Trade Wars Affect Bikes, and Us, and You!
As you probably are already aware, the current federal administration recently imposed tariffs (taxes on imports) on certain goods coming to the United States from China. Unfortunately (but predictably) some of the goods in question go into the making of items that we carry at our bike shop. As we move into the 2019 season, we are already starting to see price increases. The 2019 line of Fuji bikes, (which we started carrying earlier this year), for example, is going to be coming in with a 10% price increase due to the tariffs. Because the list of items affected by tariffs includes rubber, metal alloys, metal-working tools, ball bearings, and batteries just to name a few— we expect to see prices increase on many more of our products in the near future.
Fortunately, this damage can still be rolled back. The outcry from the manufacturing and retail sectors of the economy are slowly rolling in, and there is still an opportunity to send a strong message in the mid-term elections about whether or not we the people are comfortable with the direction this country is headed.
So please make sure your voices are heard on election day, and please continue to support your local bike shop as we do our best to meet your needs! And for more information about how trade wars affect the price of bikes, here’s an article from Singletrack.