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IDK about anyone else but today feels a lot more like a boycott day than the actual boycott day.
Small sample size but today is SLOWā¦ For the first time in 2025. Like stupid slowā¦
Ranks havenāt been updated yet but if our top seller stays where it was it means consumers are holding their money tightā¦
There is still fallout from the O365 technical outage over the weekend, some people still donāt realize their phones arenāt getting email!
Other places Iām seeing slow site loads and lags, so may be generally slow internet day
Just as slow as boycott day me thinks
ph worksā¦so guess all is not lost
It seems per the interwebs that some people used Feb 28 as the start of a general economic grayout (no big boxes, buying in person from small locally-owned businesses, trying to use cash not cards)ā¦but as many Sellers thought, that might still be unnoticeable depending on number (and discipline) of participants.
Itās hard to know given all the things today; this might indeed be a signal of something else. 
TBH - Fri-Mon were very strong days.
IDK what today is. Buying tends to get quelled when the dow drops 1400 points in 24 hours.
Our costs are going up though. I have a meeting in 21 mins to discuss the margin impact. Since my partner is my supplier, at least I can see what the real impact is instead of getting lied to by a supplier who claims to be a victim and attempts to do opportunistic cost increases because of the news.
I imagine a 20% tariff on a couple RMās will equate to a 2-4% increase which we will eat unless our competition raise their prices (which they probably will). We havenāt increased our prices everā¦ Iād like to.
When your stuff is made by a CMO in China, brought to you by Alibaba, itās gonna hurt a lot more.
I got a shipment of $50k from China on Feb 20, with no Tariff.
Just under the gun, and now I will delay the next order to (next year?)
now off the pointā¦
FYI, this product I ordered, I invented, made here in US for 30 years, yelled at the top of my lungs about Japan/China - Made in the USA, but US consumers (me and everyone else - bought cheap with deaf ears) and it was copied by US Competitors and made in China, like every other product we buy.
Pat on my back - My product, I believe everyone has used. It is that common.
Anyway, I have heard the Made in America Song for 40 years, because I sang it for 30 years, so today when I hear it, it simply rings hollow.
IT IS THE LABOR - DUMMY !!!
Think about it. Here in Cali at $15/hour min. that 25Ā¢ a min.
No one can make things here unless it is highly automated
end mini rant.
Thatās coolā¦ 
I donāt blame you for a second for what you did, in terms of sourcing. Itās smart business.
I donāt have an issue with China either or buying from there. The exception would be things one puts in or on ones bodyā¦
Even that wouldnāt be bad if the source was a good one and the ābrandā / 'Seller" wasnāt shady AF which is all we have to compete with on these marketplaces.
We source one component from China. During COVID with the shipping issues, we decided to buy in deep enough to avoid those issues for a long time (not knowing how long it would last). We decided at the time to protect for 5 to 7 years. With this tariff thing, it is going to pay off big time as it looks to have bought us another 2 or 3 years before we have to tackle this issue.
... the beauty of it ...
FYI ā¦ 5 to 7 years of this component fits on 2 three foot shelves so not a warehouse issue.
Thatās YUGE! 
Four years 
That would be perfecto!
My only problems with Chinese factories are
- their governmentās requirements for access to proprietary personal and business data which is then used nefariously;
- lax attention to basic human rights and ethical treatment of workers; and
- counterfeits and knock offs due to misaligned intellectual property beliefs and business ethics customs.
Re #2, believe it or not, some US companies who use Chinese factories take direct responsibility and oversight for ensuring US-based safety and employer-employee standards are maintained, with good pay, reasonable work hours, and comfortable conditions. As a consumer, I like supporting them when I can.
But as a Seller, IDK how you get past #1, or prevent #3.
I really donāt think there is a demand anymore from āmade in the USAā. If there was you would see stores trying to market it but I havenāt even seen stores try to market with that phrase in years (decades?) and you would even think handmade places would be jumping at the chance to promote made in America and itās just not a thing I think most Americans care about anymore??
I think America as a whole just really likes its cheap imports and nothing will change that except making them more expensive? But even then would you be ābuying Americanā because you believe in America or are you just ābuying Americanā because itās cheaper than importing?
Interesting when you really think about it. 
People are highly utilitarian. Why is that surprising? People will rationalize their positions retroactively and almost never proactively. Those that are proactive are Prophets and Saints.
My MIL spent several of the past 20 years trying to only buy āmade in the USAā, but she finally gave up because she said she just couldnāt find the things she shops for āmade in the USAā anymore.
Alsoā¦ To say you are āMade in the USAā has nothing to do with where the materials come from to make it.
The law is āSubstantial Changeā. If the materials undergo a substantial change here (thereās room for interpretation of what that means) - Itās Made in the USAā¦
Itās really impossible to tell.
Back when we started, we source our plastic material out of New Jersey, which at that time, it was widely available. Then over the years, to Brazil, then to China by the late 1990s where it has remained.
But we did make our machines and our item here in the Los Angeles for 30 years.
Always sold as Made in the USA, our entire line. We had a great design and creative team, and resisted from going to China, to our ultimate demise.
Not the entire cause, in anyway, but a big one in hindsight.
In a way, I guess I am the US poster boy who tried, and was smothered by American peoples ravenous appetite for the cheapā¦ Chinese made.
Wages here back then were $4/hour in LA and China was 10Ā¢/hour and the workforce was a billion people.
Anywayā¦
China put almost the entire US raw material industry for drugs and supplements out of business, literally.
The American public has no idea how heavily we rely on China for everything. They got somewhat of a better idea during covid but we have short memories.
Hope we can get it together with China for mutual benefit because current events are freightining, and not just financially (price increases). I hope thereās actually at least a concept of a plan in this regard.
Itās like 80% China, 15% India, 5% everywhere else, including the US when it comes to dietary supplements.
I know this isnāt the tariff thread but surgical tariffs would have been better for everyone.
Essentials -NO / Non-Essentials - YES
My partner is in CA right now at Expo West. Will be interesting what he comes back with bc itās going to be a huge discussion at this industry event.
Well in 1551 we were great and all we did was tariff people that wanted to bring stuff into our countryā¦we didnāt have any debt then you knowā¦we had a surplus. It was great.