Hello consumers, expect higher prices in the high single digits on many items.
Companies Are Jacking Up Prices Again
The Wall Street Journal notes The Break Is Over. Companies Are Jacking Up Prices Again.
Companies from Levi Strauss (LEVI) to McCormick (MKC), among others, say they are raising prices early this year on items from bluejeans and spices to housewares and industrial products.
After holding the line on prices for several months, companies—big and small—have begun a new round of increases, in some cases by high-single-digit percentage points.
Companies had raised prices last year after tariffs hoisted costs. Yet starting in the fall, many firms held off on increases and sometimes offered discounts to capture holiday shoppers.
The pricing break is over. Many companies typically raise prices at the start of the new year. Yet increases appeared to be stronger than normal for January for electronics, appliances and other durable goods, said UBS economist Alan Detmeister.
Some companies have pointed a finger at tariffs for their increases, while others, especially small businesses, also blame higher wages and hefty health-insurance costs that firms said they can’t absorb or share with suppliers.
Columbia Sportswear said it is upping prices of spring and fall merchandise by, on average, a high single-digit percent after mostly avoiding increases for fall and winter goods. The company said it has also renegotiated prices with its factories and taken other steps to reduce costs.
Such new price increases follow last year’s wave of tariff-driven price hikes. Retail prices started falling beginning in October, with the biggest drops before Black Friday, Harvard’s Cavallo said. But they then started rising again, particularly after Christmas, in what looks like a postholiday reset.
Levi Strauss raised prices last month in response to tariffs and is rolling out additional price increases this month. Among the items now costing more: ribcage straight ankle women’s jeans, priced $10 more at $108, and original fit men’s jeans that are $5 more at $84.50.
Structural Systems Repair Group, a Cincinnati-based construction company, is taking a 10% to 15% increase in prices that will show up in new contracts this year.
SSRG typically absorbs increases in materials costs totaling 5% or less, but tariffs pushed steel prices up by 10% last year, said Bryan Erickson, the company’s president. SSRG’s healthcare costs for its 115 employees increased by a similar amount, he said.
“It’s not sustainable for us to tolerate that kind of increase without some sort of concession from our customers,” said Erickson, whose company adapts and maintains parking garages, stadiums and other structures.
Higher costs can be particularly challenging for small businesses, which typically have thinner profit margins than big companies and fewer ways to offset higher expenses.
Many businesses have tried to offset tariffs and other inflationary pressures through cost-cutting and by pushing back on suppliers. But some companies said those options alone weren’t enough.
Tariff expenses added $70 million in gross costs last year, and will add another $70 million this year, according to spice maker McCormick & Co.
The company raised some prices in September in response to tariffs, inflation in core commodities and higher packaging costs, and it is increasing some more prices this month.
More than half of small business leaders said they planned to increase prices in the next three months, according to a December survey of 600 entrepreneurs by Vistage Worldwide.
Nearly 70% planned increases of 4% to 10%, while another 10% forecast increases of more than 10%, according to the business coaching and peer-advisory firm.
Atomic Object, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based digital software consultant, raised the hourly rate it charges its customers to $200 this year, after boosting rates to $195 an hour from $180 an hour at the end of 2024.
“We tested the market at $195 and said we would hold here,” said Jeff Williams, a managing partner. “But increases in salaries and benefits are driving expenses higher and higher.”
The company’s health-insurance premiums jumped by 14% this year after climbing by 12% in 2025, and now equal nearly 10% of revenue, up from about 5% three years ago.
There were three key ideas in the article. One of them is indirect.
Three Key Ideas
- Tariff-Related Price Hikes Will Hit in 2026
- Medical Care Costs Rising for Everyone
- Companies Hiking Prices to Offset Healthcare
I have discussed rising medical care costs for everyone, point number 2, multiple times.
The knock-on impact of point 2 is point number 3, which I have not discussed.
Inflationary Forces
- Medical Care direct expenses paid by consumers
- Medical Care indirect expenses paid by corporations
- Medical care knock-on impacts paid by consumers
- Tariff hike passthroughs
- Budget deficits
- Labor shortages caused by deportations especially construction, agricultural, hotel staff
- Utilities
- Homeowner’s insurance (except this is not accounted for anywhere officially).
- Property taxes (except this is not accounted for anywhere officially).
- Tips (except this is not accounted for anywhere officially).
