I for one specifically made it a point not to make this political. As a business owner, I refrain from making political statements and opinions in public forums. There are many times I’d love to interject my partisan opinions, but I don’t appreciate businesses that do that. You alienate one portion of your customer base and you really should be unbiased as a business, in my opinion.
Even though I don’t agree with someone’s political stance, I can respect it (most the time, within reason).
I didn’t post my original statement with the intent of taking sides politically. But I do think people need to hear first hand, real-world experience from a business owner about the reality of tariffs and the issues they create.
As I said in my original post, the first response is always, “buy parts from the US then, and don’t pay tariffs.”
Buying parts from the US will cost even more than paying tariffs in most cases. And prices for the end consumer will be so high that you won’t sell anything and can’t compete. People think it’s some sort of easy solution until you’re in the position to actually have to buy the parts.
I seriously doubt I could even find half the parts needed to build an amp all Made in USA. Things like chassis, transformers and head shells I get from the US. But the electrical parts, good luck. And as said, the cost would be so prohibitive you’d never make a profit.