Hoard Food Ahead of Tariffs? Not Me.
Apr. 28th, 2025 01:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerWith the new US tariff regime looming people have been rushing out to buy things ahead of anticipated price increases and empty shelves. While some of my friends rushed to stock up on food several weeks ago I held off. It didn't make sense to me to buy 6 month supplies of beans, rice, and fresh fruits (to freeze).
For one, food is a small part of my budget, so if prices go up 25%, it'll be annoying but not a crisis problem. Two, food is demand inelastic so I don't anticipate major market disruptions like supermarket shelves going bare for 3 months because producers exited the market en masse. Three, I don't even have a place to store 6-month supplies, especially frozen stuff. To make it meaningful to buy a 50-pound box of avocados, like one of my friends suggested, I'd also have to buy an extra freezer to store them in. Plus a larger house to store the extra freezer! 😱 And four, I don't enjoy 6-month-old frozen food as much. I'd rather swallow the price increase than swallow bland, dried out food.
Now the tariffs are on pause, so there's more time to plan. ...Well, most of the tariffs are on pause. Trump has singled out China for punitive tariffs. I don't see that having a huge impact on food, though. Tariffs on Mexico will hit food broadly, because we do get a lot of food imports from Mexico, especially fruits and vegetables. For importing such things from Asia, the economics don't pencil out. Thus there are only a few, narrow categories of fresh food we import from China. There are more processed foods. Oh, and garlic. At least buying a 6-month supply of garlic is more reasonable than 6 months of avocados.
For one, food is a small part of my budget, so if prices go up 25%, it'll be annoying but not a crisis problem. Two, food is demand inelastic so I don't anticipate major market disruptions like supermarket shelves going bare for 3 months because producers exited the market en masse. Three, I don't even have a place to store 6-month supplies, especially frozen stuff. To make it meaningful to buy a 50-pound box of avocados, like one of my friends suggested, I'd also have to buy an extra freezer to store them in. Plus a larger house to store the extra freezer! 😱 And four, I don't enjoy 6-month-old frozen food as much. I'd rather swallow the price increase than swallow bland, dried out food.
Now the tariffs are on pause, so there's more time to plan. ...Well, most of the tariffs are on pause. Trump has singled out China for punitive tariffs. I don't see that having a huge impact on food, though. Tariffs on Mexico will hit food broadly, because we do get a lot of food imports from Mexico, especially fruits and vegetables. For importing such things from Asia, the economics don't pencil out. Thus there are only a few, narrow categories of fresh food we import from China. There are more processed foods. Oh, and garlic. At least buying a 6-month supply of garlic is more reasonable than 6 months of avocados.
