By Timothy Aeppel, Jessica DiNapoli and Siddharth Cavale
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. retailers Walmart and Target are bickering behind the scenes with their suppliers over proposed price hikes on everything from cake pans, tote bags and toys to other merchandise.
The outcome of their talks will determine when and by how much merchandise prices rise – and even which products retailers will keep on store shelves.
Major retailers say they can’t just raise retail prices without losing market share and alienating American shoppers. Their stance is leading to acrimonious discussions about pricing with goods suppliers whose costs have shot up following President Donald J. Trump’s tariffs.
In kitchenware, David Dalquist, the CEO of Nordic Ware, a small cookware manufacturer, has been hit hard by Trump’s 25% tariffs on aluminum imports. Dalquist’s Minneapolis-based firm purchases aluminum in 5,000-pound coils, which it uses to make Bundt pans and other products.
But the fact that his costs have surged by 5% to 10%, due to new tariffs implemented on March 12, is making it harder for him to set prices now for retailers in the new season, which culminates later in the year around the holidays.
Most retailers require a 60-day notice for any price increase, Dalquist said in an interview. “You can’t just hand it to them,” he said. “Then they review it–they go through their own analysis on whether it’s justified.” That means months of delay getting them implemented. In the meantime, Dalquist’s firm must absorb the higher costs.
“Our conversations with suppliers are all aimed at making our purpose a reality for millions of customers, and we will continue to work closely with them to find the best way forward during these uncertain times,” Walmart said in a statement.
ONEROUS PROCESS
In retail, unlike manufacturing, the process of implementing price hikes is time-consuming and onerous thanks to the typical contracts that retailers use with their merchandise suppliers. For vendors, dealing with Walmart has always been tough because of its size– it generates more than $446 billion of annual sales in the U.S. It also has previously said that it will scrutinize every line item of cost before it agrees to a supplier’s proposed price hike.
To risk having brands kicked off Walmart’s shelves because of a dispute over pricing can badly hurt a supplier. Dalquist said that if retailers don’t agree to the price hikes, retailers will just substitute his Bundt pans with those made by someone else. Because kitchenware is a category with a wide range of alternatives at lower prices, it would be hard to lift prices and not see a weakening of shopper demand for his product in the current environment.
In accessories, the 20% tariffs Trump imposed on China imports earlier this year drove Kim Vaccarella, founder of Bogg Bag of Secaucus, New Jersey, to hike prices on its bags by $5. Bogg supplies brightly-colored tote bags, manufactured in China using Croc-like plastic material, to Target, which sells the original-size bag for $90.
A Target spokesperson directed Reuters to comments made by its executives during a recent investor meeting. At the March 4 meeting, Rick Gomez, Target’s chief commercial officer, said it was too early to tell how prices might change product by product, but that the retailer was looking at pricing holistically.
Some retailers have already asked her to consider lowering her wholesale prices, she said. “People are getting creative,” Vaccarella said. Her company is also looking at alternative manufacturing sites in Sri Lanka, Vietnam and other lower-cost factories in China, she said.
LOSS LEADING
Price negotiations now going on between manufacturers and retailers have a crucial subtext: “Before you even entertain the conversation (about a price hike), you have to figure out what everyone else is doing,” said Fraser Townley, chief executive of T2M, which specializes in full-size video game controllers.
“I was lucky,” he said, referring to his own dealings with big retailers— because he had a unique product: devices that allow a user to play videogames on a mobile phone without having to deal with tiny screen/buttons.
Nobody else was offering his very niche-directed controllers. “But if you were one of 100 TV manufacturers trying to get your TVs into Walmart, they would say, ‘I have 99 others who don’t want to put prices up.’”
It also matters what those competitors are selling, Townley said. A global producer that sells a range of products through a major retailer might figure they’ll absorb losses or lower profits on one product to protect other lines of business—or simply use the opportunity to grow their own market share by keeping their prices steady.
“There’s so much loss leading going on out there,” he said, referring to suppliers’ willingness to absorb losses and maintain current wholesale prices just so they can remain on retailers’ shelves. “It’s a wonder anyone remains in business,” he said.
In toys, Bratz doll maker MGA Entertainment Chief Executive Isaac Larian said the company is going back and forth negotiating with retailers on a price hike on its China-made toys that it wants to go into effect in April. MGA’s toys are sold in Walmart and Target, among other chains.
“The retailers, that’s their job. They resist and say they do not want to have a price increase, and they have said that to us, because the consumer is very, very strained and stressed,” Larian said.
Larian said he does not think he will be able to pass on the full 20% tariff to retailers as a 20% price hike. “We’re going to have a shared responsibility,” he said. “We’ll take a lower [profit] margin,” but half of the cost of the tariffs “we have to pass on” with higher wholesale prices to retailers, he added.
(Reporting by Timothy Aeppel, Jessica DiNapoli and Siddharth Cavale in New York. Additional reporting by Richa Naidu in London; Editing by Vanessa O’Connell and Aurora Ellis)
