we've taken for granted in the last
I don't know, twenty years or so, thirty years in vehicles.
But you know now, you know, in my truck, I
get upset, you know if I like my heated steering wheel.
Who It's funny what you get used to, right, I
get used to their backup cameras and you know, little
(07:28):
luxuries like on my my mirror, the heaters of my
mirror are not working. It's like, well, wait a minute.
I used to have a manual vehicle that had to
crank up the windows and add an ash tray in
the door for my cigarette. You know how far we've
come with our cars, and we're kind of going back
to the stripped down model and that slate auto.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, I think both of these cars really ask a
compelling question, which is how much do you really need
in your car? Right, It's nice to have heated seats.
It's nice to have adaptive cruise control, which the Chevy
that I was driving did, the Slate does not. You know,
it's nice to have all those things, but do you
really need them? And is it worth the extra cost
that the you know, manufacturer is passing on to you.
(08:11):
The Chevy that I was driving, for it's worth costs
thirty four thousand dollars before ev tax incentives. That's you know,
anywhere between five and seven thousand dollars depending on where
you live. However, this car that I was driving is
assembled in Mexico, which means that it would be subject
to import towers,
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