Tariff increase for glasses from China...

[Uncle Fester]

Got this list from a link to Barron's from The Washington Post:

Which Products Will See the 10% Bump?

2018 import values of selected products subject to new tariffs, in million of dollars

Pneumatic mattresses and other inflatable articles of plastics	523	503	96%
Porcelain or china ceramic sinks, washbasins, baths, bidets, water closet bowls, urinals & similar sanitary fixtures	658	502	76%
Sound recording and reproducing apparatus using magnetic tape, optical media, or semiconductor media	591	500	85%
Spectacles, goggles and the like, corrective, protective or other, other than sunglasses	836	472	56%
Single loudspeakers mounted in their enclosures	688	468	68%
Containers (including containers for transport of fluids) specially designed and equipped for carriage by one or more modes of transport	628	463	74%
Women's or girls' knitted or crocheted swimwear of synthetic fibers	900	457	51%
Portable electric lamps designed to function by their own source of energy, other than flashlights	490	457	93%
Aluminum, cooking and kitchen ware (other than cast), enameled or glazed or containing nonstick interior finishes	740	456	62%
Electromechanical domestic appliances, with self-contained electric motor

[JERRY HUANG]

I think that is a good idea!

Got this list from a link to Barron's from The Washington Post:

Which Products Will See the 10% Bump?

2018 import values of selected products subject to new tariffs, in million of dollars

Pneumatic mattresses and other inflatable articles of plastics	523	503	96%
Porcelain or china ceramic sinks, washbasins, baths, bidets, water closet bowls, urinals & similar sanitary fixtures	658	502	76%
Sound recording and reproducing apparatus using magnetic tape, optical media, or semiconductor media	591	500	85%
Spectacles, goggles and the like, corrective, protective or other, other than sunglasses	836	472	56%
Single loudspeakers mounted in their enclosures	688	468	68%
Containers (including containers for transport of fluids) specially designed and equipped for carriage by one or more modes of transport	628	463	74%
Women's or girls' knitted or crocheted swimwear of synthetic fibers	900	457	51%
Portable electric lamps designed to function by their own source of energy, other than flashlights	490	457	93%
Aluminum, cooking and kitchen ware (other than cast), enameled or glazed or containing nonstick interior finishes	740	456	62%
Electromechanical domestic appliances, with self-contained electric motor

[Uncle Fester]

I think that is a good idea!

Thanks for the post Jerry as someone who is living it from our field.

I know Trump may be clumsy in his ways but I did read in the Washington Post how our trade agreements and sharing intellectual property are lopsidedly exploited to China's benefit and targeted tariffs can help change that.

Do you see more than that from the eye wear end of things?

[Steve Machol]

Reminder - let's stay away from politics of any kind please.

[Uncle Fester]

I assume we can talk about any anticipated frame price increases in percentage terms- correct?

[Steve Machol]

I assume we can talk about any anticipated frame price increases in percentage terms- correct?

Of course, but you know how slippery this slope is.

[OpticalNinja]

How are you all handling these new tariffs? Are you passing them along to patients and adding this into the costs of the frames?

[Uncle Fester]

How are you all handling these new tariffs? Are you passing them along to patients and adding this into the costs of the frames?

Yes we are and I fear when this all gets resolved we are not going to see any decrease. Is anyone noticing this- even those "Made in Italy" are jumping up disproportionately to tariffs? (Rumor has it much of the work is done in China anyway;)

I think the tariff is 10% and may not even have happened. Maybe Doc in China could verify. (I miss Chris Ryser's research abilities and Chris for that matter )

Anyone else remember when real gold was fairly common in frames and when the OPEC oil embargo happened the prices skyrocketed. Most manufacturers stopped using it but kept their price the same.

Ray Bans and AO Suns especially turned to junk and took many years to recover to where they are now- but even that isn't like the quality they had then.

I also remember the day when prices adjusted once a year after the New York show so everyone stocked up then. Now they can change literally a couple of months after introduction if they are popular.

Analytics I suspect drive this. Or is it our inability to stop the tail from wagging the dog?

I won't be surprised to see frames starting to be priced by region in the near future because of this.

[Kwill212]

How are you all handling these new tariffs? Are you passing them along to patients and adding this into the costs of the frames?

Step 1. Don't but Chinese frames
Step 2. ?????
Step 3. Profit

But, seriously what other choice do you have if you buy and sell these products than to pass on the cost? It's no different than if your rent went up, COG increased, shipping costs went up, etc. It's not likely any of your customers are going to notice, they only buy glasses every few years if we are lucky. A 10% bump in retail price of Chinese frames shouldn't be a large dollar retail markup anyway. The general public has about zero clue what makes a frame worth $30 dollars vs $300 dollars, they won't notice that a $250 dollar frame is now $275.

[Sledzinator]

It will be interesting to see how the different manufactures handle this. I know Altair is just increasing their base price. I'm sure Marchon is the same. I think Safilo is keeping their base prices the same and adding a tariff charge. I ordered cases from Rons recently and they had a tariff charge too. I am curious to see if the tariff situation changes will the companies who added it to the base frame price revert their pricing.

[CME4SPECS]

I have seen tariff charges, Ron's was 15%, it was on the invoice as a Tariff surcharge. Kenmark had a Tariff surcharge that was 2%. I do know that some others have incorporated the tariff into the cost of their product. Kenmark mentioned on the invoice that tariffs would not be applied to frames that they had in stock prior to the tariff being implemented.

[rbaker]

No tariffs on American made goods. Might be time to start making frames and mountings here in the USA.

[CME4SPECS]

No tariffs on American made goods. Might be time to start making frames and mountings here in the USA.

I think that is the whole point of tariffs.

[AngeHamm]

I have seen tariff charges, Ron's was 15%, it was on the invoice as a Tariff surcharge. Kenmark had a Tariff surcharge that was 2%. I do know that some others have incorporated the tariff into the cost of their product. Kenmark mentioned on the invoice that tariffs would not be applied to frames that they had in stock prior to the tariff being implemented.

That's a great way for manufacturers to address this issue. Hopefully, if the tariffs are removed, the charge can be removed as well.

[Uncle Fester]

I think that is the whole point of tariffs.

Except this is what will be making them:

http://www.fretor.com/en/machines-for-eyewear

Up to 88% of manufacturing jobs are lost to automation- not to where they are made.

The U.S. has lost 5 million factory jobs since 2000. And trade has indeed claimed production jobs – in particular when China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Nevertheless, there was no downturn in U.S. manufacturing output. As a matter of fact, U.S. production has been growing over the last decades. From 2006 to 2013, “manufacturing grew by 17.6%, or at roughly 2.2% per year,” according to a report from Ball State University. The study reports as well that trade accounted for 13% of the lost U.S. factory jobs, but 88% of the jobs were taken by robots and other factors at home.

Is there room for Made in USA eye wear? yes- but will we support it? I know Randolph Engineering near here makes quality sunglasses but do you carry them?
The slip-n-slide on a hill article;)

https://fortune.com/2016/11/08/china-automation-jobs/