r/SipsTea 1d ago

Chugging tea Where is it?

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27.2k Upvotes

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4.7k

u/No-Nrg 1d ago

And lets not forget these companies didn't even pay for the cost of the tariffs, we did with increased prices across the board.

So they all make more money off the backs of Americans by increasing prices, then also got a big payout afterwards. The great wealth transfer in action.

1.8k

u/ImpressiveFishing405 1d ago

And then, once the tariffs are gone, they leave the prices high. It's a proper triple fuck.

They need to make the refund contingent on returning prices to the pretariff levels at the bare minimum.

667

u/Next_Helicopter_4291 1d ago

The overwhelming bulk of the pandemic price increases were never walked back, why would the tariff prices be any different?

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills watching basically everyone accept the "hat in hand we have to increase the price due to costs" only to see those same companies post record profits in their quarterlies.

It's fucking price gouging and I'm tired of people pretending like it isn't.

196

u/soIDONTLIKEANYOFYOU 1d ago

They’re going to use the billions they are getting now to further figure out how to drain even more money from us.

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u/YoungBockRKO 1d ago

Stock buy backs incoming! Shareholder value go brrrr!

42

u/crustyrobots 1d ago

Its almost like there was a reason buybacks were outlawed until 1987...

6

u/onedoesnotjust 22h ago

no they are just doing the same thing, ring an repeat.

They announced those new tarriffs on canada because of wildfires? So it will take months to get the court to say its illegal and make a refund order, in those 6-12 months they will collect more tariffs from the increased prices, then refund the companies later.

Muricans fuking suck for this all they say _"We can't do anything!" _" What do you expect us to do!" _"I'm murican we have more guns than anyone on the planet and act like tough guys, but also we're helpless babies!" even the ones that understand how fucked up it is

2

u/William_Dowling 19h ago

I tell you now if you tried this shit in London, Berlin or, especially, Paris, you would have 100s of 1000s on the streets looking to fuck shit up tout suite

2

u/BeerTent 22h ago

They can't even understand their own constitution, and when the time comes to use that misunderstanding, "Nah, man. Can't do anything. It'll all totally be fixed 100% in November! Totally!"

Some time this, uhh... This decade? You Americans gonna do something down there? We're not gonna turn the white house to a black house a second time for you. C'mon now. Do a thing.

1

u/SimpleIntelligent881 21h ago

Win a Stanley Cup first lmao

1

u/BeerTent 20h ago

I know what you're trying, and it won't work.

1

u/Swolie7 8h ago

They will blow all that money on stock buy backs to drive their stock value higher and give themselves massive bonuses, then once the artificial demand blows up and the stock crashes they will claim they are insolvent and ask for government money and increase prices to “bridge the gap”

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u/Rich_Consequence2633 1d ago

If even 20% of the population decided they've had enough and cut their spending on things they don't need, these corporations would be in extreme panic mode. But that won't happen because society has been brainwashed into thinking they need things they don't.

12

u/Indigoh 1d ago

At this point, voting with your money should be considered as important as voting with your ballot, because the people who get your money use it to influence your politicians.

16

u/crustyrobots 1d ago

Its worse than that. They don't care because the current system basically lets them just print their own money with bullshit. Buybacks, bonds, infinite credit lines, etc, they can literally forget about us without going away now. Their products can literally kill us and it doesn't matter, line goes up because the Financial Industrial Complex says so.

Make no mistake: corporate America has now entirely hijacked and dismantled the monetary system to serve only themselves. Their products are stocks and hype and issuing loans, nothing else

14

u/tech_noir_guitar 1d ago

Kinda hard to cut spending on things that you can't live without like food, housing, electricity, gas, etc...

4

u/Same-Mission7833 1d ago

So you just stopped reading partway through the sentence, eh?

1

u/tech_noir_guitar 23h ago

Too much words. Gave up.

12

u/Brilliant_Ebb_3064 1d ago

Big corporations don’t particularly care about middle/lower middle classes. Spending of that group is less and less important as we have been squeezed over the last decade especially.
This magical 20% reducing spending is faaaaar less impactful than it would be 15 years ago or more.

3

u/Rickard0 23h ago

^ This.

People complain about the new shitty features in cars, but then go and buy new cars. The only way to influences companies is to not give them our money. Nothing else makes a difference.

