2 days Ago By [email protected] (Jay Wilson)
After a lot of doubt, the news has been confirmed: The tariffs on goods coming into the United States from Canada, Mexico, and China are now in place. Depending on where you sit on the political spectrum, you might be celebrating this as a win or shaking your head in horror — but no matter your opinions, you can't deny that things are gonna get a lot pricier. The tariffs will have an immediate knock-on effect on how much things cost, and unfortunately, it's unlikely that big retailers will keep their prices as they are.
Although stores like Walmart might be able to absorb some of the cost, inevitably a lot of these price increases will be passed down to you, and groceries are likely to be hit harder than pretty much anything else. That's bad news for people who shop at Walmart. The massive supermarket chain has been warning of price increases in its stores since the end of 2024, with its CFO John David Rainey saying that "there probably will be cases where prices will go up for consumers," in an interview with CNBC .
The problem is that Walmart, like so many other large supermarket chains, relies on a complicated web of imports to ensure that its products are always available. A lot of those products come from — you guessed it! — Canada and Mexico, and there are a fair few ingredients that you might not expect to be affected which are gonna become more pricey. Marketside Homestyle Guacamole The ever-popular Mexican dip guacamole can be made anywhere in the world, with ingredients sourced locally — but if you're buying it from Walmart in the U.
S., you're unlikely gonna be able to escape the fact it's gonna get more expensive. Walmart's Marketside Homestyle Guacamole, along with its other own-brand guacamoles and many of the name-brand products it sells, are probably gonna be a lot pricier soon.
The reason for this is that the avocados that go into these products are largely imported from Mexico. The U.S.
simply doesn't have the climate to grow avocados year-round in a lot of places, and so big retailers like Walmart and Target look across the border, especially during its winter months, for a steady supply of stock. Naturally, this will also mean that any other products that use Mexican-imported avocados will also see a price increase. If you're a fan of fresh avocados, you're gonna have to probably pay more for those too.
As the tariffs and the associated price increases will have an inevitable impact on the amount of supply coming in, it's also likely that U.S.-grown avocados will also get more expensive.
It's a pretty bad time to be a guac fan. Great Value Unsweetened Cocoa Powder Tariffs have a habit of impacting even the most unassuming of groceries, and cocoa powder is one of them. Great Value Baking Unsweetened Cocoa Powder is one of the Walmart items that you might see increasing in price in the immediate future, thanks to the cost of imported cocoa in general going up.
A significant amount of cocoa is imported into the U.S. from Canada yearly.
In 2023, just over $2 billion dollars worth of cocoa was shipped over the border, with the U.S. being by far the largest market for Canadian cocoa manufacturers.
If the cost of these goods goes up, it'll hit the bottom line pretty hard. Unfortunately, this also means that any goods that are made with Canadian cocoa may also see a price increase. We're very sorry to say it, people, but you may well see chocolate start to get more expensive, as U.
S. manufacturers scramble to find different suppliers and cocoa made in the U.S.
gets more pricey as a knock-on effect. Additionally, items like already-expensive cocoa butter , fat, and oil could also get more pricey. The future's looking bleak for this deep-tasting treat.
Great Value Pure Maple Syrup Maple syrup is perhaps the most unsurprising item that will be affected by tariffs placed on Canadian goods, but it's still worth pointing out how sad it is that it's gonna get more expensive. Walmart's Great Value Pure Maple Syrup, and all of its other maple syrups, will likely soon be rising in price, unless the supermarket finds a way to offset the tariff's impact with its other items. Canada produces more maple syrup than any other country in the world, with the majority of it being made in Quebec, and the U.
S. is by far its biggest export market. Millions of pounds a year are sent over the border, and all of those pounds will cost the supermarkets, and the customers, more.
It's not just the imported products that will get more expensive, either. "The tariffs will affect us more in equipment because all of the manufacturers of the sugar equipment are based out of Canada," says Milroy Farms owner Jason Blocher to WJAC . "They have U.
S. facilities too but if they get into this tariff war and so on, yeah, our equipment costs are going to escalate because of it." Essentially, the tariffs will make the production of maple syrup expensive for manufacturers in the U.
S. too — so even if you're buying American-made syrup, it'll still cost you fairly soon. Marketside Grass-Fed Ground Beef It seems like nothing can stop the price of beef from continuing to rise, and it's just been dealt a death blow in the form of tariff action.
Canada is one of the largest beef exporters in the world, and a huge amount of its product goes straight to U.S. stores.
It's not just the ground beef you buy in stores that is exported, either, as Canada exports a large amount of its livestock to the U.S. for rearing and production.
