Amazon quietly raised prices on thousands of low-cost staples, and while the markups are subtle, they might be signaling something much bigger: The age of stealth inflation is colliding with the return of tariffs, and companies are starting to pass the pain directly to consumers.
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According to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal, Amazon increased prices on more than 1,200 household essentials — including pet supplies, deodorant, and pantry items — even as competitors such as Walmart cut prices on similar products. But Amazon disputed the Wall Street Journal’s findings in a statement emailed to Quartz, saying the company hasn’t seen average prices “change up or down appreciably outside of typical fluctuations across millions of items” and said the study was “seriously flawed” and “cherry picking.”
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Still, for many shoppers, tariffs seem to be showing up at checkout.
The tariff environment has shifted recently. Gone are the extreme spikes of 145%, replaced by more targeted levies: as much as 50% on steel, aluminum, and copper; and 25% duties on auto parts — plus looming reciprocal tariffs. President Donald Trump says the next wave of tariff hikes will hit on August 1; the White House is replacing its flat 10% universal rate with a patchwork of country-specific surcharges on social media that somewhat look like they were thrown together with a dartboard and a globe. The administration already has delayed these hikes but now says there’s no turning back — even as back-channel talks hint at potential carve-outs for a few friendly partners. For everyone else, it’s open season.
For Amazon, fighting that tariff squeeze appears to mean a blend of strategies: advance-buying inventory, renegotiating supplier terms, and quietly hiking select prices. In some cases earlier this year, the company reportedly even asked vendors to eat part of the tariffs through support agreements. While Amazon said it briefly considered flagging tariff costs on its low-cost “Haul” site in late April, it backed away from doing so after the White House slammed the move as “hostile” and “political.”
But Amazon isn’t an outlier in terms of price hikes. Across retail, brands are recalibrating their pricing. Earlier this month, a DataWeave analysis for Reuters found that U.S. prices for China-made goods on Amazon jumped a median 2.6% from January to mid-June, well above core goods inflation, and sharply in May and June. The surge spans home goods, school supplies, electronics — you name it. Across industries, tariffs are raising import costs, freight rates are climbing, and margins are thinning.
Companies are balancing a precarious equation: Weak consumer sentiment and high interest rates make full pass-through onto consumers risky, yet margins are under relentless pressure. For now, many businesses are shuffling supply chains and threading the needle on tariff-exposed goods, quietly raising prices on certain goods while holding the line on others, often depending on how elastic companies think demand is.
Retailers such as Target and Walmart have started adjusting prices in select categories. Shein and Temu raised prices almost overnight after losing tariff exemptions on small-value shipments. Brands such as Nike, Adidas, and Procter & Gamble have warned that more hikes are on the way, especially on imported goods. Automakers including Subaru, Ford, and Mitsubishi have confirmed they’ll raise sticker prices this year, and electronics sellers such as Best Buy are bracing for cost pass-throughs from their vendors.
Consumer brands have seen this movie before — in Trump’s first round of tariffs, announced on April’s “Liberation Day” — but the sequel could have sharper teeth. During earlier rounds of tariffs, many firms ate the extra costs or found ways to work around them. This time, between inflation fatigue (CPI data ticked up in June related to tariffs) and a more fragmented supply chain, there’s less of a cushion to fall back on. Businesses are looking down the barrel of rising input costs, growing labor pressure, and higher borrowing expenses.
That’s especially true for companies that operate at scale. Amazon’s business depends on razor-thin margins and lightning-fast logistics. The company is also a bellwether for the broader economy. When a company that large and operationally efficient starts hiking prices — however selectively — it sends a signal. And the signal right now is: The inflation that never quite went away is finding fuel in global trade tensions.