Maybe they raise the price of domestic beer (cynically) because they can or (more reasonably) to maintain some kind of parity between brands. Similar argument for why would I let beer in cans cost a lot more than glass. Who knows maybe even use the markup on glass to offset the increased cost of aluminum…
Maybe. While I mentioned thepossibility that domestic beer rose to match up with tariffed imports, it seemed a little hard (FOR ME) to believe they would actually "catch the price up" well above parity with their tariffed competition, as appears to have happened. I mean, my own inclination in such a situation, if I were CEO, would be to say, "Hey, our competition just went up 20% in actual price because of the 25% US tariff on their goods. Let's raise our price to 5 percentage points below theirs and make bank (since we don't have the tariff to pay) and steal away their market share at the same time."
But that's MY math. Who knows how greed runs amok, as that seems more than greedy enough to me. Still, it definitely is a big risk with tariffs--that domestic prices rise, at least some, because all the foreign competition gets priced way up. That is what protectionism is supposed to help get you--bad for the consumer all the way around, great for any company making its stuff in the US with US resources. Not so great for other companies.
Going into the Fourth that's all that needed to be said!!
Maybe they raise the price of domestic beer (cynically) because they can or (more reasonably) to maintain some kind of parity between brands. Similar argument for why would I let beer in cans cost a lot more than glass. Who knows maybe even use the markup on glass to offset the increased cost of aluminum…
Maybe. While I mentioned thepossibility that domestic beer rose to match up with tariffed imports, it seemed a little hard (FOR ME) to believe they would actually "catch the price up" well above parity with their tariffed competition, as appears to have happened. I mean, my own inclination in such a situation, if I were CEO, would be to say, "Hey, our competition just went up 20% in actual price because of the 25% US tariff on their goods. Let's raise our price to 5 percentage points below theirs and make bank (since we don't have the tariff to pay) and steal away their market share at the same time."
But that's MY math. Who knows how greed runs amok, as that seems more than greedy enough to me. Still, it definitely is a big risk with tariffs--that domestic prices rise, at least some, because all the foreign competition gets priced way up. That is what protectionism is supposed to help get you--bad for the consumer all the way around, great for any company making its stuff in the US with US resources. Not so great for other companies.