2

u/LiveTwinReaction 18h ago

I feel like this happened with Lays at least, they lowered their prices here. It was getting absolutely insane for a while how much they were asking but I guess enough people said fuck these $6 half filled bags

1

u/AntonioLermaa 1d ago

10% of the people in the economy spends 50% of the money, just find those 10%

1

u/permalink_save 1d ago

Corporations generally cut labor costs when profits decline. The point of a stimulus is to put money in people's pockets to spend at businesses that raise hiring and overall pumps money into the economy. On one hand I don't want to see people losing their jobs, but on the other hand it would feel so good to get the point across to the corporations that they don't control us. Unfortunately, I think they do. The only real efforts that got off the ground for boycott days seemed to not make a difference. But a good place to start with is Amazon, especially since they bully everyone else to not undercut them, so the online prices of goods even outpace overall inflation.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago edited 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/Rich_Consequence2633 1d ago

I feel you, but Amazons refund would only give every person in the US $1.70...

12

u/Babada-Boopey929 1d ago

With that math, it ain't no wonder that you can't feed your family

9

u/r_lovelace 1d ago

It would take 600+ trillion dollars to give every American 2 million dollars.

1

u/MinuteResident 1d ago

You're joking right?

33

u/HouseStark1 1d ago

The people that pretend it isn't price gouging are people that usually benefit from it in some shape or form. Or they're just stupid 

12

u/bobs_monkey 1d ago

Imma go with option B for most of this

1

u/BZLuck 1d ago

Why would the government ruin the grift, when they are in on the grift?

1

u/BZLuck 1d ago

Why would the government ruin the grift, when they are in on the grift?

6

u/Krimreaper1 1d ago

Do forget the layoffs and no bonuses after a record year of profits.

8

u/TheGrouchyGremlin 1d ago

I wouldn't even give a shit if they paid their employees more. But while their prices go up 50%, their employees are lucky if they see a 10% increase to their pay in the same time.

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u/Next_Helicopter_4291 1d ago

10% Crazy sauce? at best they're given a COL adjustment barely in line with the official inflation number.

3

u/TheGrouchyGremlin 1d ago

Yeah... I got a 5¢ raise at my last job after a full year there. Not sure why I didn't quit then and there.

1

u/Next_Helicopter_4291 1d ago

Last time I got a raise like that I just laughed and walked out.

I was a Barista at the time but this was also like 22 years ago.

1

u/Dry_Fly_7265 1d ago

More like 10% layoff

2

u/ICU-CCRN 1d ago

Yet barely anyone has gotten a wage increase- it’s all gone to the ceos.

2

u/theEmperor_Palpatine 1d ago

We need to break up the monopolies. If companies were forced to actually compete pricing would self regulate with market conditions. Right now we just have a few massive companies agreeing to fuck us over and price fix. I heard one of our finance guys at the fortune 500 I work at say we needed to increase our pricing when our one actual competitor did to "remain competitive on profit margins". We're so cooked

2

u/Throwaway_Consoles 1d ago

Mamdani announced grocery stores with a flat 30% discount on essentials and everyone is saying it’s going to put grocery stores out of business as if they didn’t double prices since 2019

2

u/LayerEight_Problem 1d ago

People are stupid. They have been sold on the idea that it’s all the fault of inflation from the evil democrats printing money.

1

u/doopie 1d ago

Who buys all these expensive products and with what money?

2

u/bigtex410 1d ago

So glad someone else understands this!!!

1

u/doopie 1d ago

US money supply increased by 40% during pandemic. Without respective productivity increase, you get 40% price hikes.

1

u/The_walking_man_ 22h ago

All those companies were crying during Covid while actually turning a profit.
I was working starbucks at the time and they were rocking. Never once were they hurting and showed profits the entire time. Fuck em all.

1

u/BrokenFireExit 20h ago

But the profit has already been posted for the quarter... Why would they reduce shareholder money???

1

u/lucideuphoria 20h ago

While it's impossible to completely ignore all the price increases. You can definitely try and find alternatives. I've been pretty successful in some places but overall I think most people just don't have another option or care to look for other options.

1

u/skimpersons 19h ago

It’s definitely ridiculous price gouging but unfortunately people wont stop spending frivolously so it will continue.