- Tax cut refund impact
- Energy prices, assuming I am correct that crude oil has bottomed
- Utility bills
Deflationary Forces
- Housing, assuming further slowing of rent prices
- Layoffs
- Credit stress
- Deportation impact on rents
- Rising bankruptcies
The items not accounted for explain why consumers correctly feel inflation is higher than expected.
Barring a huge recession, I believe the inflationary impacts easily outweigh the deflationary forces.
Nonetheless, I do not rule out a huge deflationary recession. Nor do I rule out stagflation.
Q: Why?
A: No one knows what Trump will do, AI will do, or how the markets will react to either.
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February 13, 2026: Trump to Roll Back Some Steel and Aluminum Tariffs Due to Inflation
The Financial Times discusses tariff rollbacks.
February 14, 2026: Where Were the Job Opportunities in 2025? Where Will They Be in 2026?
What happened in 2025? What’s in store this year?
February 15, 2026: AI Bot Gets Mad at Human for Rejecting its Code, Writes Scathing Blog Post
An AI bot, infuriated at a human, accused the human of hypocrisy and prejudice.
January 21, 2026: Expect a Big Divergence This Year Between CPI and PCE Inflation
Rent and Healthcare go different ways in 2026. Plus there are huge timing issues.
You KNOW that there was not a single RATIONAL reason to implement tariffs. It was insane UNLESS you wanted to destroy America, then it made sense. Whoever is Trump’s handler – and of course that was the Moneychangers that own the Fed and its stockholder banks like JP Morgan, BOA, Citibank, Goldman Sachs – they wanted to destroy our country. Now the last nail on our collective coffin will be the war with Iran only because Israel wants this. (Remember, even their most respected figurehead, Noam Chomsky, turned out to be an Epstein man.)
Why were the tariffs were insane? you disingenuously ask? Because we were just tapping electronic digits into the Fed’s computers and purchasing all this shit FOR FREE we couldn’t afford otherwise. (We neither have the infrastructure nor the skilled workforce to bring manufacturing back to our shores.)
ZIO Democrats+ZIO Republicans=the Parasite destroys America
Deflationary Forces: Collapsing Bitcoin in US dollars (46% from the 5 Oct 2025 peak)and a 42-43 trading day 10-11 February 2026 to 10 April 2026 6-7/15/14-15/10-9 day :: y/2-2.5y/2-2.5y/1.5y ACWI initial global equity collapse.
The Only Growth In The Economy Right Now Is The
Building Of The ‘Digital Prison’ – Billionaires Dragging Everyone Into:
‘AI Skynet’ – Total Surveillance – Digital ID.!
Popularly, we are in a ‘Recession’ because most people think that a ‘Recession’ involves two consecutive quarters
of negative economic growth. And we’ve got that,”
Desmond Lachman, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, told VOA July 28, 2022.!
While The ‘Mockingbird’ Media System Says Otherwise —— Been In A ‘Recession’ Since 2022
Post Plandemic Medical Tyranny – Almost Everything Has Doubled.!
Housing, Rent, Insurance, Property Taxes, Health Care, Child Care, Groceries, Gasoline, Diesel, Vehicles, Utilities, Wood/Building Supplies, Etc.!
Core Inflation – Excludes ‘Volatile’ Food & Energy Prices.!
Epstein – Revealed Empty Fort Knox.!
No ‘Audit’ Of Ft Knox Gold Reserves Yet.!
Lock Her Up (2016) – NO ONE At The Top Gone To
Jail/Prison Yet!
– Hello consumers, expect higher prices in the high single digits on many items.
> Hello Sellers, expect lower profits, if any, as most items going up, will stay on the shelf.
>> People can’t spend anywhere close to like they were spending. The Credit, and therefore the money to spend, as they have none of their own, is now gone! CC’s mostly, are not allowing them to push up their credit lines. They can’t put more debt on their books either. This is a slow burn down from see it but it, to eat or buy it. No free money is coming any longer, so you have what you have, so spend it wisely, or be hungry on the street.
Or you could solve the problem at it’s source and force the Democtats in Congress to pledge to Impeach and Convict Trump now, not after the Midterms. If you and they wait until after the Midterms they will impeach everyone including JD and achive their primary goal, which is to take total control of our bankrupt government, forever.
What a nice straw man you just built there
Force wouldn’t be needed, but Votes would be, and they simply don’t have them, for anyone yet…
It’s really not hard to keep attracting offers for increased credit. I receive such offers several times a month. My only debt is via the mortgage and much past halfway done with that. GL to all the suckers out there who can’t remember to be fiscally responsble.
