President Trump’s base better get ready for some sticker shock come Monday.
That’s when Trump’s fresh round of tariffs on Chinese goods goes into effect and chains — including Walmart, JC Penney and Target — are bracing for many items in their stores to go up in price.
Scores of products, from bicycles and baseball gloves to furniture, air conditioners, car seats and pet food, will go up in price because of the tariffs, the chains warned the Trump administration.
Several chains asked the White House not to implement the added tariffs on $200 billion in goods.
“Either consumers will pay more, suppliers will receive less, retail margins will be lower, or consumers will buy fewer products or forego purchases altogether,” Walmart warned in its letter to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
When Trump didn’t heed the retailers’ warning, it left the chains disappointed, a spokesman for a retail trade group said Friday.
A 10 percent tariff will go into effect on Monday and will rise to 25 percent at the end of the year.
Trump is playing hardball with Beijing to get China to stop stealing US intellectual property and to level the trade playing field.
Still, the added tariffs will hit consumers, the chains said.
“It’s disappointing that, despite the voices of those impacted, the administration continues to advance harmful tariff policies that threaten to weaken the US economy,” Matthew Shay, the National Retail Federation’s chief executive, said in a statement on Friday.
“We cannot afford further escalation, especially with the holiday shopping season right around the corner,” Shay added.
None of the major retailers disclosed by how much prices will increase, but if the washing and drying machine industry is any indication of what’s to come, consumers can expect to spend up to 20 percent more on many common products, retail experts say.
Those appliances, which were part of an earlier tariff this year, spiked 20 percent in the three months through June, according to the Department of Labor.
Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, did not issue a statement on the tariffs since they became final on Monday.
The company has been working on “mitigation strategies,” Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove told The Post.
“One of those mitigation strategies is to understand what our suppliers are doing and what their plans and alternatives are,” he said in an email.
About two-thirds of what Walmart spends on products sold in US stores are sourced, assembled or grown in the US, the company said in its letter.
The problem, however, is that many manufacturers rely on component parts from China.
Fans produced in Texas and Tennessee, for example, rely on motors that come from China, Walmart said.
In addition, the new tariffs will hit the price of Christmas lights, backpacks and hair care.