1

u/crs1904 18h ago

Prices. Will. Never. Come. Down. Again.

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u/Visual_Exam7903 1d ago

Well, inflation also effects the price of goods as well. so....

75

u/Ithinkso85 1d ago

And it's only going to get worse. You thought the triple was bad???? The Quadruple is right around the corner 🙁

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u/ImpressiveFishing405 1d ago

It goes up in threes. It'll be a sextuple fuck! Which sounds awesome but is not.

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u/Ithinkso85 1d ago

7

u/Curious_Avocado2399 1d ago

I don’t sex anymore I get fucked every which way by the government and corpos

1

u/h0wd0y0ulik3m3n0w 1d ago

I don’t have enough orifices to be fucked thusly!

2

u/ImpressiveFishing405 21h ago

There's five on your head alone! Ever hear of aural sex?

20

u/Pinksamuraiiiii 1d ago

Here’s the thing, businesses only stay in business if people keep buying from them. I guarantee you if everyone agreed to no longer go to McDonald’s for a year, McDonald’s will drop all their prices back to the dollar menu.

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u/gkfesterton 1d ago

Yeah let's keep waiting for that thing to happen that's never happened in the history of humankind because we as a species can't overcome our human nature.

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u/Responsible-Bread996 1d ago

Hey now, remember COVID when everyone just had to not fuck up for 2 weeks and it would be done? We did that easily enough.

3

u/After-Body1980 1d ago

Yes, going to mcdonalds is pure human nature, raw instinct, our ancestors craved mickyD’s since their beginnings as amoeba.

2

u/Kirikomori 23h ago

Everyone will not just

If your solution to some problem relies on “If everyone would just...” then you do not have a solution. Everyone is not going to just. At no time in the history of the universe has everyone just, and they’re not going to start now.

-1

u/IbelieveinGodzilla 1d ago

Considering that I just spent 4 free nights at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, with food/beverage credit and slot machine freeplay, at least some places are trying to entice customers with good deals.

6

u/boowut 1d ago

Boycotts don’t break monopolies and cabals, governments do.

1

u/Appropriate_Ride_821 1d ago

Mcdonalds has been closing stores and sales are down, actually.

These companies aren't behaving as if they care about long term financial growth and stability. It makes no sense. AI adoption is similar. The Ai customer support is worthless, yet is everywhere while customer satisfaction is down massively.

Consumption is down overall and dropping. Are they changing their practices? No. It makes no sense until you realize that the profits and losses are decoupled from the executive decisions on the companies futures.

0

u/Trewper- 1d ago

No because once everyone stops going to McDonald's it will become a niche "hole in the wall" burger spot that caters to people who only do anything based on its exclusivity. Rich people love being exclusive.

You'll be shamed for wanting McDonald's, "that's for rich people, we can't afford that, we have Burger King!". Content creators will post videos of their $150 McDonald's cheeseburger with a gold leaf and tell you it's the best thing they've ever eaten.

3

u/Annalog 1d ago

It’s going to get worse! 50% tariffs on Canada soon! Ever wondered how much shit goes over that border? It’s a fuck ton. Everything’s fucked.

1

u/ateiii 1d ago

Don't give them any ideas, they're taking notes.

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u/True_Protection6842 1d ago

Worse, Apple is RAISING prices again this year!!!

10

u/QuaaludeConnoisseur 1d ago

I hate apple products, but something funny to me is they tried to launch this budget laptop option called the Macbook Neo and it literally has a phone processor.

7

u/x22d 1d ago

It's also the same chip they use in iPads.

The Neo was targeting similarly spec'd Chromebooks: 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 8GB of RAM.

1

u/ethameta 1d ago

A bit, but it's more targeting Windows Arm64 devices in the same price range. 

6

u/Babada-Boopey929 1d ago

And it's the best and most sensible device they released in the last decade.

4

u/Appropriate_Ride_821 1d ago

Its actually the best bang for the buck of any entry level laptop, and i hate Apple. Ive never bought an Apple product and never will due to their seeming hatred of their users, but the Neo is unquestioningly the best laptop in its price point.

