Business leaders weigh in on Trump’s trade war: ‘We’ve never seen this kind of breadth of tariffs’

CFO Jamere Jackson said during an earnings call Tuesday that AutoZone intends to raise prices in order to offset any tariff impacts.

“To be clear, we intend to maintain our margin profile post tariffs, and we expect the entire industry will behave in a rational way as our historical experience has shown,” he said.

CEO Phil Daniele said on the call that new autos are more expensive than ever, giving US consumers less of an option about whether to repair or replace their aging vehicles.

Best Buy’s Corie Barry told investors on an earnings call Tuesday that price increases on imported products are now “highly likely.”

“Tariffs at this level will result in price increases,” she said.

Barry said Best Buy directly imports about 2% to 3% of its products, primarily from China and Mexico, but its vendors will likely experience new costs and pass those along.

“We’ve never seen this kind of breadth of tariffs — and this, of course, impacts the whole industry, so it’s not just a Best Buy question,” she said.

Target’s Brian Cornell said in an interview with CNBC Tuesday that some grocery costs could go up as early as this week, especially in fresh categories that are typically imported from Mexico.

“Those are categories where we’ll try to protect pricing, but the consumer will likely see price increases over the next couple of days,” he said.

“If there’s a 25% tariff, those prices will go up,” he said.

Speaking at the Raymond James Institutional Investors Conference on Tuesday, CEO Don Allan said Stanley Black & Decker was in a “little bit of a wait and see” situation, especially regarding tariffs on Mexico.

“We do have a fairly substantial Mexican footprint, primarily for our DeWalt power tool business that serves the US market, and so we’ll see how the negotiations happen between the two countries and where this lands,” he said.

CEO Scott Boatwright told NBC Sunday that Chipotle would absorb costs from tariffs unless they become a “significant headwind” for the burrito chain.

He previously said that the company had reduced its sourcing of avocados from Mexico to 50% while increasing its supply from Colombia, Peru, and the Dominican Republic.

“We don’t think it’s fair to the consumer to pass those costs off to the consumer, because pricing becomes permanent,” he said. “And so again, back to the idea of delivering extraordinary value to the consumer. We’re going to stay the course.”

CEO Mick Beekhuizen said in an earnings call Wednesday that Campbell’s imports two key supplies from Canada: tinplate steel for its cans and canola oil for its chips.

“On the flip side, with some of the reference to the retaliatory tariffs, those mainly relate to Canadian exports,” he added. “So we are producing our soup in the United States and we’re importing it into Canada, and that would obviously have an impact on that business.”

Beekhuizen said the company is working with suppliers to soften the impact of new tariffs, but didn’t rule out price hikes.

“Now that being said, I’m obviously going to be very focused to make sure that we provide a good value to our consumers,” he said.