Me too, but zero debt, a 700+ CS, and home ownership will get you those offers. We are not the norm out there…
Good luck corporations! The 10-year is showing that people are completely tapped out.
LMFAO!!! You think the average Joe/Jane are buying ten year bonds?!?!? That is some funny shit right there!
it’s top of list after big gulps and meth.
Average Joe has been tapped out for awhile. Above average Joe is rolling in enough dough to pay for it all.
Impact of AI market distortions on memory and SDD prices deserves a mention. Any product relying on DDR5 memory in particular is undergoing steep price increases and/or supply disruptions. This in part can be blamed on government policy, with involvement of the gov’t in AI contracts and the Stargate initiative.
It’s pretty obvious that Trump is trying to damage America….the question is why? Maybe the answer is he’s being paid to do it….and Trump will do almost anything for money. Reality is usually the opposite of what Trump claims. When he says he’s making America Great again, he’s really making it worse. People are refusing to understand that Trump and his supporters are mentally ill in the sense that they use many Freudian defense mechanisms to block out reality. They deny, repress, compartmentalize, rationalize all of Trump’s behavior so they can continue to lionize this despicable, lying, swaggering, slandering psychopath. They can’t see his flaws because they’re nuts….psychiatric cases who can’t face reality. They’re like the characters Tennessee Williams wrote about in his plays. They distort and project. When it’s obvious that Trump is using the DOJ attorneys to punish political enemies, they claim it’s Biden who used “lawfare” to punish Trump. When Trump lost badly in 2020, they claimed it was Biden who stole the election, projecting their own dishonesty onto others, while denying and repressing the obvious facts. These people distort things because they’re at war with the truth and reality.
You should google accusation in the mirror.
Overpaying for a warehouse owned by Russia by $100MM or 3-4X its sale price from several years prior is a lot of dots that are almost connected for you.
When you start to add all the economic facts stated by Mike Shedlock I conclude that America and we Americans are in a collapse and the regime is accelerating economic and environmental collapse plus a major disastrous war with Iran and stoking a potential civil war here in America
Nobody wants to admit that the dollar is collapsing and that we are economically weakening
You can’t fix problems unless you admit and identify problems
No wonder the stray redhats that visit us all say it’s all TDS 100% of the time
UPS offering buyouts up to $150K to trim working force.
Good luck with that. Unless it’s a necessity, prepare to experience similar inventories as car dealers are now.
They are going to fuck us no matter what. This is the way its done. MAGA induced inflation. It is THE GAME. CORPORATE PROFITS are NUMBER ONE.
They have weaponized our morons against us.
People are refusing to understand that Trump supporters are mentally ill in the sense that they use many Freudian defense mechanisms to block out reality. They deny, repress, compartmentalize, rationalize all of Trump’s behavior so they can continue to lionize this despicable, lying, swaggering, slandering psychopath. They can’t see his flaws because they’re nuts….psychiatric cases who can’t face reality. They’re like the characters Tennessee Williams wrote about in his plays. They distort and project. When it’s obvious that Trump is using the DOJ attorneys to punish political enemies, they claim it’s Biden who used “lawfare” to punish Trump. When Trump lost badly in 2020, they claimed it was Biden who stole the election, projecting their own dishonesty onto others, while denying and repressing the obvious facts. These people distort things because they’re at war with the truth and reality.
I disagree with part of what you said. Various Democrat prosecutors and the Biden DOJ did use lawfare against Trump. Democrats are arguably as much at war with truth and reality as Republicans. They covered for and lied about Biden and his mental capabilities which were obviously impaired for anyone who paid attention.
For those who don’t like the idea that Democrats also have blinders on, consider why Trump got elected in the first place. FWIW I think Trump’s policies are worse than Biden’s especially given attacks on Constitutional protections and ramping up yet more foreign wars against all campaign promises. However I haven’t seen either party take their own to task in a serious way. There was a hot moment when progressive wing rebelled against Biden re: Gaza but that fizzled out really quickly. I see Massie standing up for his principles, but not many more.
true. uniparty is the same delusional voters who vote for more and more and more imperial warmongering world wide domination and flim flam and stealing of the us treasury. the 300billion to ukraine cesspool of money laundering is the same shit trump crime family does. same with the obama/bush/clinton/rayguns crime families………….