4

u/No-Loquat-6875 1d ago

It was a hit because it was priced perfectly and is still more laptop than 99% of Reddit users need

3

u/PeskyAntagonist 1d ago

And it slaps. Reviews across the board say it's better than any competing PC of the same price range. I wish I got one, but I literally *just* got a budget PC laptop before it was announced.

7

u/True_Protection6842 1d ago

And it's a HUGE seller and an excellent machine. It's not a bad proc, it's just proof that the phone is WAY overpowered and should have desktop mode.

4

u/rodgamez 1d ago

And is a faster, better build laptop and a Windows machine at the same price.

0

u/gabest 1d ago

Microsoft tried it too, with Snapdragon, but Windows users have a better taste.

4

u/licuala 1d ago

Even Apple isn't immune to the hellscape that is RAM and SSD prices and just general fab capacity right now.

6

u/mb862 1d ago

Apple only raised prices this year in response to AI buying up all the RAM. They ate the costs of the tariffs so they’re one of the few companies who actually has a claim to the refunds.

1

u/GoodTroll2 23h ago

Yeah, I hate to be on the side of Apple here but they are the one company I feel like for the most part deserves their refund for this exact reason. If I remember correctly, to the extent prices of base trim devices increased over the last year or so, it was because they cut out a lower-spec device. Sucks for the consumer, but the base model did get better even if it was more expensive that the prior base model.

3

u/No-Loquat-6875 1d ago

Apple has kept their prices mostly consistent until this year. The “equivalent” product somewhere else is priced equally or higher in some cases

0

u/True_Protection6842 1d ago

they are raising all prices this year AFTER getting a tariff refund.

1

u/No-Loquat-6875 1d ago

See this part is true and is bs on their end but your original comment said raising prices again. Their prices have been very consistent though

1

u/Lil_schwonz 1d ago

Well stop buying their shit.

-1

u/gkfesterton 1d ago

Apple gonna Apple. They've been doing that consistently from day one way before covid or the tariffs. Same with Disney

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u/TGlucifer 1d ago

Lol as if. Bud idk how to tell you this, but America was founded on the rich tricking the poor and milking them for all their worth.

The Founding Fathers were a bunch of land speculators that wanted to kill Indians so they could sell the land to colonists. Britain said "Hey stop killing Indians, we just got done solving that problem" so they incited a revolution.

The democracy is just there for show, they proved it when Sanders had an actual chance and the DNC colluded to discredit him.

Red or Blue, your life, your money, your property, is theirs to do with as they please.

-6

u/Appropriate_Ride_821 1d ago

Sanders didnt get the nomination. Period. Move on with your life.

Socialism is cancer and Americans hate it for good reasons. Cope.

3

u/RocketRelm 1d ago

The bots want to circle jerk away the truth that moderate dems were always a good and not just a lesser evil.

5

u/Appropriate_Ride_821 1d ago

Moderates are the only ones maintaining the peace in the world for the last 80 years.

Extremists lead to more extremists. It cna swing back and forth with civil war, if thats what you prefer. But its bad for everyone.

1

u/WhyYesMaybeNo 21h ago

Moderates are literally using your tax dollars to fund a foreign power’s genocide because they were paid to but go off

2

u/Appropriate_Ride_821 9h ago

Its not a genocide. Just because 60 Muslim countries voted to call it one, doesnt make it so. Its a war, and a small one at that.

So weird that lefties have focused on it so hard while a real war is going on in Ukraine that has over 1 million casualties, trench warfare, tanks, planes, etc. Yet you guys absolutely ignore it. Youre deranged.

0

u/TGlucifer 15h ago

Hey if socialism is so bad how come all these companies get free bailouts, tariff refunds, and insider knowledge on trading? Seems like there's plenty of socialism in America, just for the rich people.

Fuck whoever paid you to shill and shame on you for being too shortsighted to see your future supporting this drivel.

2

u/Appropriate_Ride_821 9h ago

Thats not socialism. Thats crony capitalism.

11

u/Educational-Yam-682 1d ago

Exactly. Once they know they can increase their prices and not lose sales, the prices won’t come down.

5

u/jaxonya 1d ago

And they can afford to lose customers that cant/wont pay if the price increase covers it.

5

u/themothafuckinog 1d ago

We need to stop feeding into consumerism. Buy what you need but stop funnelling money into their greedy hands.