Therefore, all of those different strands of beef production will get more expensive, and items like Marketside Ground Beef and others at Walmart will cost you even more than before. The problem, too, is that the U.S.
isn't well-equipped at this point to replace its Canadian beef supply with cheaper alternatives. America is heavily reliant on the Canadian industry to feed its market, and if prices go up then the cost will be swallowed by the customer. The threat of tariff action has also caused certain ranchers based in Canada to shrink their herds, and now that the tariffs are going ahead it's likely more will follow suit.
Less supply will equal even higher prices. Great Value Whole Frozen Strawberries Nothing is safe from tariffs, and even everyday items like frozen strawberries could soon be way more expensive. Walmart's Great Value Whole Frozen Strawberries, its sliced strawberries, and any frozen fruit mixes that contain strawberries could soon be experiencing a price rise.
In addition to this, fresh strawberries at the store may also be more expensive soon. Oh, and you might also see other fruit getting pricier too. Fun, right? The problem is that the U.
S. is a massive importer of strawberries from Mexico, and there's no getting around the knock-on effect that the tariffs will have on the cost of this fruit. The U.
S. also imports hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bananas from Mexico, so any frozen nanners you like eating will also cost you more soon too. This is pretty bad news, as it's not like fruit is cheap in the first place.
A pound of strawberries for your strawberry smoothie , frozen or otherwise, can set you back several dollars in Walmart and other stores, and the tariffs are just gonna make them even more unaffordable. Bell peppers The price of your average bell pepper may not raise any eyebrows at the moment, but this humble vegetable (yes, we know it's a fruit really, but come on) is about to be a lot harder to justify buying. Walmart's Fresh Produce Bell Peppers will soon become significantly more expensive thanks to the tariff action on Mexico's exported goods.
Like many other vegetables, bell peppers are supplied in abundance by Mexico to the U.S. Mexico is the second-largest producer of bell peppers worldwide, and many of its products go to America, which doesn't have the climate to grow them on the scale that it needs to create a fully domestic industry.
As such, if they're significantly affected by tariffs (which looks to be certain), the price will pass down to the customer. Now, business in the U.S.
could of course start to look to other producers in the world to import its peppers. The issue is that some of the other producers could also be affected by tariffs. We mentioned that Mexico is the second-biggest producer in the world, and guess who the biggest producer is? China — that little-known country that has also been slapped with tariffs by the current administration.
Looks like no matter how you swing it, you're gonna be paying more in the short term. Great Value Raw Shrimp Shrimp is a lot of people's go-to for an easygoing protein, and generally speaking, it's not too pricey at Walmart. That could all be about to change, though, when the tariffs kick in.
Great Value Frozen Peeled Tail On Extra Large Shrimp, and pretty much any other Walmart-brand variety of shrimp, will soon be burning a bigger hole in your pocket. The tariffs on Canadian and Mexican seafood will see prices increase across the board, and although the U.S.
will seek to replace supply with products from other countries, it'll leave a lasting mark. "Even as Norway and Chile step in to supply the US, higher tariffs will drive up consumer prices — potentially by up to 10% — while reshaping global trade flows," says Philip Scrace, Kontali's chief analytics officer, via Fish Farming Expert . While the U.
S. might try to address this in a longer-term way, any subsequent price drops won't happen overnight. "The long-term response will likely include producers seeking new markets and potential investment in domestic production in the US, though such changes take time," says Scrace.
The result is that there might be an overall downturn in seafood consumption, as customers look to other proteins to avoid being caught short at the cash register. Great Value Vanilla Wafers The humble vanilla wafer isn't an item that most people cite as being buffeted by the winds of tariff action, but sadly these sweet cookies will soon be harder to justify in your weekly grocery shop, and in the crust for your banana cream pie . Great Value Vanilla Wafer Cookies are likely to become more expensive, thanks to wafers themselves being a fairly big export for Canada to the U.
S. Canada makes almost 9% of the world's wafers, and exports hundreds of millions of dollars worth to the U.S.
every year. More than half of the wafers in the U.S.
are imported from Canada, and the country takes in almost double the amount of the next-biggest import market, the United Kingdom. It's kinda wild to think that these little biscuits make so much money, but they really do — and by the looks of things, the U.S.
just doesn't have the set-up to replace the massive amount of products that Canada makes. The result is that these wafers, and a lot of the other wafers sold at Walmart, will get pricier. You may also see knock-on effects on other biscuits and candy products, thanks to Canada's hold on the sugar market.