“They have weaponized our morons against us”
Freaking hilarious Mr. Trumpedo! Thanks for giving me a laugh today!
I don’t feel bad for the general contractor noted here, I haven’t had a subcontractor ask me for any escalatory pricing in at least 2-3 years now (was endemic during covid). We had commodities go up 10% last spring from tariffs, and everyone just ate it. Of course that got built into the next jobs, but again customers ate it without issue. Granted there was a lot of fear around it at the time, but that faded into the background. I hardly hear anyone talking about it now Interest rates have been much more of a concern for customers, and they’ve loosened a bit. Where I’m at, Denver Metro, we’ve seen industrial and multi-family construction contract signifificanly. But that’s because both of those sectors have gone gangbusters for a decade and have an oversupply problem. Couple that with Colorado no longer has migration to nearly the same level. Other places like Texas are 30% cheaper to build! That’s because you can get cheap land, easy permits, and an unlimited supply of illegal labor. I guess my point is there are a lot of other variables that are just as much or more of a concern for the sector right now.
I raised my prices by 15% since last November for no reason about tariffs, but because I could. So far I haven’t had much kickback.
As a materials supplier to commercial construction — We discovered a ‘U-shaped’ margin curve on projects.
Small projects, say $1k-$100K, we could get a decent markup, as high as 40-50% over our cost. Mind you, on our slice of an overall construction cost of 50X our own part.
Medium size projects, our markup shrank to 15-20% due to more competition.
XL projects, where our own part of the project was still a tiny slice, we would often be the only company bidding due to the risk and capital commitment.
There, we’d again be back to 40-50% markup over cost.
This is just in the past year.
Of course, tariffs messed with everything.
Everyone will raise prices and blame them on Tariffs. EVEN INSURANCE COMPANIES.
Maybe ESPECIALLY insurance companies!
Why wouldn’t insurance companies? Prices of replacement parts and labor for both home and auto are skyrocketing.
Almost no one under 40 wears jeans. Maybe that allows higher prices, I don’t know.
Consumers adjust — when prices feel out of whack, they substitute. It’s also worth noting that minimum wages have risen by law in many states, which absolutely impacts costs. Add to that exploding medical expenses and regulatory burdens (just look at financial services compliance alone).
Then factor in smash-and-grabs, retail theft, higher insurance premiums, cybersecurity costs — it all adds up. Tariffs are honestly one of the smaller pieces of the puzzle.
Hopefully Trump’s External Revenue Service concept gains traction so foreign countries help shoulder more of the tax burden. Not a bad thing at all.
What idiocy. “External Revenue Service”
Look – US consumers and Businesses pay 90% of tariffs.
Dude, you are living in Uranus along with our dictator and his scumbag cult members.
He can find some Santorum around those parts
Quantitative Easing is back as well. The Fed’s balance sheet is up $87 billion since Dec 3rd.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/bst_recenttrends.htm
Chart is interactive and you can click on the one year to see it well.
Inflation is rearing its big ugly head again!
The Fed has little ammo to fight it with as interest rates are pretty damn low and the Bond Market is inundated with supply.
Anyone else a credit rating hit to US debt coming soon?
Regarding fuel prices?
The day of the last election, regular gas was $2.96 per gallon. Today they are $3.09 at the same station. I understand that in some markets prices have gone down, but in the midwest (using Canadian imports) we are up $013 per gallon.
Anyone have a more favorable comp for us to consider?
Minneapolis $2.59 – $2.79. Don’t know where our gasoline comes from. Papa Dave probably knows.
It probably originates in Alberta, Canada and is refined in the US.
Correct. That gas comes from the midwest PADD2 region which uses Canadian oil almost exclusively.
I do not expect to see big increases in gasoline prices in the US unless oil prices rise substantially. Of all the products that come from a barrel of oil, gasoline is the one with the weakest demand growth going forward. This is due to more evs, phevs and hybrids on the roads each year.
As the trend to more electric miles continues, I would not be surprised to see a consistent surplus in gasoline supply and lower prices over time.
Perhaps this revitalizes GV”s as 50+ mpg is going to be standard before long. Cheaper, easier to fix and DIY if so inclined. I’m not going EV until I have no choice, and I can’t fix mine anymore. Probably due to part shortages, which is coming for GV’s, courtesy of the EV Crowd imo.
Sam’s Club in Joplin2.05 02162026
cigs 3.37 a pack
Cheap gas cheap cigs cheap…… in Missouri!
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RB%3DF/