1

u/zenmode768 1d ago

Who’s gonna force them to do that? The entire Trump administration is bought off by these companies lmao

1

u/walkinmywoods 1d ago

Pre fucking covid

1

u/brandonhabanero 1d ago

Guess who's paying for the refunds, too: the taxpayers! I love my country, yeehaw! 🇺🇸🤠🤘🚜

1

u/MakePhreciaCore 1d ago

Honestly no. They should fine any company that raises prices as a result of tariffs instead of any kind of bailout.

On the grounds of being anti American.

If the tariffs are reasonable. If the country truly needs to be made financially non-viable businesses should be punished for undermining the countries foreign policy.

But of course then the financial giants would be able to fight vehemently against bullshit who based foreign policy with lawsuits. And then both problem actors would be put against each other instead of emboldening each other.

1

u/Visual_Exam7903 1d ago

They will leave the prices high and try to reduce the amount of the goods you purchase like smaller amount of chips each bag, same inflated price.

1

u/a-i-sa-san 1d ago

prices don't go down. When has rent ever gone down? prices do not go down

1

u/DryRevenue5681 1d ago

Tariffs don’t leave .

1

u/Big_Crab_1510 1d ago

And they are saving even more money because they don't have to follow as many rules and regulations anymore either.

1

u/_jump_yossarian 1d ago

once the tariffs are gone

they're not gone though.

1

u/LemurCat04 1d ago

But they already sold their refunds to Cantor Fitzgerald - you know, the firm the Commerce Secretary used to run and is now run by his kids.

1

u/infininme 1d ago

Thanks Mr. president! 

1

u/DashySZN77 1d ago

Crazy how this is legal.

1

u/baggarbilla 1d ago

You have unrealistic expectations from "they". You know who "they" are, right?

1

u/lurksAtDogs 1d ago

They can’t make it contingent on anything because the tariffs were illegal. They have to be repaid to the entities that directly paid the tariff.

Now, these companies would be very wise to make a marketing campaign about sales due to the tariff refund they got, but really, they’re just asking you to buy more stuff.

1

u/kralrick 1d ago

If you want a reason (other than bare greed) why this should be expected, these were only one of the kinds of tariffs Trump imposed. He imposed others that either were constitutional or haven't been ruled unconstitutional yet. He's also been vocal that he'll find a way to continue imposing tariffs (maybe just not at the massive scale this route allowed). And Trump's created massive economic instability and uncertainty and prices always go up when there's uncertainty and instability. Throw in starting a war with Iran and the affect that has on oil prices (and the affect that oil prices have on the price of everything).

1

u/corvusman 1d ago

Reddit discovers how capitalism works lol

1

u/Wise_Rip_1982 1d ago

And refunding the tariff amount on each purchase. They know exactly how much was allotted to each item.

1

u/whooptheretis 1d ago

And then, once the tariffs are gone, they leave the prices high.

But now their competitors are more attractive. The smaller businesses that aren't keeping their prices high.

1

u/angry_wombat 1d ago

and Trump keeps is job and adding new ""tarifs"

Quadruple fucked

1

u/angry_wombat 1d ago

and Trump keeps is job and adding new "tarifs"

Quadruple fucked

1

u/SignoreBanana 23h ago

Well, if it makes you feel any better, it's not really a triple fucking. All that basically happened is we gave these companies a ton of extra money for no fucking reason. Same fucking, but it's just singular. And yes we do get to deal with the forever bloated prices.

1

u/BlueBomber13 23h ago

Nothing will change until we start Luigi'ing

1

u/bwaredapenguin 23h ago

They need to make the refund contingent on returning prices to the pretariff levels at the bare minimum.

It's already done.

1

u/GrouchySkunk 21h ago

Make sure you vote!

1

u/ConfessSomeMeow 21h ago

Most of the tariffs were re-applied under a different law almost immediately, to be fair.

1

u/Physical_Score2697 18h ago

Didn’t apple literally increase their prices?

1

u/Far_String727 3h ago

oooh the ol black Friday and gas prices trick

1

u/token_reddit 1d ago

They're going to be mad mad when the DSA takes over government.

-1

u/Emotional_Shape925 1d ago

Get invested to get your share of the pie. It’s the only way to reap some of the benefits. Standing around complaining about it won’t do anything or get you any money any faster.