Marketside Mild Cantina Style Salsa Salsa is a standby item in countless kitchens across the country, and it's generally favored for being a cost-effective dip made from relatively cheap ingredients. Some of those ingredients, though, are about to get more expensive. Various fresh vegetables are due to increase in price with the tariffs, and tomatoes are about to get way pricier, thanks to being largely imported from Mexico.
Industry experts expect to see at least a 25% increase in the cost of tomatoes pretty much immediately, meaning that Walmart's Marketside Mild Cantina Style Salsa, and any of its other Marketside salsas, will cost you more. Although some items affected by tariffs may be able to weather the storm a little due to coming from stronger industries, tomatoes just aren't going to be one of them. The margins that the fresh produce industry operates with are tiny, and a loss of approximately a quarter of these companies' earnings is just not something they can swallow.
As a result, you, dear reader, will be the one paying the price. Oh, and it's not just salsa either — basically anything that has a tomato in it, and tomatoes themselves, are going to get more expensive. Great Value Sliced Almonds It feels like one of life's great injustices that to eat more healthily, you have to spend more money.
If you need any proof of that, take what's in your snack drawer. A bag of chips may only set you back a dollar or so, but a tiny bag of Great Value Sliced Almonds, a healthy and nutritious snack, costs way more — and it's about to get even worse. Mexico is a massive exporter of tree nuts to the U.
S., with the country exporting hundreds of millions of dollars of nuts per year. Canada, too, is a big export market, and any nuts produced in Canada and sold in the U.
S. will also get more expensive. As one of the most popular types of tree nut, sliced and whole almonds will undoubtedly be affected.
However, other nuts sold at Walmart are also likely to shoot up in price, too. You can probably expect to see cashews, hazelnuts, and walnuts also getting costlier. Plus, any food that contains tree nuts at Walmart, like some of its cakes and nut cookies , could also become more expensive.
Marketside Pepper Jack Cheese Cubes Look, folks. We're sorry. We know we're the bearers of bad news here, and basically telling you that every food you love is getting more expensive.
However, we do unfortunately have a duty to inform you that even cheese isn't going to be untouched by tariffs, and will soon be costing you more at Walmart. Marketside Cubed Pepper Jack Cheese is just one of the cheeses that will shortly be shooting up in price thanks to the tariffs, due to America's existing trade relationship with Canada and its dairy industry. We can expect to see cheese prices rise by roughly a quarter, and things could get even more expensive if the tariff action causes U.
S. companies to lose some of their trading partners altogether. To make matters worse (sorry!), it isn't just cheese that will be affected.
Anything that comes out of the Canadian dairy industry and heads over the border will be costlier, too. That means milk, cream, and butter are all likely to become 25% more expensive very soon. Although some companies may divert to using U.
S. producers, unless they can ramp up production imminently, it's pretty much a guarantee that they'll start charging more for their products. Great Value Pure Granulated Sugar Honestly, is nothing safe from Donald Trump's tariffs? Apparently not — and if you need any proof of this, look at what's about to happen to sugar.
Walmart's Great Value Pure Granulated Sugar, and all of its other sugar products, may soon see a price hike thanks to the tariff that Trump has placed on Mexican goods. Mexico supplies a massive amount of sugar to the U.S.
every year, with sugar itself being one of the biggest imported goods for the country. The U.S.
also relies on Canada for its sugar exports and has built a strong trading relationship over the years. As you might expect, too, it isn't just plain sugar that's going to get more expensive here. Any products coming from Mexico, Canada, or China that contains sugar from those countries will also become costlier.
Plus, pretty much any type of sugar that comes from these targeted countries will be higher in price. It doesn't matter if it's white, brown, muscovado, or sugar syrup: You're paying more for it. Great Value Canola Oil It's not just the food you cook that's about to get more expensive thanks to the tariffs — what you cook it in will get pricier too.
Cooking oil is likely to bounce up in price immediately following the tariff action on Canada, with canola oil in particular being hit hard. Canada exports a huge amount of canola products to the U.S.
yearly, with nearly 3 million tons of canola oil crossing the border in 2023. It also exports canola seed and meal to the U.S.
Sadly, all of these products, which include Great Value Canola Oil sold at Walmart, will as a result soon be more expensive. The impact of the tariffs will also significantly affect Canadian farmers and their output. "The damaging blow of these duties will be felt by every canola farmer, starting with the price they receive at delivery and will extend to the full range of their operations, ultimately reducing farm profitability," says Canadian Canola Growers Association President & CEO Rick White, via Seed Today .
"The destructive consequences for our farms, as well as our rural and national economies, are evident.".
