VANCOUVER – An appliance retailer in B.C. is stocking up on U.S.-made products and searching for alternatives made anywhere but America, as new retaliatory-tariffs that took effect at midnight on Tuesday, threaten to drive up the cost of some major household appliances. Lazar Ilic, owner of Appliance Outlet, says suppliers have warned that prices on some U.S.-made products could rise by 30 to 50 per cent starting Oct. 1, and he says passing those costs onto his customers isn’t an option. “We are competing with the big stores already as it is, and one of the things that we cannot do is raise our prices,” Ilic said. About 20 per cent of his store’s inventory is made up of products that will be affected by the tariffs, he says. To prepare, Ilic has tripled his usual orders of U.S.-made appliances. That should give him about three months of inventory before the extra cost is added. After that, if customers want a tariff-impacted product made in the U.S. they will have to pay more, he said. In the meantime, Ilic is sourcing fridges and stoves made in Mexico, China and South Korea that offer similar features but without the tariff hit. He says many shoppers may not realize some of the appliances being sold by many of the world’s biggest names are actually all manufactured by Midea in China. The company makes appliances for a number of major brands, including some General Electric, Frigidaire, Samsung and LG products, he said. Ilic says pushing buyers toward non-U.S. options could require some convincing. Switching brands could be particularly difficult for property managers outfitting dozens or hundreds of rental units with the same appliance. For Ilic, the tariff uncertainty is just the latest in a series of curveballs that began in 2020, for anyone trying to run a small business. “We’re lucky enough to have been around for long enough that we’ve went through COVID-19, we’ve survived the supply chain issues,” he said. “And this is almost like its version of that again.” He says the uncertainty is stressful, but he’s hoping consumers, suppliers, and manufacturers can shift toward products that aren’t affected by the tariffs. “I think as long as we all stick together, we shouldn’t see a general increase in price,” Ilic said. If tariffs remain in place long-term however, Ilic says prices could eventually rise across the appliance market, no matter how hard small business owners try to prevent it. “We will do what we can,” he said.
