K! So! We spent this week figuring out how the tariffs, inflation and other naughty word is going to affect business. Time to thread.
For those not in the know, I'm the Director at Hachette Boardgames USA and I import games for foreign publishers and market and sell them in the US.
1/?
So tariffs are used to:
a) encourage domestic businesses to manufacturer/buy domestically and
b) bully foreign countries you assign the tariffs to.
The business that purchases the goods pays the tariffs. This is fact, by definition, and I'm not arguing that with anyone. naughty word Google it.
The tariffs assigned to an import are based on where it's manufactured. There's lots of laws about this but basically, it does not matter if I ship it to Guam first, the documentation & product shows it was made in China thus the tariffs on Chinese goods are applied, regardless of where I pick it up
(if I have one more meeting where someone suggests we just ship it to another country first I swear to glitterluck...)
Due to import laws we have to have a paper trail of where a product is from and we have to have the factory address, info, country etc on it. Also have to have testing paperwork that confirms origins, etc. We import games and the majority of what we import is for ages 8+ so there are strict laws 5/?
Here's the REALLY naughty word GROSS PART. Tariffs are a tax on top of the manufactured cost of the product AND the shipping costs AND THE DUTY. It is literally a tax on top of a tax. They tax every part of the cost of importing the good. That is literally the point of a tariff. 6/?
So not only is the cost of the physical product increasing, so are my freight costs by 10%. For example, if my average CBM on a load of Sky Team I imported during November was $511, now it's $562 CBM. I imported 83 CBM of Sky Team. So $42k in freight is now $46k and the extra 4k goes to the gov.
Mind you, that above calculation doesn't account for the 10% tariff on the physical product. So.. yeah, board games (and most everything else) will get more expensive. But, few things..
There's a bill in the House and Senate that sets a 35% tariff on Chinese goods.
This bill is bi-partisan and looking likely to pass whenever they do get around to it. And it'll add tariffs across the board (ha..) over 5 years that increase to 35%. It's unclear if these tariffs are in addition or to replace Dump's 10% tariffs.
2nd thing - printing board games in the US is STILL MORE EXPENSIVE than printing in China. The US industry is.. rough. There's like 3 factories and they all are $$$. Also, US based paper? It's $$$ and half the time comes from Canada. And the plastic? The US-based plastic all comes from China (haha).
The Renaissance of Board Games is going to end with these tariffs, which.. I think I'm okay with? There's a conflict I have about how easily "cheap" produced items and over consumption is in this country but also, mine and my employees livelihoods depend on the sale of goods..
Conscious consumerism is what I would prefer but I would prefer it to happen organically and not by an authoritarian fascist working to install an oligarchy, ya know?
Anyway. Board games & most quality goods are going to get more expensive because our world economy has developed over the last 40+ years to put all the skill of making in foreign markets. Board games in particular. There are options in the EU but, lol, Drump has said he's going to tariff the EU next
I will now open the floor to questions
?/end
Morning! This thread's blowing up now so we're getting some reply-guys so like.. here we go.
1. This thread is for information. Just cause you didn't vote for the douche doesn't mean you understand the implications of what he's done.
2. Yes, there are indie publishers that make games in the US. But they are indie and tend to do smaller print runs and charge more, as they should. Their products are not at Target or even most game stores. They print in the hundreds of units, which is more economical domestically. Hence, indie..
3. Yes, used and second hand will avoid this. Like.. massive duh. I'm a massive fan of reduce, reuse, regift, resell. Literally not the point of this thread. It's like someone telling you they don't eat beef and you telling them to just buy turkey jerky instead. No naughty word naughty word Sherlock.
