Shoppers confused and frustrated over tariff impact on prices
EAST MEADOW, Nassau County (WABC) -- Peter Romano of Westbury is at the checkout line in East Meadow for what he normally calls his "relaxing" time, but that is not the case this week.
"You know, do we put food on the table? Do we take our medicine?" Romano said.
As produce ripens on the shelves, customer confusion over tariffs and the impacts ferment into frustration.
"It's horrendous. And it's horrible that this is happening to us right now," Karyn Truitt said.
"I don't even know. I'm so distraught over the whole thing that - I don't know," Bonne Paley said.
They don't know how much to budget for their families when the prices of other imported goods could fluctuate even more at any time.
Romano spends about $300 per week on groceries but has feared it could double, so his family now saves by eating out less.
"Going out to dinner is a treat where you used to go out twice a week, maybe 3 times a week. Now it's once every two weeks," Romano said.
Bonne Paley has already taken other measures.
"I made sure to get a car before anything happened with the tariffs, she said.
Economists call that 'pulling forward', but with all this whiplash, what's best to buy now? And if you do, what does spending more now mean for later?
"If the American consumer, the Long Island consumer starts to do that, that means they're gonna be spending less in our restaurants, less in our stores, less on our services and that's what we are concerned about from a bigger perspective," professor Steve Kent, Molloy University Economist, said.
If you are buying now, the most likely imported goods to go way up are the computers and phones made in China, but it won't stop there.
"China and the other exporters are big producers of toys, games, clothing," Kent said.
Meanwhile, when all the pineapples are from Costa Rica, this season's watermelon comes from Mexico, and the outlay of cash only goes so far.
"Avocado used to be like 3 for 5 dollars. Now it's 2 for 5 dollars so it keeps going up," shopper Jose Mercado said.
Shoppers hope any pause in tariffs will calm the stock market and the produce market, at least for now.
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